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Berthold Laufer (1874-1934) was a pioneering anthropologist and sinologist. He attended the universities of Berlin and Leipzig, where he studied a wide range of languages, including Persian, Sanskrit, Chinese, Mongolian and Tibetan, under the leading scholars of the day. He moved to the USA at the suggestion of Franz Boas, taking up a position at the Museum of Natural History in new York and joining the Jesup North Pacific Expedition to Siberia and Alaska, ultimately leading the expedition. Laufer then joined the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, where he became Head of the Department of Anthropology there. He led three further expeditions to China - the Jacob H. Scruff Expedition of 1901-4, the Blackstone Expedition of 1908-10 and the Marshall Expedition of 1923. He was responsible for one of the first collections of Chinese material culture in the USA. His two books, Jade: A Study in Chinese Archaeology and Religion and Chinese Pottery of the Han Dynasty remain seminal works. Sino-Iranica, here published as Ancient Iran through Chinese Records is regarded as his most significant work. |
