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

Mödling Mödling () is the capital of the Austrian district of the same name located approximately 14 km south of Vienna. Mödling lies in Lower Austria's industrial zone (Industrieviertel). The Mödlingbach, a brook which rises in the Vienna Woods, ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

) was an Austrian priest and

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

famous for his work in anthropology, particularly on the native groups of

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

. 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. Biogra ...

and Aureliano Oyarzún Navarro.

Career

In 1900, Martin Gusinde joined the missionary order

Divine Word Missionaries The Society of the Divine Word ( la, Societas Verbi Divini), 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 Ri ...

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

, near Vienna. After

ordination Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform v ...

in 1911, Gusinde went to

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. 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 and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

with

until 1922, becoming a head of department in 1918.Charuty, Giordana (2019)
Sentir avec eux et comme eux. Le primitivisme de Martin Gusinde (Selk’nam 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. Martín Gusinde en los conchales de Pichilemu, 1917

Martín Gusinde en los conchales de Pichilemu, 1917

Gusinde undertook four research journeys to

between the end of 1918 and 1924. The objective was to explore the different groups of Tierra del Fuegan Indians, the Yamana and

Selk'nam The Selk'nam, also known as the Onawo or Ona people, are an indigenous people in the Patagonian region of southern Argentina and Chile, including the Tierra del Fuego islands. They were one of the last native groups in South America to be enco ...

(also known as Ona), who had been displaced by immigrants 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 transformation ...

s of the groups he studied. On behalf of the Berlin Phonogram Archive, he recorded the songs and chants of the indigenous peoples; these are the sole surviving audio recordings of the Tierra del Fuegan Indians. In 1926 Gusinde, gained a doctorate in

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

at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hist ...

. Together with Frederick 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 of Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur Province, Argentina. With a population of nearly 75,000 and a location below the 54th parallel south latitude, Ushuaia claims the title of world's souther ...

. 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 pop ...

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 Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by U.S. ...

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

. He undertook an expedition to the Ayom pygmies in

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

in 1956. From 1959 to 1960 he taught at

Nanzan University is a private, Catholic and coeducational higher education institution run by the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) in the Shōwa Ward of Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. It is considered to be one of the most prestigious private universiti ...

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most po ...

, 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 in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. There are several castles and ruins in the forests surrounding Maria Enzersdorf, including Liechtenstei ...

, Vienna. Martín Gusinde died in

on 10 October 1969.

Legacy

Puerto Williams Puerto Williams (; Spanish for "Port Williams") is the city, port and naval base on Navarino Island in Chile. It faces the Beagle Channel. It is the capital of the Chilean Antarctic Province, one of four provinces in the Magellan and Chilean An ...

, Chile, the

Martin Gusinde Anthropological Museum The Martin Gusinde Anthropological Museum is an anthropology museum in Puerto Williams, Isla Navarino, in southernmost 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 his honour, which records his work with the Tierra del Fuego Indians. He is also honoured in the placenames, Padre Martin Gusinde street in

Padre Hurtado Padre Hurtado () is a Chilean commune in the Talagante Province, in the Metropolitan Region. Part of the Greater Santiago conurbation and one of the outermost communes of it, the commune is named after Saint Alberto Hurtado, who was popularly k ...

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...

, 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 (german: Österreichisches Ehrenzeichen für Wissenschaft und Kunst) is a state decoration of the Republic of Austria and forms part of the Austrian national honours system. History The "Austrian ...

* 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 Mediathek") 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 Educat ...

(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 German anthropologists German expatriates in Chile Austrian Roman Catholic missionaries Catholic University of America faculty University of Vienna alumni Nanzan University 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 20th-century anthropologists

Career

Legacy

Decorations and awards

See also

References

External links