Arthur Schott: A True Renaissance Man in The Americas

Autores

  • Alma Durán-Merk
  • Stephan Merk

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18441/ind.v31i0.161-191

Palavras-chave:

Anthropology, Archaeology, Botany, Zoology, Boundary Survey, Scientific Commission, Explorers of the Americas, History of Science, Mexico, 19th Century

Resumo

To commemorate the 200th anniversary of Arthur Carl Victor Schott’s birth, this article takes a holistic approach to the career of this travelling intellectual, which encompassed various natural disciplines as well as human sciences and artistic expressions. Contrary to those of other better-known Homines Universales, who followed the Humboldtian example to explore the Americas in an all-inclusive way, Schott’s life and work has been until now only segmentally evaluated. While in Romania his ethno-linguistic contributions and rescuing of local folktales are valued, and in the United States he is regarded for his work on the Mexican-American border, his time in Colombia and in the Yucatán peninsula has been completely forgotten. As this article emphasizes, Schott’s multi-faceted vocation found various forms of manifestation while in the Southeast of Mexico, leaving for us eloquent testimonies of the multi-ethnic society in which that immigrant lived and worked.

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Publicado

2014-01-01

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Secção

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