Transcript Franz Boas and Exhibits

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Franz Boas and Exhibits
“In ethnography, all is individuality”
The Limitations of the Museum
Method in Anthropology and the
End of the “Museum Era”
Boas 1895, U.S. National Museum
Franz Boas (1848-1942) father of American Anthropology
Active during Anthropology’s “Museum Age” 1880-1920
Established the concept of cultures as diverse historical
developments. Holistic and historic philosophies tied to
training in geography and the German romantic tradition
Deduction vs. Induction
Classification is not explanation
1887 debate
Deduction
From the general to the specific
Like causes produce like effects
effects
Otis T. Mason
U.S. National Museum
Museum
Typological
Evolutionary
Classification
Form
Universalism
Induction
From the specific to the general
Unlike causes produce like
Franz Boas
American
Tribal
Contextual
Life group
Meaning
Individuality
Typological vs. Life Group
U.S. National Museum,
Typological, 1890
U.S. National Museum
Life group, 1896
Entertainment, Instruction,
Research
• Boas curator at the American Museum 18961905
• Over 90% of visitors “do not want anything
beyond entertainment”
• Visitor groups - children, school teachers,
researchers
• Researcher’s justify large museums “for the
advancement of science”
The Practice of Museum Exhibits
Boas at American Museum, 1900
No storage rooms, natural lighting, cases, life groups the most demanding
(time, materials, skill), attempted realism. Labels – “the ultimate limitation to
the possibility of a museum anthropology”. Boas believe the exhibited artifact
secondary to the monographic interpretation of a scientist
Cultural Relativism
Contextual
• The human mind has been creative
everywhere - Boas
Evolution
• Advance of mankind from primitive to
complex – American Museum President
Jesup
Cultural Determinism
Anthropology
Behavior of all men determined by enculturation
Culture as primary determinant of behavior not race
Learned behavior paramount
Pre-anthropological culture singular,
anthropological culture plural
Evolutionary theory (E.B.Tylor and Herbert Spencer)
Culture in its evolutionary sense, progressive
accumulation of human creativity. Customs then
viewed negatively as lower evolutionary status. See
Stocking p. 870, 872.
Arguments for and against
racial assumptions tied to
material culture studies.
Phenomenon of World’s Fairs as exemplary of
evolutionary theses – ex. World’s Columbia Exposition
(also called The Chicago World’s Fair) 1893, to
celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s
discovery of the “New World.”
Web sources
Fabulous Imperialism! - The 1893 Columbian Exposition
http://www.pinkyshow.org/archives/episodes/060330/060330_1893_columbianexpo.html
The Smithsonian Institution at 50
http://www.150.si.edu/siarch/guide/start.htm