Leo Frobenius

Born June 29, 1873, in Berlin; died Aug. 9, 1938, in Biganzolo, near Lake Maggiore. German ethnologist and Africanist.

In 1904, Frobenius undertook the first of a series of expeditions that brought him to virtually every part of Africa and enabled him to collect extensive material on the archaeology, ethnology, and history of African peoples. He advanced a theory in which culture was defined as a distinct social organism with a mystical center, or soul, that he called its paideuma. Although Frobenius emphasized the richness and uniqueness of African cultures, he limited their content to anachronistic traditions.