Robert J. Weitlaner (April 28, 1883 - July 23, 1968) was an Austrian-born American-Mexican ethnologist and metallurgist born in

Steyr Steyr (; ) is a statutory city (Austria), statutory city, located in the Austrian federal state of Upper Austria. It is the administrative capital, though not part of Steyr-Land District. Steyr is Austria's 12th most populated town and the 3rd lar ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, the son of the

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

Julius Weitlaner and Therese Pillinger, a schoolteacher. He studied

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

Montanuniversität Leoben The Technical University of Leoben is a public university in Leoben, Styria, Austria. It was established on 4 November 1840 as the ''Steiermärkisch-Ständische Montanlehranstalt'' in Vordernberg, Styria, Austria's mining region. In 1849, Peter T ...

, from which he graduated in 1908 with the degree of metallurgical engineer. A year later he immigrated to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, where he practiced his profession with major American steel companies in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

(1909-1910), Buffalo (1910-1913),

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

(1913-1916),

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

(1916-1919) and

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

(1919-1922). Weitlaner died in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

on July 23, 1968, aged 86.

Career

Weitlaner moved to Mexico in 1922, accompanied by his wife, Olga Lipp, who had followed him to America, and his young daughters Irmgard and Olga. In Mexico City, he worked as a

metallurgical Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the ...

engineer with La Consolidada, Mexico's largest steel company, until his retirement in 1939. The events that led an Austrian professional engineer to Mexico by way of the United States and to a postprofessional career of nearly thirty years resulting in almost a hundred published works. Weitlaner began his countless trips to the

Otomi The Otomi (; ) are an Indigenous people of Mexico inhabiting the central Mexican Plateau (Altiplano) region. The Otomi are an Indigenous people of the Americas who inhabit a discontinuous territory in central Mexico. They are linguistically rel ...

and, beginning in 1934, to the

Chinantec The Chinantec or Chinantecan languages constitute a branch of the Oto-Manguean family. Though traditionally considered a single language, ''Ethnologue'' lists 14 partially mutually unintelligible varieties of Chinantec. The languages are spoken b ...

. One of Weitlaner's arguably most important developments in the years that followed include the re-discovery by

western nations The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to various nations and states in Western Europe, Northern America, and Australasia; with some debate as to whether those in Eastern Europe and Latin America also constitute the West. ...

of Mexican

psilocybin Psilocybin, also known as 4-phosphoryloxy-''N'',''N''-dimethyltryptamine (4-PO-DMT), is a natural product, naturally occurring tryptamine alkaloid and Investigational New Drug, investigational drug found in more than List of psilocybin mushroom ...

mushrooms in 1936 . As a consequence of the experience and knowledge derived from these field studies, and from wide reading in Mexican

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

and

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 ...

, he was sufficiently well grounded in

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

when he left La Consolidada to pass the professional examination that led to a full-time appointment as Ethnologist in the

National Institute of Anthropology and History National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

, a post he had occupied on a part-time basis for several years prior to 1939. With the founding of the

National School of Anthropology and History National School of Anthropology and History (in Spanish (language), Spanish: ''Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia, ENAH'') is a Mexican Institution of higher education founded in 1938 and a prominent center for the study of Anthropology ...

about the same time, he was appointed (in 1940) Professor of Indigenous American Languages, of Otomian Languages, and of Contemporary Ethnology of Mexico and Central America, teaching first in the old

National Museum of Anthropology (Mexico) The National Museum of Anthropology (, MNA) is a national museum of Mexico. It is the list of largest art museums, largest and most visited museum in Mexico. Located in the area between Paseo de la Reforma and Mahatma Gandhi Street within Chapul ...

on Calle Moneda, behind the

National Palace (Mexico) The National Palace () is the seat of the Federalism, federal Executive branch, executive in Mexico. Since 2018 it has also served as the official residence for the President of Mexico. It is located on Mexico City's main square, the Plaza de la ...

; and after 1964 in the new Museum of Anthropology in

Chapultepec Park Chapultepec, more commonly called the "Bosque de Chapultepec" (Chapultepec Forest) in Mexico City, is one of the largest Nature Value Area´s in Mexico, measuring in total just over . Centered on a rock formation called Chapultepec Hill, one of ...

References

Robert J. Weitlaner,1883-1968 George M. Foster American Anthropologist New Series, Vol. 72, No. 2 (Apr., 1970), pp. 343–348 Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological Association {{DEFAULTSORT:Weitlaner, Robert J. 1883 births 1968 deaths Austrian ethnologists Austrian metallurgists People from Steyr University of Leoben alumni Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to the United States American emigrants to Mexico American people of Austrian descent Mexican people of Austrian descent American people of Mexican descent Mexican people of American descent Academic staff of the National School of Anthropology and History