Tribus: Tribus, 23.1974

Tribus, 23.1974

Bibliographic Data

Journal

Structure Type:: Journal

Works URN (URL):: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714817

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714817

Persistent identifier:: BV044415258

Title:: Tribus

Sub Title:: Jahrbuch des Linden-Museums

ISSN:: 0082-6413

Place of Publication:: Stuttgart

Publisher:: Linden-Museum

Year of Publication:: 1953

Collection:: Journals and Newspapers > Journals of Ethnology

Domain:: Social and cultural anthropology > General overview

Journal Volume

Structure Type:: Journal Volume

Works URN (URL):: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-711733

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-711733

Persistent identifier:: 1509019026143

Title:: Tribus, 23.1974

Year of Publication:: 1974

Call Number:: LA 6621

Collection:: Journals and Newspapers > Journals of Ethnology

Journal Issue

Structure Type:: Journal Issue

Title:: Bd. 23.1974

Collection:: Journals and Newspapers > Journals of Ethnology

Journal Review

Structure Type:: Journal Review

Title:: Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen: The World of the Huns

Other person:: Sigler, Jerome

Collection:: Journals and Newspapers > Journals of Ethnology

224 Buchbesprechungen auch häufige Hinweise auf Parallelen aus der vorchristlichen Religion der Ungarn gedacht sind. Es ist ein persönlicher Reisebericht, der oft in einen warmen Plauderton fällt und auch Privates nicht scheut. Vieles, was der Autor mitteilt, gehört zu den allgemein bekannten Zügen des Schamanismus. Aber in der leben digen, farbenreichen Schilderung eines For schers, der trotz ständiger Geld- und Zeitnot von seiner Arbeit fasziniert ist, bietet das Buch auch dem Fachwissenschaftler eine loh nende Lektüre. Mit Teilnahme liest man die Erzählungen von einer Reise, die trotz Flugzeug, Eisenbahn und Auto, trotz aller Unterstützungen durch sowjetische Kollegen und Behörden immer noch beschwerlich und abenteuerlich ist und in Gebiete führt, die leider den meisten west lichen Mitforschern verschlossen bleiben. Georg Buddruss OTTO ]. MAENCHEN-HELFEN: The World of the Huns. Edited by Max Knight. University of California Press, 1973. 602 pp. In early January of 1969 Otto J. Maen- chen-Helfen brought his long awaited mono graph on the Huns to the printers. In the latter parr of the same month, he died. Thus was taken from us one of the most indefati gable scholars of our age. The loss to Central Asian studies was irreplacable, to say nothing of the loss to sinology. For Maenchen-Helfen was one of the few remaining „polyhistors“, a rare breed even in an earlier era when experts had been trained in more than one facet of world history. To say that Maenchen- Helfen was only an historian, or an art historian cum historian-sinologist would not give an accurate picture of the breadth of his knowledge and abilities. The range of his linguistic talents was enormous. Probably no other scholar who devoted himself to Central Asian studies was capable of straddling so many of the language barriers which so fre quently confront any student endeavouring to unravel any of the twisted strands in the fabric of ancient Central Asia. It is for that reason all the more regrettable that Maenchcn-Helfen’s book went to the printers unfinished. His untimely death made it necessary for his editors to make sense of his voluminous notes, which for the most part adequately covered his thinking and research with regard to the Huns, but with irreparable gaps in the text, entire footnotes missing, and even whole paragraphs which fail to make proper sense to the reader. Doubtless these imperfections were inevitable under the cir cumstances, but one can only wonder how the book would have read had the author been able to add his own finishing touches to it. There is a second imperfection in Maen- chen-Helfen’s book, one which can only be termed disappointing. Anyone who has fol lowed the development of Maenchen-Helfen’s opinions with regard to the relationship be tween the Huns and the Hsiung-Nu could not fail to notice a subtle sea change in his think ing over the years. Indeed, Maenchen-Helfen’s publishing career in Hunnic problems began with an article in 1945, when he severely castigated earlier scholars who were bold enough to posit firm relationships between the two peoples. He scorned the oversimplifiers who attempted bold and daring hypotheses on scanty evidence. In a later article in the Festschrift for Bernhard Karlgren in 1959, it is obvious that his thinking had shifted. Evidence had come to light, linguistic eviden ce at that, which showed that the Hsiung-Nu had been called by a name similar to “Hun“ by a Sogdian merchant living in China. Maen chen-Helfen admitted, albeit grudgingly, that the name of the two peoples was probably the same, although he hedged when con fronted with the wider problem of the ethnic relationship between the two. He also alluded to a people known as the Hun-yii, and suggested that perhaps the ethnic name “Hun“ was already present in this ethnicon from East Asia. But this new evidence and other of his valuable insights are missing from the book, and the Hsiung-Nu are relegated to a rather insignificant position in a chapter dealing with the “race“ of the European Huns. The author makes indirect reference to the fact that archaeological research on the subject has increased to such an extent that he was forced to frequently change his opinions concerning the Hsiung-Nu: Hunnic connexion, but apparently not to the extent that he would have to have the courage of his convictions and simply admit that the Hsiung-Nu and Huns were more closely related than he had earlier believed. This chapter on the “race“ of the European Huns is perhaps the most

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