Nimuendajú, a Senhorita Doutora e os ‘etnógrafos berlineses’: rede de conhecimento e espaços de circulaçâo na configuraçâo da etnologia alemâ na Amazônia no início do século XX

Abstract

The article analyses the participation of the German zoologist Emilia Snethlage (1868-1929), researcher and later director of the Goeldi Museum, in Belem, Brazil, in the network of knowledge that was established in the early 20th century in the Amazonian region, aimed at ethnological research and to the collection of indigenous artifacts, and among its best known actors were Germans Theodor Koch-Grunberg (1872-1924) and Curt Nimuendaju (1883-1945). Both are recognized for working for the indigenous peoples of Brazil and for the scientific legacy in the fields of anthropology, archaeology and linguistics. Less well-known, Snethlage had, however, decisive participation in the insertion of Nimuendaju in the scientific environment. From an extensive research on documentary sources located in Brazil and Germany, it is shown that in the first period when Nimuendaju was linked to the Goeldi Museum between 1913 and 1921, Snethlage made possible his first expeditions and scientific publications, in addition to articulating his relations with German museums and ethnologists, including the one who would become his beloved friend and interlocutor, Koch-Grunberg, in order to allow him to work as a professional collector.