- Paul Kirchhoff
Paul Kirchhoff (
17 August ,1900 –1972) was a Germananthropologist , most noted for his seminal work in defining and elaborating theculture area ofMesoamerica , a term he coined.Paul Kirchhoff was born at the turn of the twentieth century in the German locality of
Horst in the region ofWestphalia . He commenced hisundergraduate studies inProtestant theology andcomparative religion at theUniversity of Berlin , moving later toAlbert Ludwigs University of Freiburg . In the mid-1920s he undertook further studies at theUniversity of Leipzig inethnology andpsychology , where he first developed his abiding interest in the indigenous cultures of the Americas, [Reisse (1991), see also citation in Gray (2006)] completing his studies in 1927. [Biblioteca Paul Kirchhoff (n.d.) names only his studies in Berlin ("Estudió filosofía y letras en la Universidad de Berlín, especializándose en etnología americana (1927)"), although Reisse details his attendance at the other institutions mentioned for his degrees.]He was the co-founder of the National School of Anthropology and History in 1938, and held a research position at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma in Mexico.
Kirchhoff was instrumental in defining the concept of
Mesoamerica , a cultural region sharing a number of common characteristics throughout most of pre-Columbian history, geographically defined as central and southern Mexico and much of Central America.Also, Kirchhoff was a
left communist who was a militant of a a group called the Grupo de Trabajadores in Mexico. Kirchoff had formerly been a member of theKAPD in Germany, then a Trotskyist in the USA but his tiny group which he led would seem to have disappeared at the outbreak of war in 1939.He died resident in
Mexico City , 1972.Notes
References
: cite web|author=aut|Biblioteca Paul Kirchhoff |year=n.d. |title=Paul Kirchhoff |url=http://proimmse.unam.mx/Biblioteca/biblioteca.html |publisher=Programa de Investigaciones Multidisciplinarias sobre Mesoamérica y el Sureste (PROIMMSE), UNAM |accessdate=2007-01-15 es icon : cite book |author=aut|Gaillard, Gérald |year=2004 |title=The Routledge Dictionary of Anthropologists |edition=English translation of "Dictionnaire des ethnologues et des anthropologues" [1997] |others=Peter James Bowman (trans.) |location=London and New York |publisher=
Routledge |isbn=0-415-22825-5 |oclc=52288643 : cite journal |author=aut|Gray, Geoffrey |year=2006 |title=The "ANRC has Withdrawn its Offer": Paul Kirchhoff, Academic Freedom and the Australian Academic Establishment |journal=Australian Journal of Politics & History |volume=52 |issue=3 |pages=362–377 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-8497.2006.00424.x: cite book |author=aut|Reisse, Frauke Johanna |year=1991 |chapter=Paul Kirchhoff (1900-1972) |editor=Christopher Winters (ed.) |title=International Dictionary of Anthropologists |location=New York |publisher=Garland |pages=pp.348–349 |isbn=0-824-05094-0 |oclc=23462648External links
* [http://proimmse.unam.mx/Biblioteca/Paul_Kirchhoff.html Brief biography] , Programa de Investigaciones Multidisciplinarias sobre Mesoamérica y el Sureste (PROIMMSE) es icon
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