Reflections on the Scientific Production of Robert Lehmann-Nitsche

Abstract

This article reflects on the scientific production of the German anthropologist and physician Robert Lehmann-Nitsche in the light of his own historical and intellectual context as well as his personal beliefs and/or conceptions. An approach to his work is proposed from the thematic interests addressed by him, including physical anthropology, folklore, native languages, and mythology. The central question of this article is whether it is possible to find a common element or a common thread among the diversity of interests and topics addressed by Lehmann-Nitsche. The analysis draws on approaches from the anthropology of science and technology, which view science as a contextualized enterprise, while favoring the analysis of the distinctive practices of subjects and the interpretation of different native discourses and categories of analysis. This is fundamental to the study of scientific-academic communities in the process of being constituted such as those of the period analyzed.