Robert Lehmann-Nitsche

Robert Lehmann‑Nitsche (November 9, 1872 in Radomierz – April 9, 1938 in Berlin) was a German anthropologist who spent thirty years in Argentina as director of the Anthropological Section of the La Plata Museum and professor at the University of Buenos Aires.

His predecessor, Dutch anthropologist Herman Frederik Carel ten Kate, had recommended him for the position because of Lehmann-Nitsche's discussion of Osteology in his two doctoral dissertations.

He started in 1898-1900 by examining individuals from the Selk'nam people who had been abducted in Patagonia and were exhibited by circuses or in events such as Buenos Aires' National Industrial Exposition of 1898.

[1] However, he soon realized that observations of native Argentinians living free in their villages was more valuable, and between 1902 and 1925 organized six expeditions to remote areas of Argentina, putting together a rich collection of photographs, artifacts, and songs recorded on phonograph cylinders.

In 1906, he signed an agreement with the British industrialists Walter (1858-1944) and William Leach (1851-1932), who owned a sugar factory in La Esperanza, Jujuy.

[2] The subsequent scandal led the La Plata Museum to the decision of giving back the bones of several native Argentinians to their tribes so that they could be properly buried.