Etnološko delo amerikanista Ivana Benigarja
The Ethnological Work of the Americanist Ivan Benigar

Summary/Abstract: Ivan Benigar (1883—1950), until recently little known Argentinian scientist of Slovene origin, lived and worked more than forty years among the South American Indians. He left a voluminous heritage of manuscripts which are still partially unpublished. He was interested in various ethnological, linguistic, historical, archaeological, philosophical, sociological and jural questions concerning either Argentina or South America in general. The core of his ethnological work, written after 1924, consists of studies into the Araucan comprehension of time, space and causality. Also important is the book El problema del hombrie americano (»The Problem of American Man«) published in 1928. In these writings he critically refuted Levy-Bruhl’s thesis on »pre-logical« thinking, basing his arguments on the language and thought of the Argentinian Araucans. In the book El problema del hombre Americano he criticized difussionist, Australian-American thesis of Jose Imbelloni. All of the Benigar’s work reveal high professional competence, methodological consistency and theoretical sophistication.

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