Paul Kirchhoff (17 August, 1900 – 1972) was a German anthropologist, most noted for his seminal work in defining and elaborating the culture area of Mesoamerica, a term he coined.
Paul Kirchhoff was born at the turn of the twentieth century in the German locality of Horst in the region of Westphalia. He commenced his undergraduate studies in Protestant theology and comparative religion at the University of Berlin, moving later to Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg. In the mid-1920s he undertook further studies at the University of Leipzig in ethnology and psychology, where he first developed his abiding interest in the indigenous cultures of the Americas,[1] completing his studies in 1927.[2]
He was the co-founder of the National School of Anthropology and History in 1938, and held a research position at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma in Mexico.
Kirchhoff was instrumental in defining the concept of Mesoamerica, a cultural region sharing a number of common characteristics throughout most of pre-Columbian history, geographically defined as central and southern Mexico and much of Central America.
Also, Kirchhoff was a left communist who was a militant of a group called the Grupo de Trabajadores in Mexico. Kirchoff had formerly been a member of the KAPD in Germany, then a Trotskyist in the USA but his tiny group which he led would seem to have disappeared at the outbreak of war in 1939.
He died resident in Mexico City, 1972.
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