Franz Baermann Steiner: A Stranger in the World

307 Pages·2021·1.552 MB·English

by  Jeremy Adler, Richard Fardon

FRANZ BAERMANN STEINER
Methodology and History in Anthropology
Series Editors:
David Parkin, Fellow of All Souls College, University of Oxford
David Gellner, Fellow of All Souls College, University of Oxford
Nayanika Mathur, Fellow of Wolfson College, University of Oxford
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FRANZ BAERMANN STEINER
A Stranger in the World
Jeremy Adler and Richard Fardon
berghahn
N E W Y O R K • O X F O R D
www.berghahnbooks.com
First published in 2022 by
Berghahn Books
www.berghahnbooks.com
© 2022 Jeremy Adler and Richard Fardon
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages
for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book
may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented,
without written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Adler, Jeremy D., author. | Fardon, Richard, author.
Title: Franz Baermann Steiner : a stranger in the world / Jeremy Adler
and Richard Fardon.
Description: New York : Berghahn Books, 2022. | Series: Methodology
and history in anthropology ; Volume 42 | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021028824 (print) | LCCN 2021028825 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781800732704 (hardback) | ISBN 9781800732711 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Steiner, Franz Baermann, 1909-1952. | Steiner, Franz
Baermann, 1909-1952--Influence. | Anthropology--Europe--History--
20th century. | Anthropologists--England--Biography. |
Poets--England--Biography. | Jewish authors--Biography.
Classification: LCC GN21.S775 A74 2022 (print) | LCC GN21.S775
(ebook) | DDC 301.092 [B]--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021028824
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021028825
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-80073-270-4 hardback
ISBN 978-1-80073-271-1 ebook
CONTENTS
List of Figures vii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction. A Brief Life 1
Part I. An Oriental in the West
Chapter 1. Beginnings: The Prague German-Jewish
Community 9
Chapter 2. Student Days in Prague and Jerusalem 29
Chapter 3. First Ethnological Studies in Vienna and London,
and Fieldwork in Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia 42
Chapter 4. The Impact of the Early English Years 61
Chapter 5. The Exile 78
Chapter 6. The Oxford Anthropologist 99
Part II. Orientpolitik, Value and Civilization:
The Social Thought
Chapter 7. Beyond ‘Culture Circles’: The Field Trip Revisited 121
Chapter 8. Zionism, Political and Cultural Critique 134
Chapter 9. On Slavery 148
Chapter 10. Radcliffe-Brown and Evans-Pritchard 162
Chapter 11. Labour and Value 172
Chapter 12. Civilization and Taboo 179
Chapter 13. Simmel and Aristotle 191
vi Contents
Part III. The Poet Anthropologist
Chapter 14. Conquests 201
Chapter 15. Kafka in England 216
Chapter 16. The Chief Sociological Principle 226
Chapter 17. Suffering and Value 239
Chapter 18. In Search of the Universal Mathesis 247
References 252
Manuscript Sources 253
F.B.S.’s Unpublished Writings in the
Schiller-Nationalmuseum, Deutsches
Literaturarchiv, Marbach am Neckar 253
Unpublished Letters to and about F.B.S.
and Memoirs Concerning Him at the
Schiller-Nationalmuseum, Deutsches
Literaturarchiv, Marbach am Neckar 255
F.B.S.’s Unpublished Writings and Other
Sources in the Institute for Social and
Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford 256
F.B.S.’s Letters to Veza and Elias Canetti,
Private Collection, Zürich 256
Letters and Other Written Communications
to the Authors 256
Published Sources 257
Selection of F.B.S.’s Published Writings 257
Published Sources Cited 258
Index of Names 275
Index of Subjects 281
FIGURES
Figure 1.1 Suse Steiner and Franz Steiner. Circa 1925.
© Estate of Franz Baermann Steiner. 11
Figure 2.1 Suse Steiner, 1932, photographer František
Drtikol. © Estate of Franz Baermann Steiner. 40
Figure 2.2 Franz Steiner after his return from Palestine,
1932, photographer probably František Drtikol.
© Estate of Franz Baermann Steiner. 41
Figure 3.1 Ruthenian farmsteads, summer 1937,
photographer Franz Steiner. © Estate of Franz
Baermann Steiner. 55
Figure 3.2 Ruthenian market, summer 1937, photographer
Franz Steiner. © Estate of Franz Baermann Steiner. 56
Figure 3.3 Gypsy homes in Ruthenia, summer 1937,
photographer Franz Steiner. © Estate of Franz Baermann
Steiner. 58
Figure 3.4 Gypsy school, summer 1937, photographer Franz
Steiner. © Estate of Franz Baermann Steiner. 59
Figure 5.1 Marie-Louise von Motesiczky in her living
room-cum-studio in Amersham with Veza Canetti,
1940 or shortly after. © Marie-Louise von Motesiczky
Charitable Trust 2021. 84
Figure 5.2 Elias Canetti, Grinzing, Vienna, 1936. © Johanna
Canetti. 87
Figure 5.3 H.G. Adler after his return from the camps,
1945. © The Estate of H.G. Adler. 96
viii Figures
Figure 6.1 Franz Steiner and Iris Murdoch, Trafalgar Square,
autumn 1952, unknown photographer. © Estate of
Franz Baermann Steiner. 113
Figure 6.2 Iris Murdoch, photographer Franz Steiner.
© Estate of Franz Baermann Steiner. 116
Figure 7.1 Ruthenian shepherd, summer 1937, photographer
Franz Steiner. © Estate of Franz Baermann Steiner. 125
Figure 7.2 Ruthenian pipe player, summer 1937,
photographer Franz Steiner. © Estate of Franz
Baermann Steiner. 127
Figure 7.3 Uniate religious procession in Ruthenia, summer
1937, photographer Franz Steiner. © Estate of Franz
Baermann Steiner. 128
Figure 7.4 Gypsy girl in Ruthenia, summer 1937,
photographer Franz Steiner. © Estate of Franz Baermann
Steiner. 129
Figure 7.5 Ruthenian girl, summer 1937, photographer
Franz Steiner. © Estate of Franz Baermann Steiner. 130
Figure 7.6 Orthodox Jewish youth, summer 1937,
photographer Franz Steiner. © Estate of Franz
Baermann Steiner. 131
Figure 7.7 Ruthenian women at market, summer 1937,
photographer Franz Steiner. © Estate of Franz
Baermann Steiner. 132
Figure 17.1 Heinrich and Marta Steiner, Prague, 1938.
© Estate of Franz Baermann Steiner. 242
Figure 18.1 Franz Steiner, circa 1952, photographer
H.G. Adler. © Estate of Franz Baermann Steiner. 248
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It is possible to appreciate Aristotle’s sociological thought much better
now than during the last few centuries; and this is very significant, not
only for the stage reached in the development of sociological reasoning
but generally for our cultural situation.
—Franz Steiner on Aristotle’s sociology
Two and a half decades have passed since we embarked on a project
to edit and introduce Franz Steiner’s more important anthropological
works to English-language readers in two volumes and to contex-
tualize them with a selection of his political, aphoristic and poetic
writings. We did so, as we put it then, ‘In the conviction that today’s
intellectual climate … is a more auspicious moment for their appreci-
ation’ than that of their composition (1999a/b: x). The reviews wel-
coming the collections proved our hopes were not misplaced;1 and,
as we explain in our Introduction, numerous hands in subsequent
years have steadily built an impressive scholarly edifice on the modest
new foundations we laid. The two Introductions we wrote for those
volumes had been conceived as a single biographical work, and they
were published as such in the definitive German-language edition of
Steiner’s work.2 So, we were delighted that Marion Berghahn, who
took the risk of bringing our original publication into public view,
reacted supportively to our intention to reunite the two halves of our
English biography, in a revised, corrected and wholly updated form.
Although we cannot be sure to have sourced all the latest literature,
we are confident that this new version is up-to-date as regards re-
search on Steiner and his circle and marks a decisive step beyond our
original thoughts.
Our feeling more than two decades ago now feels even more
appropriate:
Steiner would have recognized with approval the origins of many of
the changes in our sociological reasoning and cultural situation that
have occurred in the fifty [now seventy] years since he settled in Great
Britain and set about transforming himself into an English-speaking