View source for Elisabeth Krämer-Bannow

{{Short description| German ethnologist (1874 – 1945)}}
[[File: Elisabeth Krämer-Bannow auf einer Forschungsreise auf die Palau-Inseln im westl. Pazifik, 1909.JPG|thumb| Elisabeth Krämer-Bannow]]
'''Elisabeth Krämer-Bannow''' (29 September 1874 – 9 January 1945) was a German [[Ethnology| ethnologist]].<ref name="auto">{{cite book |last= Aly |first= Götz |date = 7 March 2023|title= The Magnificent Boat: The Colonial Theft of a South Seas Cultural Treasure|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=j-yaEAAAQBAJ|access-date= 13 October 2023|location= Cambridge, MA| publisher= Harvard University Press| page=163| isbn=978-0-674-27657-4}}</ref> She was one of the first Western women to explore the [[Polynesia|islands of the South Pacific]].<ref name="auto1">{{cite book |last= Rainbird |first= Paul |date = 3 June 2004|title= The Archaeology of Micronesia|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=jtMKeFTO9ZYC|access-date= 13 October 2023|location= Cambridge, England | publisher= Cambridge University Press | page=26| isbn=978-0-521-65630-6}}</ref><ref name="auto2">{{cite web |title=Elisabeth Krämer-Bannow: a portrait of the artist in New Ireland |url=https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/the-history-listen/elizabeth-kramer-bannow:-a-portrait-of-the-artist-in-new-ireland/12345978 |website=abc.net.au |date=25 August 2020 |access-date=13 October 2023}}</ref> She accompanied her husband [[Augustin Kraemer]] on three of his expeditions in the [[German colonial empire|German colonial territories of the Pacific]].  She acted as an expedition artist and painted the natives, their houses, and the local flora and fauna, often under difficult conditions.{{sfn| Aly |2023|p=25}}<ref>{{cite book |last= Zimmerman |first= Andi |date = 15 February 2010|title= Anthropology and Antihumanism in Imperial Germany|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=asko_FB_Cu8C|access-date= 13 October 2023|location= Chicago | publisher= University of Chicago Press | page=235| isbn=978-0-226-98346-2}}</ref>
==Biography==
Born in [[Wismar]], a small town in [[Mecklenburg-Vorpommern|Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania]], Germany, on 29 September 1874, Elisabeth Krämer-Bannow was the daughter of Adolph Bannow, a chemist, and his wife Charlotte Beckmann, who was the daughter of a pharmacist from [[Stuttgart]].<ref name="auto3">{{cite web |title=Out of the shadow biographical details of Elisabeth Krämer-Bannow or The woman behind Dr. Augustin Krämer |url=https://docplayer.net/45718164-Out-of-the-shadow-biographical-details-of-elisabeth-kramer-bannow-or-the-woman-behind-dr-augustin-kramer.html |website=docplayer.net |access-date=13 October 2023}}</ref> In her childhood, she showed interest in arts and weaving. Her interest was supported by her father, who was an illustrator.<ref name="auto3"/> She was trained as a draftsperson and painter.<ref name="auto"/> In 1904, she married Augustin Kraemer, a German navy physician who became an [[anthropologist]] and ethnologist.<ref name="auto2"/>
During the German administration of the territories of the Pacific, the [[Ethnological Museum of Berlin |Royal Museum of Ethnology]] in cooperation with the [[German navy]] commissioned a south sea expedition comprising anthropologists including Augustin Kraemer to do in-depth studies on the people and their culture. These studies were later published.<ref>{{cite book |last= Clements |first= William M.  |year= 2006|title= The Greenwood Encyclopedia of World Folklore and Folklife: Topics and themes; Africa, Australia and Oceania|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=D_rWAAAAMAAJ|access-date= 13 October 2023|location= Westport, Connecticut |publisher= Greenwood Press |page=364| isbn= 978-0-313-32847-3}}</ref>
She accompanied her husband Augustin Kraemer in all three trips undertaken by him along with two ethnologists, [[Paul Hambruch]] and [[Ernst Sarfert]], and others.<ref name="auto1"/> In 1906/07, the first expedition was commissioned to the [[Palau |Palau Islands]] through the [[Bismarck Archipelago]].<ref>{{cite book |last= Knoll |first= Arthur J. |date = 10 March 2010|title= The German Colonial Experience: Select Documents on German Rule in Africa, China, and the Pacific 1884-1914|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=jIHK5e-yBvUC|access-date= 13 October 2023|location= Lanham, Maryland| publisher= University Press of America| page=258| isbn=978-0-761-85096-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Gunderson |first= Frank |year= 2019|title= The Oxford Handbook of Musical Repatriation|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=BmCpDwAAQBAJ|access-date= 13 October 2023|location= New York | publisher= Oxford University Press | page=166| isbn= 978-0-190-65980-6}}</ref> Second one was in 1908 to [[New Ireland (island) |New Ireland]], later named as Neumecklenburg, and the final one was in 1909/10 headed to the [[Caroline Islands]].<ref name="auto1"/>
She was the only female member of the expedition team.<ref name="auto2"/> Her presence became as important as the local women avoided talking to the male anthropologists.<ref name="auto2"/> She developed her own method of research. She simply observed and experienced without asking any questions. She made number of drawings, watercolor paintings, and research notes about the rituals and customs that she observed during their expeditions.<ref name="auto"/>
She also joined the local women in other activities including weaving, gardening, cooking and dancing.<ref name="auto2"/> She participated in their social customs and rituals.<ref>{{cite book |last= Werle |first= Kerstin J. S. |date = 12 May 2014|title= Landscape of Peace: Mechanisms of Social Control on Lamotrek Atoll, Micronesia|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=A0UrBAAAQBAJ|access-date= 13 October 2023|location= New York City | publisher= Springer | page=5| isbn=978-3-658-05832-6}}</ref> Earlier she spent several months in Sri Lanka.
In 1916, she published her research as ''Among Art-loving Cannibals of the South Seas: Travels in New Ireland 1908-1909''; an English translation was published in Australia in 2007.<ref name="auto"/>
She died on 9 January 1945 in [[Schorndorf]].
==References==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Krämer-Bannow, Elisabeth}}
[[Category:1874 births]]
[[Category:People from Wismar]]
[[Category:1945 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century German anthropologists]]
[[Category:German women anthropologists]]
[[Category:German ethnographers]]
[[Category:Cultural anthropologists]]
[[Category:People from the German colonial empire]]
[[Category:Women ethnologists]]