Felix von Luschan | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Felix von Luschan,c. 1907 | |
| Born | (1854-08-11)August 11, 1854 |
| Died | February 7, 1924(1924-02-07) (aged 69) |
| Alma mater | University of Vienna |
| Known for | Von Luschan's chromatic scale |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Ethnologist,anthropologist,archaeologist andexplorer |
| Institutions | Ethnological Museum of Berlin |
Felix Ritter[1] von Luschan (German pronunciation:[ˈfeːlɪksˈʁɪtɐfɔnˈlʊʃan]; 11 August 1854 – 7 February 1924) was a medical doctor, anthropologist, explorer, archaeologist and ethnographer born in theAustrian Empire.
Luschan was born the son of a lawyer inHollabrunn,Lower Austria, and attended theAkademisches Gymnasium inVienna. After leaving school he studied medicine at theUniversity of Vienna and anthropology inParis, with an emphasis oncraniometry. After he gained his doctorate in 1878, he was an army doctor in Austro-Hungarian occupiedBosnia and, together with the British archaeologistArthur Evans, travelled throughDalmatia,Montenegro andAlbania. From 1880 he worked as a medical assistant at theVienna General Hospital and a lecturer (Privatdozent) at the University of Vienna in 1882. In 1885 he married Emma von Hochstetter, daughter of the German geologistFerdinand von Hochstetter, a close friend of his father.
On 1 January 1886 Luschan took up a position as an assistant to DirectorAdolf Bastian at theKönigliches Museum für Völkerkunde inBerlin (the present-dayEthnological Museum), where, upon Bastian's death in 1905, he became Director of the Africa and Oceania Department. In this capacity he acquired one of the most important collections ofBenin antiquities,ivory carvings, andbronze figures, details of which he published in his multivolumemagnum opus. He also lead a huge collection campaign of the bones and skulls of thousands of people from across European empires. In 1906, this included human remains from theHerero-Nama Genocide.[2]
He started his academic career in 1888, in 1904 was appointedReader, and in 1909 gave up his duties at theVölkerkundemuseum when he was appointed tenured professor at the BerlinCharité medical school. In 1911 he became the holder of the first chair of anthropology at Berlin'sFrederick William University (now the Humboldt University of Berlin). He is also remembered for creating thevon Luschan's chromatic scale for classifyingskin colour, which consisted of 36 opaque glass tiles which were compared to the subject's skin.
Though Luschan had joined theGerman Society for Racial Hygiene in 1908, in his works he rejected the rising ideas of "scientific racism" and stressed the equality of the human races. He argued for his position in parts on the basis of skulls he instructed German colonial troops to acquire in German colonies, including human remains of victims of the Herero-Nama Genocide.[4] He died in Berlin at the age of 69 and is buried at his summer residence inMillstatt, Austria.
The German Society for Racial Hygiene goal was "for society to return to a healthy and blooming, strong and beautiful life" as Ploetz put it. The Nordic race was supposed to regain its "purity" through selective reproduction and sterilization.
In 1915 he was appointed to the "Königlich Preußische Phonographische Kommission" (Royal Prussian Phonographic Commission) for his anthropological expertise. The purpose of the commission was to record the approximately 250 languages spoken by the prisoners of German WWI PoW camps. In the course of this endeavor, von Luschan also conductedphysical anthropology research on the internees.[5]
In 1881 Luschan andOtto Benndorf explored the ancientLycian region of southernAnatolia, part of theOttoman Empire, where they excavated theHeroon of Trysa nearMyra, which is now on display at the ViennaKunsthistorisches Museum.The next year he joinedKarol Lanckoroński andAlfred Biliotti on an expedition toPamphylia andRhodes.[dubious –discuss]
In February 1883 he accompaniedCarl Humann on an expedition toMount Nemrut in historicCommagene which was initiated by thePrussian Academy of Sciences. AtZincirli he discovered the ruins ofSam'al, capital of a small principality of the lateHittite period, which he later excavated between 1888 and 1902 together withRobert Koldewey. Descriptions of the plants he collected in the Ottoman Empire were later published byOtto Stapf.
All his expeditions profited from Luschan's medical training. In 1905 he and his wife Emma travelled toSouth Africa at the invitation of theBritish Science Association, and in 1913 they went toAustralia, where the couple heard the news of the outbreak of theFirst World War in Europe and had to proceed to the neutralUnited States.
