| Leo Frobenius |
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| 1873 births | |
| 1938 deaths | |
| german ethnologists | |
| german archaeologists | |
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In 1897 / 1898 Frobenius defined several "culture areas" (''Kulturkreise''), cultures showing similar traits that have been spread by diffusion or invasion. With his term ''paideuma'', Frobenius wanted to describe a '' Gestalt '', a manner of creating meaning (''Sinnstiftung''), that was typical of certain economic structures. Thus, the Frankfurt cultural morphologists tried to reconstruct "the" world-view of hunters, early planters, and Megalith -builders or Sacred King s. This concept of culture as a living organism was influenced by the theories of Oswald Spengler . Frobenius taught at the University of Frankfurt. In 1925 , the city acquired his collection of about 4700 prehistorical African stone paintings, which are currently at the University's institute of ethnology, which was named the Frobenius Institute in his honour in 1946 . His writings with Douglas Fox were a channel through which some African traditional storytelling and epic entered European literature. This applies in particular to '' Gassire's Lute '', an epic from West Africa which Frobenius had encountered in Mali . Ezra Pound corresponded with Frobenius from the 1920s , initially on economic topics. The story made its way into Pound's '' Cantos '' through this connection. Due to his studies in African History , Frobenius is a figure of renown in many African countries even today. In particular, he influenced Léopold Sédar Senghor , one of the founders of Négritude , who once claimed that Frobenius had "given Africa back its dignity and identity." WORKS
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