Encountering - retracing - mapping: the ethnographic legacy of Heinrich Harrer and Peter Aufschnaiter

Abstract

Since the 1970s the Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zurich has held culturally significant collections of Heinrich Harrer (1912-2006) and Peter Aufschnaiter (1899-1973). From 1945 until 1951 both lived in Tibet. Aufschnaiter then worked in Nepal, whereas Harrer undertook numerous expeditions. In the 1960s he travelled to Asia, South America and Oceania. In the artefacts brought back, craft skills as well as social organisational structures and world views from the local communities are represented. They also reflect the viewpoints of the travellers themselves. For this publication all of the Zurich collections have been researched for the first time. Starting with the object , moments of encountering and social change as well as historical and cultural developments can be retraced, and the seemingly obvious is thus pieced together into an extended map or knowledgescape.