Adolf Bastian was a German ethnologist. He studied medicine and science at Friedrich Wilhelm University, Berlin (today’s Humboldt University of Berlin), at the Großherzoglich und Herzoglich Sächsische Gesamtuniversität Jena (today’s Friedrich Schiller University of Jena) and at Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg. As a ship’s surgeon, he went on lengthy expeditions from 1851 to 1859, travelling to Australia, Oceania, North, South and Central America, South and South-East Asia, the Near East, Egypt, and South and West Africa. In 1861 he embarked on a trip around the world. He became the founding director of the ethnographic section of the art collections belonging to the Royal Prussian Museums in 1868. In 1866 he was appointed external lecturer of ethnology at Friedrich Wilhelm University, Berlin. Together with Rudolf Virchow (1821–1902), he set up the Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte (The Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory) in 1870. He paved the way for an approach to ethnology which was primarily based in psychology.

Material:

• 1 handwritten manuscript (“Beiträge zur vergleichenden Psychologie der Seele und ihre Erscheinungswesen in der Ethnographie”, place and year unspecified, 7 sheets)

Provenance: part of Walter Lehmann’s papers.

Keywords: ethnology

Link zum OPAC: Signatur W 75;17