In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

FOREWORD The Early Swedish Americanist Tradition and the Contributions of Sigvald Linne (1899-1986) Staffan Brunius In the 1920s the university and the ethnographical museum ofGothenburg (Goteborg), the busy seaport city, were the institutions to attend for an academically competent and internationallywell respected Swedish education in American Indian cultures. This high quality ethnographical-anthropological training was the result ofone man's extraordinary achievements-those of baron Erland Nordenskiold (1877-1932), the prominent Swedish americanist. Since the end ofthe 1890s Erland Nordenskiold had devoted his life to South America, first as a zoologist but soon turning to ethnography, archaeology, and (ethno-)history. His extensive fieldwork, his productive authorship, his devotion to students , and his professional museum experience made him a respected and beloved teacher and supervisor. Many of Erland Nordenskiold's students would, indeed, over time make acclaimed americanist contributions oftheir own. These students included Sven Loven (1875-1948), Karl Gustav Izikowitz (1903-1984), Gosta Montell (1899-1975), GustafBolinder (18881957 ), Alfred Metraux (1902-1963), Stig Ryden (1908-1965), Henry S. Wassen (19081996 ), and Sigvald Linne. Through their teacher they would not only receive theoretical and, in most cases, fieldwork training, they would also be familiar with archival research and museum work. Following the example ofErland Nordenskiold, most ofthese students would as americanists concentrate almost exclusively on South America, except for Sigvald Linne who primarily, but certainly not exclusively, focused his research work on Lower Central America and Mesoamerica. Erland Nordenskiold's importance to the high standing ofSwedish americanist research during the first half of the 1900s can not be underestimated. However, it must be emphasized that Nordenskiold was not the first Swede to study the American Indian. If we expand the meaning of the "americanist" concept, we find that such interest in Sweden traces its roots to the New Sweden colony (1638-1655) that covered approximately the present state ofDelaware. From the colony derive documents with ethnographical This foreword is reprinted in the companion volume by Sigvald Linne, Mexican Highland Cultures : Archaeological Researches at Teotihuacan, Calpulalpan and Chalchicomula in 1934-35. information, (ethno-)historical sources that have proved to be important for the study of the Lenape (Delaware) Indians. In Sweden this early interest was, not surprisingly, mostly limited to the absolute upper echelon of the Swedish society and often manifested in the time typical of Kunst und Wunderkammer (Art and miracle chambers) established in the castles and mansions of the royalty and aristocracy. The very earliest American Indian collections in Sweden were, indeed, "curiosities" from this very period-a fact that would catch the attention of the broadly oriented Sigvald Linne later in his career (see, for example , his articles Drei alte Waffin aus Nordamerika im Staatlichen Ethnographischen Museum in Stockholm [1955] and Three North American Indian Weapons in the Ethnographical Museum o/Sweden [1958]). From the 1700s and onward, ethnographical and Precolumbian collections from the Americas were increasingly gathered and systematically organized at universities and various cabinets of naturalia, such as at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences founded in 1739. In the 1800s Swedish travelers visited the New World in greater numbers and sometimes described in accounts their meetings with Indians. One ofthose travelers was Fredrika Bremer (1801-1865) in the early 1850s. Then in the latter part ofthe 1800s true americanist efforts with published results were made by Swedish natural scientists, early archaeologists, and ethnographers, including such people as Carl Bovallius (1849-1907), working primarily in Costa Rica and Nicaragua in the 1880s and later in northern South America; Eric Boman (1867-1925), working in Argentina and adjacent areas; GustafNordenskiold (18681895 ), the elder brother ofErland Nordenskiold, working in the early 1890s in MesaVerde in the southwestern United States; Axel Klinckowstrom (1867-1933), working in the early 1890s in northeastern South America; and Carl V. Hartman, working in the 1890s in northern Mexico, Costa Rica, and El Salvador. Instrumental for Carl V. Hartman's pioneering archaeological work in Costa Rica was Hjalmar Stolpe (1841-1905). Stolpe was himselfa natural scientist, archaeologist, and an americanist, and he had researched American Indian ornamental art as well as the archaeology of Peru during the Swedish Vanadisexpedition that circumnavigated the world from 1883 to 1885. Erland Nordenskiold had an important influence on Linne, but Hjalmar Stolpe's influence can not be underestimated either. Influenced by currents abroad, Hjalmar Stolpe in the early 1870s helped promote the founding of a Swedish anthropological society, later The Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography. Its prestigious journal Ymer became attractive for the early americanists in Sweden...

Share