author
Erland Nordenskiöld
1877–1932
A Swedish ethnographer and archaeologist, he became one of the early key interpreters of Indigenous cultures in South America through fieldwork, collecting, and writing. His travels in Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, and Panama helped shape European understanding of the continent’s prehistory and living traditions.
1 Audiobook
Indianerleben : El gran Chaco (Südamerika)
by Erland Nordenskiöld
About the author
Born in Stockholm in 1877, Erland Nordenskiöld was the son of the noted explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld. He first trained in natural science and worked as a zoologist, but his interests gradually turned toward ethnography and archaeology, especially the peoples and past of South America.
Across several expeditions in the early 1900s, he studied Indigenous communities and documented languages, material culture, beliefs, and everyday life. His work was especially important for research on the Gran Chaco and the Andean region, and he became known for combining close field observation with a broader interest in prehistory.
Nordenskiöld later served as director of the ethnographic museum in Gothenburg and became a professor of ethnography there. He died in 1932, but his books, collections, and research continued to influence the study of South American anthropology and archaeology.