Comparative ethnography
vWhen the main sources of information about exotic peoples
were missionary reports and objects brought back to Europe by collectors of
curiosities, it is unsurprising that material culture studies played a major
role in interpreting world prehistory.
vThe late nineteenth century was the century of colonial
museums, and the period when most of the major ethnographic collections were
accumulated. Although this occurred across the European/American world, the
theoretical edifices erected on the basis of these collections were most
highly developed in Germany.
vAlthough it is an intellectual commonplace to link these
collections with the formation of colonial empires, in fact the most
enthusiastic imperialists, Spain, England and France, never developed the rich
intellectual superstructure that evolved in Germany, Sweden and to a lesser
extent, the United States.