Indigenous drawings as ‘cultural fossil guides’

Robert Lehmann-Nitsche and the comparative archaeological study of the evolution of the human mind

Abstract

In this paper, I examine a study of indigenous drawings in Argentina conducted by the German anthropologist Robert Lehmann-Nitsche (1872–1938) in 1898. I am interested in how instruments (pencils, paper, sketchbooks) and methodological approaches (quantitative research, cross-cultural comparison) were employed to transform the drawings into study objects of cultural history, the strategies followed to acquire the drawings, and the influence of theoretical frameworks developed in Germany, especially those related to comparative psychology, ethnographic parallels and the history of art.