Heinrich Schurtz

Schurtz, Heinrich

 

Born Dec. 11, 1863, in Zwickau; died May 2,1903, in Bremen. German ethnographer.

Schurtz headed the ethnography division of the Bremen Museum from 1893. He studied the ethnography of North Africa, Spain, and Asia Minor. He investigated problems of general ethnography, such as the origin of money, clothing, food taboos, and ornaments. He introduced the study of men’s societies in clan-tribal societies. He combined the anthropogeographic method of his teacher F. Ratzel with an idealist interpretation of evolution.

WORKS

Istoriia pervobytnoi kul’tury, fascs. 1–2. Moscow, 1923. (Translated from German.)