Jan Czekanowski, a Polish Anthropologist between Two Eras of European Cultural History

Forschungen im Nil-Kongo-Zwischengebiet

One of Czekanowski’s tasks was to summarize the results of his research in Africa. In a collective eight-volume monumental work containing the expedition’s results, [10] those worked out by Czekanowski took up five volumes on account of the unusual quantity of materials he had collected, and were given a separate title and separate numbering. The publication of these five volumes lasted from 1911 to 1927. [11]

While Czekanowski was primarily a physical anthropologist, in preparing the Forschungen im Nil-Kongo-Zwischengebiet (explorations in the region between the Nile and the Congo) he created a work on the culture, in the widest sense, of the peoples he studied. At the same time, he continued his research in physical anthropology and spent much time analysing the results of biometric data and traits proper to various groups inhabiting the interlacustrine area.

Two volumes of the Forschungen (1 and 2) contain exhaustive monographic descriptions of migration, settlement, the economy, the social and political organization, customs, rituals, religion, traditions, mythology, oral literature and languages of specific peoples. In Vol. 1, most of the chapters concern the Rwanda area, along with Mpororo and Nkole. The volume is accompanied by a supplement with musical material, sheet music and song lyrics. Vol. 2 contains descriptions of the culture of the peoples of the north-eastern territories of the Independent State of Congo and the areas bordering Sudan.

Of particular interest to Czekanowski as an ethnographer was the phenomenon of migration of the successive peoples who inhabited the territories of the interlacustrine area and the identification of these waves of settlement, which he did by analysing objects of material culture, myths and oral tradition. He studied the phenomena of cultural exchange and the emergence of political structures arising from migration, as well as the subject of dependence, domination and coexistence among different groups of people. The following is an excerpt from the manuscript version of the Diary, in which Czekanowski, using as specific examples the differences that exist in Rwanda between power over people and power over territory, illustrates the ties between power over people and ethnic and clan divisions, and the competition between individuals exercising different types of power:

I met Lukara in Nyansa because he was detained at Musinga’s court, being too bellicose. [...] He had been waiting for eight months there for court proceedings with Luhanda, the [ruler’s] representative in Mulera. Since he couldn’t find a way to return home, he came to ask me (through Dufays’ father) to request him with Musinga as a guide, which is what actually happened. He travelled to Mulera-Ruasa with Father Dufays and me [...]. [Presently] Lukara is more powerful than Batutsi. This is so because he relies on his Barashi, who belong to his clan [...]. Lukara is a Muhutu and does not depend directly on the king, but on his [local] overlord. Therefore, he feels greater than Batutsi, but he is less refined, more peasant-like in his behaviour. He is ashamed [for this reason] and always passes himself off as a Mututsi. He is not a feudal lord. He is only a Barashi chief recognized by the king. To this dignity, which is unknown [to] Barashi, was appointed his father Bishingwe [who] was a very talented hunter and brought to [Rwanda’s King] Lwabugiri many elephant tusks and hides. Outside of his Barashi, however, Lukara has no significant power or authority. When he wanted to send a man to fetch water for us and he refused, he pushed him. The man only said “I am not a Murashi”. [12] An infuriated Lukara calmed down, asked about his father and left [him] alone. As a chief and clan leader recognized by the king, Lukara governs in uninhabited areas and the strangers he has settled are indeed dependent on him and he can chase them away. He also sends them to fetch water. The territory settled by the Barashi, about 6-8000 souls, very fertile [...]. Up to 20 Batwa hunters live in the jungle near Lukara (Czekanowski, Diary… manuscript, vol. 3, pp. 273–274).

Vol. 3 and 5 of the Forschungen contain unique, highly valuable photographic material, a total of 306 photos. Each is accompanied by a detailed description and precise information on the time, place and circumstances in which it was taken. The documentation concerns people, homesteads, costumes, tools, weapons, instruments, ornaments, agricultural and craftwork performed, ceremonies and rituals. In Vol. 3 Czekanowski included a concise list of the groups of people in the areas under study, distinguished in terms of biological anthropology traits and cultural features.

A photograph of two girls (older and younger sisters), shown in half-profile makes it possible to see the shape of their hairstyles. The hair is fastened in a knot on a base made of a strand of grass. The function of this knot is to arrange the hair in a way that makes it swing back and forth coquettishly as the girls move. There is a clear difference between the hairstyle of the older and younger sisters. The younger one’s hairstyle is not yet finished, which is indicated by the comb that is placed in it. The older one’s hairstyle is already fixed using strands hanging on the forehead and fixing the hair that falls vertically in the back. The photo also documents the Azande girls’ distinctive copper wire rings worn on the fourth finger of the right hand. The girls also wear necklaces and bracelets on their wrists and above their ankles, as well as scarification on their forearms, and the older sister also on the side of her abdomen. Attention is drawn to the protruding areolas of the girls’ breasts. In the background one can see a round hut with a conically shaped thatched roof and a notable one-metre high protrusion at the base of the hut. Photo from the photo album of the family collection belonging to Prof. Anna Czekanowska-Kuklińska, reproduced by Krystyna Muszyńska-Brzezińska and described in keeping with Forschungen… vol. 5 (1927), pp. 4-5, photo (Tafel) 8.

Vol. 4 of Forschungen contains biometric anthropological data, measurements of living persons and tables prepared by Czekanowski. Vol. 6, devoted to skull measurements, did not appear in the Forschungen series, but was only published in Poland after World War II in the form of an extensive article. [13]

The Diary – The Original Manuscript and Printed Fragments, Enlarged and Commented

Czekanowski systematically documented his work in the field with extensive entries in his diary. The text (well over 1,000 pages) is mostly in German, about 30% is in French, a small portion in Swahili, small sections in Polish, and occasional words in Russian. The entries were made in haste, with little attention to grammar and spelling. Using carbon paper, Czekanowski produced two identical copies at once. One was sent to the Royal Museum of Ethnology in Berlin, while the author kept the other.

The Diary was to be the basis for the preparation of the Forschungen. It seems that the author did not initially think of publishing it, at least not in the form in which he wrote it. However, in 1937 Czekanowski received a proposal from the Polish Ministry of Religious Denominations and Public Enlightenment to prepare a supplemented version of the Diary with commentary. It was assumed that the work would appear in three volumes.

In 1939 Czekanowski submitted Part One of his Diary in Polish for publication. The text he submitted was lost during the war along with the entire archives of the ministry. Only a small fragment concerning Czekanowski’s youth and the beginning of the expedition up to the arrival in Bukoba survived. [14] Part Two, which was ready for publication before the war, was kept by Czekanowski and published in Poland in 1958. [15] A French edition, translated and edited by Lidia Meschy, with an introduction by Georges Balandier, was published in 2001. [16] Part Three survived the war in the form of loose notes.

Thus, we have only a small fragment of Part One and Part Two of the Polish edition of the Diary and its French translation. The Polish and the French translation are in many places more extensive than the manuscript. Czekanowski supplemented the printed text with his recollections and with material from his correspondence. Besides descriptions of his field research, he included information about relations between the expedition’s participants, disputes and conflicts, comments on individuals, and his own views and national feeling.

The author’s observations about the political and social life of the peoples he studied are of great importance in both versions of the Diary. Given the very limited influence that the English and German authorities had at the beginning of the 20^th century on the functioning of local social and political structures in their colonies, Czekanowski saw the situation he studied as a kind of reserve of traditional structures that made it possible, using the method of retrogression, to study their functioning in the past. [17] As to the future, he foresaw the growing conflict between Tutsis and Hutus. He appraised the situation in the Independent State of Congo separately. In both versions of the Diary, he included numerous detailed observations and statements of a general nature that were highly critical of the exploitation and draconian methods of repression the Congolese people lived under. He described numerous examples of revolt and escape by the exploited population and the breakdown of traditional structures, such as these:

3 March 1908
The population of the Avakubi post [amounts to] somewhat above 3,000 locals and above 8,000 Wangwana. These 3,000 (nearly) locals provided up to 12 tons of rubber monthly, now the norm has been set at 6 tons. As a result of exploitation, [rubber] production has fallen so much that the last harvest brought 2½ tons. At the time of greatest exploitation, Avakubi yielded 12 tons, Makala 6 tons (more residents than in Avakubi), Nepoko 6–8 tons, Irumu up to 1 ton, and Mawambi ½ ton.
This production was achieved in 1900–1904. After these years came revolts; the first [in] 1903–1904, the second [in] 1906. The sting was overpulled, revolts continue even now, except in Irumu and Nepoko. Now Barumbi, Babali and part of Medje have revolted. In the end, rebellion in Congo has become chronic. (Diary..., manuscript, vol. 7, p. 607).

10 March 1908 – Nepoko
Sixty tons of rubber are lying in the sheds, a six-month harvest that cannot be [shipped] quickly due to transportation shortages. The eastern part of the area is revolté, that is, people have gone into the brush because of the prestations, abandoning their villages. Prestations are a burden here, because one has to walk to the forest some 10 hours away. This is still nothing compared to the situation in the area of Ajamu. The Momvu, in order to liberate themselves from the rubber, have cut the lianas so that the forest is depleted. Now to bring in the prestations they walk [as punishment] 5–6 days south to Balese. I was under the impression that those 40 heures par mois were a fictitious quantity. Nime choka ya kazi – [Swahili – I have enough of work] as Apuna told me. [Diary... manuscript, vol. 7, p. 631)

13 March 1908 – Andudu
In Andudu I met a black corporal with eight soldiers, because the white one, Fariard (if I’m not mistaken) went with the natives to the Walese forest, [to] gather rubber. The Momvu, in order to free themselves from the rubber tax, cut the lianas and fell the rubber trees .... As a result, the forest here is depleted ... Discontent with the rubber regime is very high. The entire population has fled into the wilderness, so that no people can be seen on the road, quite like on the Beni-Mawambi road. I also saw rebels here on a ’chain’, which is a liana here. They were six women and two old men (♂). (Diary..., manuscript, vol. 7, p. 634).

The publication of the entire manuscript of the Diary in the original languages and in Polish translation is in preparation.

In Biological Anthropology

Jan Czekanowski considered his research in physical anthropology and the method of diagraphic typology he developed to be the most important part of his work as a scholar. In his view, the use of mathematical and statistical methods in the analysis of anthropological data removed subjective considerations from his work and ensured its objectivity. In the first decades of the 20^th century, this method gained recognition among scholars the world over. Czekanowski was a scholar of world standing and was a member of many international associations of anthropologists.

Racism and the crimes committed during the Second World War led to a significant reduction in, or the negation of, the use of racial analysis in anthropology. Czekanowski rejected ‘the excesses of passionately propagated Nazism’. [33] He did not abandon his concept of races, but stated that ‘it is a very long road from significant differences to a serious justification of attempted valuations’. [34] He opposed eugenic ideas and actions which he considered as “an attack on the penal code which is a guarantee of civil liberties”. [35] He defended his views well into the 1960s, when a discussion between Tadeusz Bielicki and Andrzej Wierciński concerning research on the classification of human populations and Czekanowski’s response were published in Current Anthropology. [36] Anthropologists from many countries took part in this discussion. In Poland, anthropologists from the Czekanowski school ceased being physical anthropologists and began calling themselves biological anthropologists, defining themselves as population biologists. Thus, research in biological anthropology continues to be conducted, but not in relation to races, but to individual populations, eras and cultures, contemporary and historical.

The discovery of DNA and the results of genetic research have also contributed to this transformation. In keeping with such research, the genetic diversity of the human species is slight, and genetic variation within a given population is greater than the variation that occurs between populations. This precludes the existence of human races. The morphological traits of individual populations are thought to be related to environmental and sociocultural factors. The concepts of race are now studied with reference to the past, including to the Lwów typological school. [37] Also studied are the views held by contemporary anthropologists on the existence and definition of human races. [38]

In Slavic Studies

As we have seen above, as early as during his Lwów period, Czekanowski argued in his work that the Slavs were indigenous to Central Europe. After the Second World War, and especially during the communist period of 1945–1990, research into the homeland of the Slavs was subject to pressures and expectations from politicians and the public alike. For those politicians and an important segment of the public during this period, the thesis that the Slavs had originated in the Vistula and Oder river basins served to justify additional, special Polish rights to this area in the 20^th century. This was due to a sense of threat that characterized Poland before and after the Second World War. Discussions concerning the ancient homeland of the Slavs go on to this day, but they no longer involve such strong emotions, and are focused on scientific arguments. A book by anthropologists Janusz Piontek, Beata Iwanek and Sergey Segeda is an attempt to summarize this research, including the indigenous thesis. [39]

In African Studies

Czekanowski’s research into Africa drew considerable interest from the years immediately following the expedition until the 1960s. The dictionary material contained in Czekanowski’s Diary was used by linguists. The division of the population into linguistic and cultural groups proposed by Czekanowski was included in the fundamental work of Hermann Baumann and Diedrich Westermann, [40] and that of Charles Gabriel Seligman. [41] Edward Evans-Pritchard made use of Czekanowski’s extensive material concerning the position of women in societies of the interlacustrine area and the documentation concerning the Azande people. [42]

Czekanowski’s scholarly output has been cited in successive works on the pre-colonial state of Rwanda, starting with those of Jacques Maquet, George Peter Murdock, Jan Vansina and Marcel d’Hertefelt. [43] In 1964, a book issued in celebration of the 60^th anniversary of Jan Czekanowski’s scholarly work was published in Poland, and included an article written by Adam Wanke devoted to Czekanowski’s anthropological achievements in biological anthropology, and articles by other authors discussing his achievements in African studies. [44] Interest in Czekanowski’s work outside Poland waned among the younger generation of linguists, ethnologists and historians of Africa. They were widely cited, but in a general manner, with no detailed analysis of the author’s work or views.

Many factors contributed to this. Czekanowski’s works on Africa were published mainly in German and Polish. After the Second World War, knowledge of German among younger scholars declined. Moreover, Forschungen was a publication that was difficult to access until a digital version of it was put online. Publications in Polish, especially post-war ones, such as the printed part of the Diary and Feudalne państwa pasterskie afrykańskiego Międzyjezierza (Feudal Pastoral States of the African Interlacustrine Area), [45] were unknown outside Poland. As a result, Jean-Pierre Chrétien wrote about the ‘forgotten work of Czekanowski’ in one of his works, and gave the chapter dedicated to it the title of Des questionnements vite étouffés: l’oeuvre oubliée de Jan Czekanowski. [46]

However, the 21^st century has brought a revival of interest in Czekanowski and his research in Poland and beyond. A conference and exhibition of Czekanowski’s photographs was organized at Warsaw University in 2000. [47] Its catalogue, supplemented by publications by German scholars, was published in Leipzig. [48] The Institute of African Studies at the University of Leipzig and the Museum fur Völkerkunde organized an international conference in 2002 dedicated to Czekanowski. [49] Interest in Czekanowski’s work in France was sparked by the publication in French translation of the Polish printed version of the Diary in 2001. In 2004, the École des hautes études en sciences sociales, along with the Polish Institute in Paris, organized a conference entitled La construction d’un regard. Pologne. Europe. Afrique, in conjunction with the exhibition of the African work of outstanding Polish photographers: Jan Czekanowski, Casimir Zagourski, Witold Grzesiewicz, Ryszard Kapuściński, and Chris Ledochowski (Autres lieux, autres regards. Pologne-Afrique). In Poland, Jan Czekanowski’s output in African studies has been dealt with since the 1990s by Joanna Bar. [50] In 2020, Klaus Bachman and his Polish collaborators published a book about daily life in early colonial Rwanda, making extensive use of Czekanowski’s work. [51]

A new type of interest in Czekanowski and his work on Africa has emerged in the 21^st century. Its authors are not concerned with Africa and its past, but with colonial ideology and its impact on African studies of the 19^th and 20^th centuries. Also subject to re-appraisal is the concept of race in anthropological research and its 19^th- and 20^th-century worldview and political circumstances. [52]

Selected works by Jan Czekanowski

– Dziennik kolumny antropologiczno-etnologicznej ekspedycji do Afryki środkowej w latach 1907-1909 (Diary of the Anthropological-Ethnological Caravan of the Expedition to Central Africa in 1907–1909) – manuscript from the family collection of Prof. Anna Czekanowska-Kuklinska, deposited at the Cabinet of manuscripts, University Library in Warsaw).

– 1904, Zur Höhenmessung des Schädels, Archiv für Anthropologie, n. s., Vol.1, pp. 254–258.

– 1906, “Zur frage der Korrelationen der Muskelvarietäten”, in: Boas Anniversary Volume: Anthropological Papers written in Honour of Franz Boas, ed. by Berthold Laufer, New York, Strecht 1906, pp. 43–54.

– 1907, “Untersuchung über das Verkältnis der Kopfmasse zu den Schädelmassen”, Archiv für Anthropologie, 1907, n.s., Vol. 6, pp. 42–89.

– 1909, “Zur differentialdiagnose der Neandertalgruppe”, Korespondenzblatt der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte, J. 41, pp. 44–47.

– 1911, “Obiektive Kriterien in der Ethnologie”, Korespondenzblatt der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte, J. 43, pp. 71–75.

– 1911-1927, Forschungen im Nil-Kongo-Zwischengebiet:

• - Vol. I, Ethnographie. Zwischenseengebiet. Mpororo-Ruanda. Mit 4 Tafeln und einem musikalischen Anhang von E. M. von Hornbostel, Leipzig 1917, Klinkhardt & Biermann;

• - Vol. II, Ethnographie. Uele / Ituri / Nil-Lander, Leipzig 1924, Klinkhardt & Biermann;

• - Vol. III, Ethnographisch-anthropologischer Atlas. Zwischenseen – Bantu / Pygmaen und Pygmoiden / Urwaldstamme. Mit 139 Tafeln in Lichtdruck, Leipzig 1911, Klinkhardt & Biermann;

• - Vol. IV, Anthropologische Beobachtungen im Nil-Kongo – Zwischengebiet, Leipzig 1922, Klinkhardt & Biermann;

• - Vol. V, Ethnographisch-anthropologischer Atlas. Azande / Uele-Stamme / Niloten. Mit 167 Tafeln in Lichtdruck, Leipzig 1927, Klinkhardt & Biermann.

– 1913, Zarys metod statystycznych w zastosowaniu do antropologii, Warsaw, Towarzystwo Naukowe Warszawskie.

– 1921, Les lois de Mendel et Galton et des coéfficients de hérédité de Pearson, Revue générale des Sciences, 32, 671–675.

– 1927, Wstęp do historii Słowian. Perspektywy antropologiczne, etnograficzne, prehistoryczne i językoznawcze, Lwów, Lwowska Biblioteka Slawistyczna (2^nd ed. 1957, Poznań, Instytut Zachodni).

– 1930, Zarys antropologii Polski, Lwów, Lwowska Biblioteka Slawistyczna.

– 1948, Zagadnienia antropologii. Zarys antropologii teoretycznej, Toruń. Księgarnia Naukowa T. Szczęsny.

– 1951, “Badania antropologiczne w międzyrzeczu Nilu i Kongo. Część I – Crania Africana”, Przegląd Antropologiczny, Vol. 17, pp. 34–188.

– 1958, W głąb lasów Aruwimi. Dziennik wyprawy do Afryki Środkowej, Wrocław, Polskie Towarzystwo Ludoznawcze.

– 1961, “Feudalne państwa pasterskie afrykańskiego Międzyjezierza”, Przegląd Socjologiczny, Vol. 15, pp. 41–60.

– 1962, “The Theoretical Assumptions of Polish Anthropology and the Morphological Facts”, Current Anthropology, Vol. 3, no. 3, December, pp. 481–494.

– 1967, Człowiek w czasie i przestrzeni, 3^rd ed., Warsaw, PWN, (1^st ed. – 1934, 2^nd ed. – 1937).

– 2001, Carnets de Route au coeur de l’Afrique, translated from Polish and annotated by Lidia Meschy, with a preface by Georges Balandier, Montricher, Éditions Noir sur Blanc.

– 2014, Dziennik podróży afrykańskiej, Joanna Bar, ed., Warsaw, Polskie Towarzystwo Afrykanistyczne.

Chosen works about Czekanowski or making use of his researches

Bar, Joanna, 2007, Afrykanistyczne badania Jana Czekanowskiego. W stulecie wyprawy, Cracow, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Akademii Pedagogicznej.

Bar, Joanna, 2017, “Badania Jana Czekanowskiego w międzyrzeczu Nilu i Konga oraz ich znaczenie dla historycznej i narodowej identyfikacji państw regionu (casus Rwandy)”, in: Laboratorium Kultury, 6, 2017, special issue – Jan Czekanowski, Katowice 2017, pp. 17–40.

Bar, Joanna, Czekanowska, Anna 2002, “Jan Czekanowski”, in: Etnografowie i ludoznawcy polscy. Sylwetki, szkice biograficzne, Vol. 1, E. Fryś-Pietraszkowa, A. Kowalska-Lewicka, A. Spiss, eds., Cracow, Wydawnictwo Naukowe DWN, Cracow.

Baumann Herman; Westermann Diedrich; Thurnwald Richard, 1940, Völkerkunde von Afrika. Mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der kolonialen Aufgabe, Essen, Essener Verlagsanstalt.

Baumann Hermann ; Westermann Diedrich, 1967, Les peuples et les civilisations de l’Afrique suivi de Les langues et l’éducation, préface de Théodore Monod, Paris, Payot.

Bielicki, Tadeusz, 1962, “Some Possibilities for Estimating Inter-Population Relationship on the Basis of Continuous Traits”, Current Anthropology, Vol. 3, No 1, February, pp. 3–8.

Chrétien, Jean-Pierre, 2010, L’Invention de l’Afrique des Grands Lacs. Une histoire du XXe siècle, Paris, Karthala.

Dzierżykray-Rogalski, Tadeusz, 1981, Polska antropologia w Afryce, Wrocław, Ossolineum.

Everyday Life 2020 - Everyday Life in Early Colonial Rwanda. Insights from German and Polish Sources, by Klaus Bachmann and his Polish and German collaborators: Karolina Marcinkowskia, Joanna Bar, and Marius Kawalak, Wiesbaden, Harrasowitz Verlag.

Evans-Pritchard, Edward E., 1965, Position of Women in Primitive Societies and Other Essays in Social Anthropology, London, Faber and Faber.

Evans-Pritchard, Edward E., 1971, The Azande. History and Political Institutions, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Gajek Józef, 1955, “Jan Czekanowski jako etnograf”, Przegląd Antropologiczny, Vol. 21, 1955, issue 3, pp. 1010–1030.

Gajek, Józef, 1958, “Jan Czekanowski”, Nauka Polska, 1958, Rok 6, Numer 2 (22), 127, pp. 118–127.

Górny, Maciej, 2022, Historia głupich idei albo duch narodu w świątyni nauki, Warsaw, Wydawnictwo Filtry.

Hertefelt, Marcel d’, 1962, “Le Rwanda”, in: Les anciens royaumes de la zone interlacustre méridionale : Rwanda, Burundi, Bucha, par M. Hertefelt, A. A. Trouwborst, J. H. Scherrer, Avec introduction générale par Jan Vansina, Tervuren, Musée Royal de l’Afrique centrale, pp. 9–112.

Hertefelt, Marcel d’, 1971, Les clans du Rwanda ancien. Éléments d’ethnosociologie et d’ethnohistoire, Tervuren, Musée royal d’Afrique centrale.

Issues in the Study of Race, 1962, “Issues in the Study of Race: Two Views from Poland, with Discussion”, Current Anthropology, Vol. 3, No 1, February, pp. 2–46, see Bielicki, Wierciński.

Hirt, Hermann, 1905, 1907, Die Indogermanen, vol. I-II, Strasburg, J.K. Trübner.

Jones, Adam ed.by 2002, Jan Czekanowski: Africanist ethnographer and physical anthropologist in Early Twentieth-Century Germany and Poland, Leipzig, University of Leipzig, Institut für Afrikanistik.

Kaszycka, Katarzyna; Strzałko, Jan, 2003, “Race – Still an Issue for Physical Anthropology? Results of Polish Studies Seen in the Light of the U.S. Findings”, American Anthropologist, 105 (1), pp. 116–124.

Kaszycka, Katarzyna; Štrkalj, Goran; Strzałko, Jan, 2009, “Current Views of European Anthropologists on Race: Influence of Educational and Ideological Background”, American Anthropologist, 111 (1), pp. 43–56.

Klimek, Stanisław, 1935, Culture element distributions (Part 1), The Structure of California Indian Culture (pref. A.L. Kroeber), Berkeley, University of California Press.

Klimek, Stanisław (and E. W. Gifford), 1936, Culture element distributions (Part 2), Yana, Berleley, University of California Press).

Krzyśko, Mirosław, 2012, “Jan Czekanowski (1882-1965)”, Statistics in Transition, new series, March, vol.13, N0 1, pp.161–168.

Księga Pamiątkowa dla uczczenia 60 lat pracy naukowej Jana Czekanowskiego, 1964, Adam Wanke, ed., Wrocław, PWN.

Łapott, Jacek; Buchalik, Lucjan, 2012, “Afrykanie-Afrykaniście, czyli jak powstawał pomnik profesora Jana Czekanowskiego”, Afryka, – Polskie Towarzystwo Afrykanistyczne, nr 36, pp. 117–126.

Malinowski, Andrzej, 1985, “Życie i działalność naukowa profesora doktora Jana Czekanowskiego“, in: Teoria i empiria w polskiej szkole antropologicznej. W stulecie urodzin Jana Czekanowskiego, Janusz Piontek, Andrzej Malinowski, eds., Poznań, Uniwersytet Adama Mickiewicza, pp. 71–77.

Maquet, Jean J., 1954, Le Système des Relations sociales dans le Ruanda ancien, Tervuren, Musée Royal du Congo Belge.

Meschy, Lidia. 1994. « Jan Czekanowski et l’expédition “Mecklembourg”. Afrique centrale 1907-1909", Revue française d’histoire d’outre-mer, t. 81, n°305, pp. 477-491.

Murdock, George Peter, 1959, Africa: Its Peoples and Their Culture History, New York, McGraw Hill.

Piontek, Janusz; Iwanek, Beata; Segeda, Sergey, 2008, Antropologia o pochodzeniu Słowian, Poznań, Monografie Instytutu Antropologii Uniwersytetu Adama Mickiewicza, 12.

Posern-Zieliński, Aleksander, 1973, “Kształtowanie się etnografii polskiej jako samodzielnej dyscypliny naukowej (do 1939 r.)”, in: Historia etnografii polskiej, pod redakcją Małgorzaty Terleckiej, Wrocław 1973, Ossolineum, pp. 29–113.

Romer, Eugeniusz, 1921, Geograficzno-statystyczny atlas Polski, wydanie II (2^nd edition), Lwów-Warsaw, Książnica Polska Towarzystwa Nauczycieli Szkół Wyższych.

Seligman, Charles Gabriel, and Brenda Z. Seligman.1932, Pagan Tribes of the Nilotic Sudan, London, Routledge and Sons.

Sokolewicz, Zofia, 1973 a, “Szkoły i kierunki w etnografii polskiej (do 1939 r.)”, in: Historia etnografii polskiej, pod redakcją Małgorzaty Terleckiej, Wrocław 1973, Ossolineum, pp. 115–167.

Sokolewicz, Zofia, 1973 b, “Miejsce etnografii polskiej w nauce obcej”, in: Historia etnografii polskiej, pod redakcją Małgorzaty Terleckiej, Wrocław 1973, Ossolineum, pp. 169–191.

Szafer, Władysław, 1919, Ze studiów nad zasięgami geograficznymi roślin w Polsce, Rozprawy Akademii Umiejętności, Wydział II, seria B, tom LVIII.

Śladami ekspedycji Jana Czekanowskiego do Afryki Środkowej 1907–1909. Katalog wystawy, 2000, Warsaw, Uniwersity of Warsaw and Jan J. Swianiewicz.

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