History of AGEM

• The Arbeitsstelle für Eth­nomedi­zin was found­ed on August 25, 1969 in Ham­burg by Joachim Ster­ly (1926–2001) and was the nucle­us of the Arbeits­ge­mein­schaft Eth­nomedi­zin (AGEM, orig­i­nal acronym until 1976 AgE) and the jour­nal Eth­nomedi­zin („Eth­nomedi­zin. Zeitschrift für inter­diszi­plinäre Forschung”). The lat­ter was also found­ed by him on Octo­ber 10, 1970. The Mit­teilun­gen der Arbeitsstelle (from 1969) were inte­grat­ed into Eth­nomedi­zin from No. 4 – 17. The first three issues 1969–1970) were reprint­ed, slight­ly abridged, in Curare 34(2014)4. In 1971, the jour­nal Eth­nomed­i­cine appeared for the first time, with the Cen­ter pro­vid­ing on-site edit­ing until Eth­nomed­i­cine ceased pub­li­ca­tion with Vol. VII, 1–4 (1981/2).

In the first years of pub­li­ca­tion, the jour­nal was asso­ci­at­ed with AgE, and lat­er became the organ of the Arbeit­skreis Eth­nomedi­zin Ham­burg, which regrouped around Joachim Ster­ly, the founder of the Arbeitsstelle and the jour­nal Eth­nomedi­zin, begin­ning around 1975. The work­ing group, lat­er „Arbeit­skreis Eth­nomedi­zin Ham­burg – Köln,” was restruc­tured in 1982 and dis­solved in 1986, along with the Ham­burg Arbeitsstelle (see Mitt. Ak. Eth­nomed. No. 18, July 1986). An impor­tant eth­nomed­ical meet­ing was orga­nized as a sym­po­sium in this cir­cle in 1980 and held under the aus­pices of Charles Lich­t­en­thael­er (1915–1993), pro­fes­sor of med­ical his­to­ry at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ham­burg, where con­tacts were again made with the AGEM (see Curare 3[1980]3: 133) and col­lab­o­ra­tors were recruit­ed for the jour­nal Curare, found­ed in 1978. The pro­ceed­ings of the 8th sym­po­sium, „Eth­nomedi­zin und Medi­zingeschichte,” May 2–4, 1980, in Ham­burg, are doc­u­ment­ed in their entire­ty in the VII­Ith and final vol­ume of the series „Beiträge zur Eth­nomedi­zin, Eth­nob­otanik und Eth­no­zo­olo­gie” (BEEE VIII).

The con­tents are record­ed in a reprint of the index of the jour­nal Eth­nomedi­zin in Curare 24(2001)225–256, here pp. 255–256 BEEE VIII, 1983.

Remain­ing stocks of the jour­nal are still avail­able; request via AGEM or Ekke­hard Schröder ee.schroeder@t‑online.de

[Text: Reprint from MAGEM 22/1993, Curare 16(1993)3+4: 332–333, updat­ed and slight­ly revised for this website]

Die Zeitschrift Eth­nomedi­zin. Doku­men­ta­tion und Reg­is­ter 1971–1982 Obit­u­ary for Joachim Ster­ly (1926–2001) by Claus Deimel (in German)