Martín Gusinde (29 October 1886, in Breslau – 10 October 1969, in

Mödling Mödling () is the capital of the Austrian Mödling (district), district of the same name located approximately 15 km south of Vienna. Mödling lies in Lower Austria's industrial zone (Industrieviertel). The Mödlingbach, a brook which rises ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

) was an Austrian priest and

ethnologist Ethnology (from the , meaning 'nation') is an academic field and discipline that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). Scien ...

famous for his work in anthropology, particularly on the

Fuegians Fuegians are the indigenous inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego, at the southern tip of South America. The name has been credited to Captain James Weddell, who supposedly created the term in 1822. The indigenous Fuegians belonged to several differ ...

. He was one of the most notable anthropologists in Chile in the first half of the 20th century, together with

Max Uhle Friedrich Max Uhle (25 March 1856 – 11 May 1944) was a German archaeologist, whose work in Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Bolivia at the turn of the Twentieth Century had a significant impact on the practice of archaeology of South America. Biograp ...

and Aureliano Oyarzún Navarro.

Career

In 1900, Martin Gusinde joined the missionary order

Divine Word Missionaries The Society of the Divine Word (), abbreviated SVD and popularly called the Verbites or the Divine Word Missionaries, and sometimes the Steyler Missionaries, is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men. As of 2020, i ...

. He began higher studies in 1905 in St. Gabriel in

, near Vienna. After

ordination Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

in 1911, Gusinde went to

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

. He worked as a teacher from 1912 to the end of 1913 and subsequently at the Ethnographic Museum in

Santiago de Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital city, capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's Chilean Central Valley, central valley and is the center ...

with

until 1922, becoming a head of department in 1918.Charuty, Giordana (2019)
Sentir avec eux et comme eux. Le primitivisme de Martin Gusinde (Selkʼnam et Yamana de Patagonie, 1918-1924)
in André Mary & Gaetano Ciarcia (dir.), Ethnologie en situation missionnaire, Les Carnets de Bérose n° 12, Paris: Bérose - Encyclopédie internationale des histoires de l’anthropologie / BEROSE - International Encyclopaedia of the Histories of Anthropology, pp. 32-81. Gusinde undertook four research journeys to

Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South America, South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main is ...

between the end of 1918 and 1924. The objective was to explore the different groups of Fuegian people, the Yamana and Selkʼnam (also known as Ona), who had been displaced by settlers and severely depleted by imported diseases for which they lacked natural resistance. He stayed in Tierra del Fuego for 22 months in total. He was allowed to participate in the

initiation rite Initiation is a rite of passage marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components. In an extended sense, it can also signify a transformatio ...

s of the groups he studied. On behalf of the

Berlin Phonogram Archive The Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv is a collection of ethnomusicological recordings or world music, mostly on phonographic cylinders, assembled since 1900 in Berlin, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in ...

, he recorded the songs and chants of the indigenous peoples; these are the sole surviving audio recordings of the Fuegian people. In 1926 Gusinde, gained a doctorate in

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

. Together with Ferdinand Hestermann, he edited and helped arrange for publication in 1933 of a Yamana-English dictionary, based on an 1879 manuscript by Rev. Thomas Bridges, an Anglican missionary at

Ushuaia Ushuaia ( , ) is the capital city, capital of Tierra del Fuego Province, Argentina, Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur Province, Argentina. With a population of 82,615 and a location below the 54th parallel south latitude, U ...

. This was later reprinted in Buenos Aires in 1987, and in a paperback edition in 2011. During the mid-1930s, he studied the

pygmies In anthropology, pygmy peoples are ethnic groups whose average height is unusually short. The term pygmyism is used to describe the phenotype of endemic short stature (as opposed to disproportionate dwarfism occurring in isolated cases in a po ...

in the Congo. Between 1949 and 1957, Gusinde served as a professor at

The Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Catholic research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is one of two pontifical universities of the Catholic Church in the United States – the only one that is not primarily ...

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

. He undertook an expedition to the Ayom pygmies in

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

in 1956. From 1959 to 1960 he taught at

Nanzan University is a Private university, private, Catholic and Mixed-sex education, coeducational higher education institution run by the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) in the Shōwa-ku, Nagoya, Shōwa Ward of Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. It is consi ...

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region of Japan. It is the list of cities in Japan, fourth-most populous city in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020, and the principal city of the Chūkyō metropolitan area, which is the List of ...

, Japan. He ended his career in research, lecturing and teaching activities at the Mission St. Gabriel in

Maria Enzersdorf Maria Enzersdorf (Central Bavarian: ''Maria Enzasduaf'') is a small city in the district of Mödling (district), Mödling in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. There are several castles and ruins in the forests surrounding Maria Enzersdorf, in ...

, Vienna. Martín Gusinde died in

on 10 October 1969.

Legacy

Puerto Williams Puerto Williams (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Port Williams") is a city, port and naval base on Navarino Island in Chile. It faces the Beagle Channel. It is the Capital city, capital of Antártica Chilena Province, the Chilean Antarctic Provin ...

, Chile, the

Martin Gusinde Anthropological Museum The Martin Gusinde Anthropological Museum () is an anthropology museum in Puerto Williams, Isla Navarino, in southern Chile. It is the southernmost museum of the world. The museum hosts artifacts, maps and photographs related to the 10,000-year hi ...

was erected in his honour, which records his work with the Tierra del Fuego people. He is also honoured in the placenames, Padre Martin Gusinde street in

Padre Hurtado Padre Hurtado () is a Chilean commune located in the Talagante Province of the Metropolitan Region. It is part of the Greater Santiago conurbation and is one of its outermost communes. The commune is named in honor of Saint Alberto Hurtado, ...

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

, Chile and Martin-Gusinde-Gasse in

, Austria.

Decorations and awards

* 1952: Karl Renner Prize * 1958:

Austrian Decoration for Science and Art The Austrian Decoration for Science and Art () is a state decoration of the Republic of Austria and forms part of the Orders, decorations, and medals of Austria, Austrian national honours system. History The "Austrian Decoration for Science a ...

* 1966: Grand Silver Medal with Star for Services to the Republic of Austria * Honorary Ring of Vienna

References

External links

Martin Gusinde in Memoria Chilena
* M Gusinde
Medicina e Higiene de los araucanos
Publicaciones del Museo de Etnología y Antropología de Chile. Santiago : El Museo, 1917-1927 (Santiago : Universitaria) 4 v., tomo 1, n° 3, (1917), p. 177-293

by Dr. Clemens Gütl, Austria *
Audio recording with Martín Gusinde
in the Online Archive of the

Österreichische Mediathek The Österreichische Mediathek ("Austrian Mediatheque") is the Austrian archive for sound recordings and videos on cultural and contemporary history. It was founded in 1960 as Österreichische Phonothek (Austrian Phonothek) by the Ministry of Educ ...

(Interview in German). Retrieved 2 September 2019 * Peter Rohrbacher: Zwischen NS-Regime und Ordenszensur: Martin Gusinde SVD und sein Verhältnis zum Nationalsozialismus, 1938–194

in: Andre Gingrich; Peter Rohrbacher (Hg.), Völkerkunde zur NS-Zeit aus Wien (1938–1945): Institutionen, Biographien und Praktiken in Netzwerken (Phil.-hist. Kl., Sitzungsberichte 913; Veröffentlichungen zur Sozialanthropologie 27/3

Wien: OEAW 2021, p. 1113–1158. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gusinde, Martin 1886 births 1969 deaths Clergy from Wrocław Austrian ethnologists 20th-century German anthropologists German expatriates in Chile Austrian Roman Catholic missionaries Catholic University of America faculty University of Vienna alumni Recipients of the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art Recipients of the Grand Decoration with Star for Services to the Republic of Austria People from the Province of Silesia History of Tierra del Fuego German expatriates in the United States Roman Catholic missionaries in Chile

Career

Legacy

Decorations and awards

See also

References

External links