Gerd Spittler (born 4 April 1939 in

Donaueschingen Donaueschingen (; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Eschinge'') is a German town in the Black Forest in the southwest of the States of Germany, federal state of Baden-Württemberg in the Schwarzwald-Baar ''Districts of Germany, Kreis''. It ...

) is 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 ...

. Spittler became known through his participation in developing the

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

focus at the

University of Bayreuth The University of Bayreuth (German: Universität Bayreuth) is a public research university located in Bayreuth, Germany. It is one of the youngest German universities. It is broadly organized into seven undergraduate and graduate faculties, with ...

and through his research on Hausa peasants and

Tuareg The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym, depending on variety: ''Imuhaɣ'', ''Imušaɣ'', ''Imašeɣăn'' or ''Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group, traditionally nomadic pastoralists, who principally inhabit th ...

nomads. While in his early years as a sociologist he concentrated on the area of "power and domination", as part of his professorship in

Bayreuth Bayreuth ( or ; High Franconian German, Upper Franconian: Bareid, ) is a Town#Germany, town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtel Mountains. The town's roots date back to 11 ...

, as an ethnologist he later focused on other main topics: the ethnology of work, the ethnology of material needs, local action in a global context and research methodology. He has written and published many essays and books on these topics.

Biography

Gerd Spittler grew up in

and graduated from the Fürstenberg-Gymnasium in 1958. From 1959 to 1966 he studied sociology, ethnology, economics and history at the universities of

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

, Hamburg, Bordeaux, Basel and Freiburg. In 1966 he received his doctorate from the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (), is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1457 by the Habsburg ...

. His dissertation "Norm and Sanction" included two research projects, based on participant observation, on the subject of norms and sanctions, one in a restaurant kitchen, the other in a psychosomatic clininc.Kurt Beck, Till Förster, Hans Peter Hahn (Hrsg.): ''Blick nach vorn. Festgabe für Gerd Spittler zum 65. Geburtstag''. Köppe, Köln 2004, pp. 359ff. bibliography From 1968 to 1975 he worked as a research assistant of the Institute for Sociology at the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1 ...

. In 1975 and 1976 he stepped in as stand-in professor for sociology at the

Heidelberg University Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is Germany's oldest unive ...

. In 1977 he returned to the

as a university lecturer. Here he taught from 1980 to 1988 as a professor of sociology. In 1976 he traveled to

Niger Niger, officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is a unitary state Geography of Niger#Political geography, bordered by Libya to the Libya–Niger border, north-east, Chad to the Chad–Niger border, east ...

for research purposes for the first time. His book ‘Les Touaregs face aux sécheresses et aux famines (1993) is based on research in the

area. In the course of a one-month guest professorship in 1984, he gave lectures at the

University of Niamey Abdou Moumouni University (French: ''Université Abdou Moumouni de Niamey'', ''UAM''), formerly the University of Niamey from 1974 to 1994, is a public university based in Niamey, the capital of Niger. The main campus is situated on the right bank ...

. From 1988 until his retirement in 2004 he held the first chair of

ethnology 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). Sci ...

at the

. From 1990 to 1999 Spittler was chairman of the graduate college “Intercultural Relations in Africa”. From 1994 to 1999 he was managing director of the "Institute for African Studies". In 1996/1997 he took on the position of dean of the cultural studies faculty, where he also worked from 2000 to 2004 as chairman of the Collaborative Research Centre “Local action in Africa in the context of global influences”. From 2002 he also chaired the Scientific Advisory Board of ‘Point Sud. Center de Recherche sur le Savoir Local’ in

Bamako Bamako is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Mali, with a 2022 population of 4,227,569. It is located on the Niger River, near the rapids that divide the upper and middle Niger valleys in the southwestern part of the country. Bamak ...

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

. After his retirement, Spittler taught at the universities of Basel (Switzerland), Vienna (Austria), Bayreuth, Niamey (Niger), and Sousse (Tunesia). From 2004 to 2007 he was speaker of the scientific advisory board of the Zentrum Moderner Orient in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. From October 2006 to February 2007 he did research as visiting researcher at the

WZB Berlin Social Science Center The WZB Berlin Social Science Center (, WZB), also known by its German initials WZB, is an internationally renowned research institute for the social sciences, the largest such institution in Europe not affiliated with a university. It was fou ...

. In 2007 he was made an honorary member of the German Society for Social and Cultural Anthropology (DGV). In 2009/10 he was a fellow at ''re:work'' at Humboldt University in Berlin, and in 2017/18 at l’Institut d’Études Avancées in Nantes (France).

Research focus

Spittler began his research with issues relating to legal sociological and legal ethnology before he concentrated on peasant societies. Here, the focus was mainly on the relationship between peasants and the state in colonial and postcolonial French Westafrica. This was followed by research on

West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...

n nomads, including the topics of

drought A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, ...

and hunger crises, pastoral work, caravans, material culture, needs and consumption. This field of study included six years of field research among the

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

and

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

. As a professor of ethnology in Bayreuth, he concentrated on four areas: the anthropology of

work Work may refer to: * Work (human activity), intentional activity people perform to support themselves, others, or the community ** Manual labour, physical work done by humans ** House work, housework, or homemaking ** Working animal, an ani ...

, material needs, local action in a global context, and methods of ethnology. In addition to general reflections on the anthropology of work, a topic that has been largely neglected in ethnology to date, Spittler primarily examined the work of herdsmen and peasant in his own research. As part of the Collaborative Research Center "Identity in Africa" and the graduate college "Intercultural Relations in Africa", he dealt with the working conditions of peasants, nomads, slaves and craftsmen, among other things. Spittler's second focus was on material needs, consumption and material culture. This happened mainly in the project of the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB/FK 560) "Local action in Africa in the context of global influences" (from 2000). Its focus was a comparison of traditional food and goods and modern, imported consumer goods. Household inventories were collected in three

n villages (

Hausa Hausa may refer to: * Hausa people, an ethnic group of West Africa * Hausa language, spoken in West Africa * Hausa Kingdoms, a historical collection of Hausa city-states * Hausa (horse) or Dongola horse, an African breed of riding horse See also ...

, Kasena,

) and compared with German households. During the preparation and realization of this project, questions of

globalization Globalization is the process of increasing interdependence and integration among the economies, markets, societies, and cultures of different countries worldwide. This is made possible by the reduction of barriers to international trade, th ...

, local action, local vitality and appropriation of goods were dealt with.

Publications (selection)

Overall, Spittler wrote ten monographs, edited seven readers and published over 100 essays.

Monographs (selection)

* ''Norm und Sanktion. Untersuchungen zum Sanktionsmechanismus''. Walter, Olten 1967 * ''Verwaltung in einem afrikanischen Bauernstaat. Das koloniale Französisch-Westafrika 1919–1939''. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1982 * ''Founders of the Anthropology of Work. German Social Scientists of the 19th and Early 20th Centuries''. Lit, Berlin 2008 * ''Anthropologie der Arbeit. Ein ethnographischer Vergleich''. Springer Fachmedien, Wiesbaden 2016 * ''Leben mit wenigen Dingen. Der Umgang der Kel Ewey Tuareg mit ihren Requisiten''. Mohr Siebeck,.Tübingen 2023.

Edited publications (selection)

* with Mamadou Diawara und Farias Paulo: ''Heinrich Barth et l’Afrique''. Köppe, Köln 2006 * with

Hélène d'Almeida-Topor Hélène d'Almeida-Topor (2 October 1932 – 1 August 2020) was a French historian and university professor of contemporary history. Biography Her father, Abram Topor, was a French artist of Polish origin who studied at the Academy of Fine Arts ...

und Monique Lakroum: ''Le Travail en Afrique Noire. Représentations et pratiques à l’époque contemporaine''. Karthala, Paris 2003. * With Michael Bourdillon: ''African Children at Work. Working and Learning in Growing Up for Life''. Lit, Berlin 2012

Articles (selection)

* • ''Art.Work''. In: Callan, Hilary (ed.): ''The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology''. Vol. 12. – Hoboken, NJ : Wiley Blackwell, 2018 . – S. 6490-6498K * with Hans Peter Hahn and Markus Verne: ''How Many Things Does Man Need? Material Possessions and Consumption in Three West African Villages (Hausa, Kasena and Tuareg) Compared to German Students''. In: Hans Peter Hahn (eds.): ''Consumption in Africa. Anthropological Approaches''. Lit, Berlin 2008, pp. 173–200 * ''Administrative Despotism in Peasant Societies''. In: Bill Jenkins, Edward C. Page (eds.): ''The Foundations of Bureaucracy in Economic and Social Thought''. Elgar, Cheltenham 2004, vol. I, pp. 339–350 * ''Work – Transformation of Objects or Interaction with Subjects?'' In: Brigitta Benzing, Bernd Herrmann (eds.): ''Exploitation and Overexploitation in Societies Past and Present''. Münster / Hamburg 2003, pp. 327–338 (reprint 2016) * "Teilnehmende Beobachtung als Dichte Teilnahme". In: ''Zeitschrift für Ethnologie''. vol. 126 (2001) No.1, pp. 1–25. * "Abstraktes Wissen als Herrschaftsbasis : Zur Entstehungsgeschichte bürokratischer Herrschaft im Bauernstaat Preußen". In: ''Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie''. vol. 3 (1980) No.2, pp. 574–604 (Reprint 2019). * "Streitregelung im Schatten des Leviathan: eine Darstellung und Kritik rechtsethnologischer Untersuchungen." In: Zeitschrift für Rechtssoziologie. vol. 1 (1980), No 1, pp. 4–32. (Judith Bayer and Felix Girke: "The State of Custom. Gerd Spittlers "Dispute settlement in the Shadow of Leviathan" (Zeitschrift für Rechtssoziologie, vol. 1, 2021, pp. 3–20)

References

External links

by and about Gerd Spittler
in the catalogue of the

German National Library The German National Library (DNB; ) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to collect, permanently archive, comprehens ...

(DNB)
Homepage von Gerd Spittler an der Universität Bayreuth
* EREF-university library of Bayreuth (all publications of Gerd Spittler)
Gerd Spittler beim Institut für Afrikastudien Bayreuth

Antrag zur Ehrenmitgliedschaft in der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Völkerkunde 2007
*

a conversation with Prof. em. Dr. Gerd Spittler, Universität Bayreuth, 2. Mai 2024 {{DEFAULTSORT:Spittler, Gerd 1939 births Living people People from Donaueschingen German anthropologists German ethnologists German sociologists University of Freiburg alumni Academic staff of the University of Bayreuth African studies Area studies scholars