[Posts were sent in the wrong order. The correct reading order is: Pound and Frobenius (First Part-A) Pound and Frobenius (First Part-B) Pound and Frobenius (Second Part) -- which was accidentally posted first B.H. wrote in his recent four part post on Pound, the New Masses, and Racism, the following statements. 1. "Frobenius was decidedly not an advocate of white supremacy." 2. "He argued for the historical purity of Africa over Europe, and the influence of African culture on Europe" I would respectfully suggest that these statements need revision. Frobenius DID on several occasions advocate white supremacy. He also argued that the highest acheivements in African art were the product of a "non-Negroid" race, probably of Greek origin. He also said Africans were incapable of ruling themselves and helped to devise some elaborate schemes to perpetuate colonial rule in Africa, especially German colonial rule. Some detailed evidence is provided below. This is not to say that Frobenius did not perform a great service for African culture, or that his views toward Africa should be labeled as exlusively racist. His views were complex and contradictory. I make this point, in part, because it has serious implications for our understanding of the way in which Pound viewed Frobenius and race relations. I put the symbol *** near those passages below which show that Frobenius was, in his own way, a strong racialist of sorts. This is part of a longer essay on the subject of Pound and Race. B.H. has invited us to post essays here, and since this has a direct bearing on his essay, I thought some readers might find this useful. POUND AND FROBENIUS The last significant influence on Pound's thought during the 20's was Frobenius. This German explorer, who conducted numerous anthropological and archaeological expeditions in Africa, provided Pound with a theory of "Kulturmorphologie" which served as the basis of his ideas on race and cultural inheritance. A somewhat detailed presentation of Frobenius' thought is relevant in this context, since Pound placed so much stock in the German thinker's notion of Paideuma; and since many of Pound's views on race and empire were reinforced by contact with (and misreadings of) Frobenius. In April of 1929, Yeats reported to a friend, "Pound is sunk in Frobenius, Spengler's German source, and finds him a most interesting person" (Stock, 287). Pound met Frobenius briefly in Frankfurt while attending the premiere performance of Antheil's opera Transatlantic. Not long afterwards the poet would observe, "One cannot fully understand modern thought without some awareness of Frobenius's work" (Sel. Prose, 301). By the mid 30's he was frequently referring to Frobenius in his published writings as if he were "as well-known as Dante. . . " (Carpenter, 505). Pound's most detailed explanations of Frobenius' significance are in the Guide to Kulchur. There he praises the German anthropologist for his use of the term "Paideuma." According to Pound, "Frobenius uses the term Paideuma for the tangle or complex of the inrooted ideas of any period" (GK, 57). Pound wished to distinguish the term from more abstract philosophical notions. The Paideuma is not the Zeitgeist though I Have no doubt many people will try to sink it in the latter romantic term. . . When I said I wanted a new civilization, I think I could have used Frobenius' term. At any rate, for my own use and for the duration of this treatise I shall use Paideuma for the grisly roots of ideas that are in action. I shall leave "Zeitgeist" as including also the atmospheres, the tints of mental air and the idées reçues, the notions that a great mass of people still hold or half-hold from habit, from waning custom. (GK, 58). This seems to be an inversion of Frobenius' concept of Paideuma. Pound desires to distinguish rarified atmospheric ideas and the notions of the masses from the ideas of active genius which are rooted in a distinct racial makeup and heritage. He expresses interest in Frobenius' "lists of the characteristics of races. . . ," and observes "Whatever one thinks of his lists of symptoms, Hammite, Shemite, etc. . . It is nonsense for the anglo-saxon to revile the jew for beating him at this own game" (GK., 245). Although Frobenius does engage in analysis of racial characteristics, (comparing the Hammites to the French and the Ethiopians to the Germans, for instance), he states, It is not a question of whether human beings are better in one continent than another: they are, in fact the same throughout except for a few qualities which they imbibe as part of their cultural inheritance (Frobenius, 21). One difference between Pound and Frobenius lies in the fact that the latter placed a high value on the commonplace stories, the "idées reçues," the fables and the folklore of the African people. Frobenius believed the average African, uncorrupted by a mechanized view of life, was capable of "daemonic moments," which could not be experienced by members of an over-intellectualized Western civilization. In European society, only children were capable of such experiences. "The importance of such daemonic moments," Frobenius said, "is that they display a culture or paideuma in its creative aspect, with an elemental force that no adult can equal, be he the greatest artist or scholar in the world" (Frobenius, 45). Pound could not accept this usage of the term. While both Pound and Frobenius relied on the term Paideuma to destroy old associations, Frobenius used it more often as a synonym for universal "culture" while Pound used it as a synonym for higher "civilization." In other words, Frobenius wanted the word Paideuma to designate forms of life, which were essential. As he put it, "Paideuma signifies life and fulfillment and is the anti-thesis of knowledge" (F. 45). Or, "I have found it necessary for certain purposes to replace the word 'culture' by the special term 'Paideuma.' " "Paideuma is," Frobenius said, ". . . the spiritual essence of culture in general." (Frobenius, 21). Pound, on the other hand, connected "Frobenius' term" with the desire for a "new civilization" (GK, 58). He made the difference between himself and Frobenius clearest when he wrote, "I shd claim to get on from where Frobenius left off, in that his Morphology was applied to savages and my interest is in civilizations at their most." (Letters, 336). Pound's interest in "civilizations at their most" led him to emphasize the racial morphological aspects of Frobenius' teachings in a way which suited him. Clearly China and ancient Italy were examples of "civilizations at their most," and Frobenius provided part of the justification for the narration of Chinese Imperial history in Cantos 52-61. (continued in Pound and Frobenius (First Part-B) ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com