Paper short abstract:

'Old' German ethnology meant conjectural history, 'old' English anthropology was conceived as functionalism. My paper reviews and evaluates the work of Hermann Niggemeyer (Frankfurt) and F. G. Bailey (Manchester) conducted almost simultanuously during the mid-1950s among the Kond of highland Odisha/India.

Paper long abstract:

Either in Britain or in Germany, the anthropological and ethnological work of two young authors, conducted almost simultanuously in highland Odisha/India among members of the Scheduled Tribe called Kond, gained considerable attention, though Bailey's work in the Manchester tradition remained unnoticed in Germany and English speaking anthropologists never heard of Niggemeyer. However, in the mid-nineteenfifties, these two authors met in Odisha and undertook their field studies at a distance of some 80 km from each other. Since the published results differ considerably, I try to understand, to what extent Manchester 'functionalism' or Frankfurt 'cultural morphology' influenced the actual research process, just as I examine the commonalities in the approaches. To conceive the value of these two contributions, I also make an attempt to come to grips with 'new' anthropology.