Leo Frobenius (redirected from Leo Viktor Frobenius)

Frobenius, Leo 

Born June 29, 1873, in Berlin; died Aug. 9, 1938, in Biganzolo, near Lake Maggiore. German ethnologist and Africanist.

In 1904, Frobenius undertook the first of a series of expeditions that brought him to virtually every part of Africa and enabled him to collect extensive material on the archaeology, ethnology, and history of African peoples. He advanced a theory in which culture was defined as a distinct social organism with a mystical center, or soul, that he called its paideuma. Although Frobenius emphasized the richness and uniqueness of African cultures, he limited their content to anachronistic traditions.

WORKS

Kulturgeschichte Afrikas. Zürich, 1954.
In Russian translation:
Detstvo chelovechestva. St. Petersburg [no date].