Caecilie Seler-Sachs (1 June 1855 – 4 January 1935) was a German

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

, photographer and author. She did research on topics in Mesoamerican history and published several books, among them one on Women's lives among the

Aztec The Aztecs ( ) were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico in the Post-Classic stage, post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central ...

s. She was married to

Eduard Seler Eduard Georg Seler (December 5, 1849 – November 23, 1922) was a prominent German anthropologist, ethnohistorian, linguist, epigrapher, academic and Americanist scholar, who made extensive contributions in these fields towards the study of p ...

the

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

and specialist in

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El S ...

n indigenous cultures, and she supplied photographs for most of his publications, and her inherited fortune supported both of their research. Furthermore, she and her husband traveled through

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

doing archeological excavations and ethnological studies. After her husband's death, she edited and published his collected works.Von Hanffstengel, Renata, and Cecilia Tercero Vasconcelos, eds. Eduard y Caecilie Seler, sistematización de los estudios americanistas y sus repercusiones. UNAM, 2003. She was born in Berlin to a wealthy family, her father a doctor. She received a good education, although being a woman she was not allowed to take

professional title Professional titles are used to signify a person's professional role or to designate membership in a professional society. Professional titles in the anglophone world are usually used as a suffix following the person's name, such as ''John Smith, ...

s. In 1884, she married Eduard Seler, who she had met because he was a patient in her father's medical practice. The two undertook six travels to the Americas: 1887–88 to the US and Mexico, 1895–1897 to Mexico and Guatemala, 1902–03 to the US and Mexico, 1904–05 to Oaxaca, Mexico, 1906–07 to Mexico, the US and Canada and 1910–11 to Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru and Panama. When her husband was immobilized by illness during their travels, she and a Native guide ventured alone into the jungle on horseback, where she looked for ruins and made drawings of architecture and

iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

. Nonetheless, her primary interest was in ethnology, the study of the forms of life of contemporary indigenous peoples. In 1919, she published the book "''Frauenleben im Reiche der Azteken. Ein Blatt aus der Kulturgeschichte Altmexikos''" (Women's lives in the realm of the Aztecs. An aspect of ancient Mexican cultural history) in which she describes the lives of women in Aztec period Mexico.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seler, Eduard 1855 births 1935 deaths Pre-Columbian scholars German Mesoamericanists Women Mesoamericanists German ethnologists German anthropologists German women anthropologists Writers from the German Empire