Die Indianerstämme des Gran Chaco bis zum Ausgange des 18. Jahrhunderts. Ein Beitrag zur historischen Ethnographie Südamerikas. Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde der Philosophischen Fakultät der Universität Leipzig. Vorlegt von Ludwig Kersten. Mit zwei Karten.
Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1904. With two large folding coloured maps (as stated on the title page). First edition. Original printed dissertation wrappers. [4] 75 [1] p., and 2 folding maps. Spine reinforced with a later paper strip; inner hinges strengthened with later repairs; textblock split at the inner gutter in one place. Wrappers rubbed and somewhat worn. Internally clean with occasional light spotting. Maps with short closed tears at the folds. Rear pastedown with a mounted, loosely related newspaper clipping (1969) and a dated manuscript note. Overall in good condition.
Early anthropogeographical study of the indigenous societies of the Gran Chaco, presented here in the scarce original 1904 Leipzig dissertation issue.
A structured historical reconstruction of the indigenous societies of the Gran Chaco to the late eighteenth century, based on colonial sources and organized as a systematic “tribal history” of the region. Kersten traces the impact of Spanish expansion—displacement, missionization, and especially the introduction of the horse, understood as central to the emergence of mobile equestrian societies, particularly in the context of long-distance raids and cattle capture—while reconstructing the distribution and development of major groups, including the Guaycurú (Abipón, Mocoví, Toba, Pilagá, Mbayá, Payaguá, Guachi), the Mataco–Mataguayo complex (Wichí/Mataco groups), the Lule–Vilela, the Zamuco, the Chiriguano, and smaller regional populations such as the Lengua, Enimaga, Guentusé, and Machicuy, across the river systems of the Paraguay, Pilcomayo, and Bermejo, as well as adjacent zones extending toward the Paraná basin, the Andean foothills, and the southern Chaco frontier. These patterns of movement, territorial distribution, and intergroup relations are further clarified through two large ethnographic maps, which visualize the spatial organization and shifting zones of influence of the principal groups. The analysis distinguishes between equestrian and non-equestrian societies within an environment that both enabled and constrained such mobility.
The study combines a critical survey of early sources—particularly Jesuit missionary accounts—with a historical-geographical method derived from Friedrich Ratzel, under whom the author (b. 1878) was trained at the University of Leipzig, emphasizing the role of environment—soil, climate, and landscape—in shaping cultural forms. Within this framework, the Gran Chaco is interpreted as a transitional zone between the Andean highlands, the Amazonian forest region, and the southern plains, resulting in a fluid cultural landscape marked by mobility, overlap, and shifting group formations. Although structured according to the early ethnographic model of “tribes,” the work assembles extensive material on migrations, intergroup relations, and territorial organization, documenting a complex and dynamic system later understood as composed of smaller sociopolitical units rather than fixed tribal entities.
Issued first as an inaugural dissertation at Leipzig (1903; Leiden: Brill, 1904), and subsequently published in Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie (1905), to which secondary sources generally refer, before appearing in Spanish translation (Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, Resistencia, Chaco, 1968). The dissertation issue, as here, was produced for academic circulation and is less frequently encountered than the journal version; we have not traced another example in institutional holdings or the trade beyond the present copy.
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Price: €3,000.00