Erik Seidenfaden (ethnologist)
Erik Seidenfaden | |
---|---|
Born | 1881 Copenhagen, Denmark |
Died | 1958 (aged 76–77) |
Occupation | Ethnologist |
Major Erik Seidenfaden (Thai: อีริค ไซเดนฟาเดน; 1881–1958)[1] was a Danish Captain of The Royal Siamese Gendarmerie who lived in Thailand from 1906 to 1947.[2][3][4] He served as part of the Provincial Gendarmerie where his role was to assist with the modernization of the Siamese military. He played an active role in the Siam Society as an amateur ethnologist who authored books and articles on the history, culture and languages of the Thai peoples. Anthropologist Herbert Phillips of the University of California, Berkeley, claimed that Seidenfaden "probably had more first-hand knowledge of the culture and history of the Thai and related peoples than did any other European of this century," whose ethnological interpretations nonetheless amounted to "informed prejudice."[3]
Life
Seidenfaden was born in 1881 in Copenhagen, Denmark,
In April 1907, after Siam was forced by the French to give up on the regions of
In 1914 he became the chief of The Royal Siamese Gendarmerie's officer school. His role, along with that of many imported western officers, was to assist with the modernization of the Siamese military.[7] He had also married Malé Maria Praivichitr Emdeng (1892–1973), with whom he had several children.
In 1920 he demobilized and became chief of the accounting department of the
Siam Society
Seidenfaden was a President (1937–1941) and Honorary Member (1947) of the Siam Society and he wrote a large number of articles, papers and reviews for the Journal of the Siam Society, which are now available online.[6] In 1937, he organized an exhibition of ethic dress in the lecture hall of the Siam Society. The exhibition sought to include all the traditional, national costumes of the many branches of the Thai people which Seidenfaden noticed were fast disappearing often to be replaced by more modern fashions.[7]
Research and influence
Despite having no formal scholarly training, he was an "enthusiastic amateur ethnographer” and a pioneer of Thai studies, which saw him examine and document national and regional ethnicity as well as work to preserve these disappearing cultures.
Having noticed "with sorrow, how the pictoresque and time-honoured national and regional costumes, nearly all over the land, are fast disappearing, to be replaced by dresses of more or less international fashion" in 1937 in the lecture hall of the Siam Society he inaugurated an exhibition collecting the costumes of the various branches of the Thai peoples and of the non-Thai communities, mostly in the North-east of the country. He saw material objects as a primary cause for the loss of ethnic diversity and in his writing discussed the negative and "corrupting" effects of objects such as radios, movies, cinematograph, gramophones, and trucks.[7] In particular, he blamed radio for the vanishing of age-old dialects, manners and cultural traditions.[8] He commented that the "honk of the motor lorry with its load of cheap foreign textiles sounds the death knell of the national costumes".
While he was serving as deputy to the Inspector-General of the Royal Siamese Gendarmerie and during the visits to the outlying provinces and gendarmerie stations between 1908 and 1919 Seidenfaden visited and re-discovered a number of archeologically significant Buddhist temples. He learnt local dialects too, and collected knowledge of local customs which was quite extraordinary.
In 1939, he was the first person to study the
His nephew Gunnar Seidenfaden also had ties to Thailand, where he researched and identified many new Orchid species, naming some too, as well as serving as a Danish ambassador for Bangkok (Thailand) and Manila (Philippines) in 1955, Rangoon (Burma) and Phnom Pehn (Cambodia) in 1956 and Vientiane (Laos) in 1957.[6]
Erik Seidenfaden was awarded the knighthood of the Siamese Crown Order in 1912, in 1926 the order of the Crown of Thailand, in 1932 the Danish knighthood of Dannebrog, as well as knighted with the Siamese Order of the White Elephant.
His extensive library of Thai books was in 2004 donated by his daughter Grethe Seidenfaden (1929–2012) to The Thai Section, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen.
Selected publications
- Guide to Bangkok, with notes on Siam, 1927[1]
- The Thai peoples, 1958[1]
- The Thai peoples. Book 1, The origins and habitats of the Thai peoples, with a sketch of their material and spiritual culture, 1958[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f "Seidenfaden, Erik 1881-1958". Worldcat.org. Retrieved 2011-10-31.
- ^ Nielsen, Flemming Winther (9 June 2012). "Erik Seidenfaden: Exodus". Scandasia. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
- ^ ProQuest 1290519250.
- S2CID 210542228.
- ^ Ivarsson, Søren; Suwannakij, Sing (2022). "Erik Seidenfaden and his Quest for Knowledge: Gendarmerie Officer, Amateur Scholar and the Siam Society". Journal of the Siam Society. 110 (2): 1–24.
- ^ a b c Bruun, Anton F. (March 1961). "Danish Naturalists in Thailand 1900–1960" (PDF). The Natural History Bulletin of the Siam Society. 20 (1): 71–80.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8014-4338-1.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8223-2517-8
- ISBN 978-0-87808-361-9