Transcript July 9, 1858 Minden, Westphalia, Germany Parents: Meier Boas

FRANZ BOAS
1858-1942
Boas en route to Baffin Island 1883
and Central Inuit; to study reflectivity
of sea-water
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS3wqv96VcM
Anthropologists
playing golf
Odyssey
Series on
Boas
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=kv8cYPiWNDc
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=eS3wqv96VcM
Personal Life
 Born: July 9, 1858
 Minden, Westphalia, Germany
 Parents: Meier Boas & Sophie
Meyer Boas
 Married to Marie Krackowizer
Education
 Studied geography & physics at
Universities of Heidelberg,
Bonn, and Kiel
 Earned B.A. degree: University
of Heidelberg in 1881
 Same year, earned Ph.D. from
University of Kiel
Early Research
 Expedition to Baffin Land,
Canada in 1883-1884
Fieldwork
among Eskimo
Interest in anthropology
 Immigrated to U.S. (1885)
Early Career
Worked for journal Science
Editorial
position
Fieldwork: 1885-1896
North Pacific Coast of North
America for museums
Career
 Project: World's Fair in Chicago
(1892-1893)
 Native American cultures to
general public
 Pioneered life group displays
Dioramas
Chicago World’s Fair Diorama
Career
 Moved to New York (1896)
Assistant
Curator: Ethnology &
Somatology (physiology & anatomy)
American
Museum of Natural
History
 Lectured: Columbia University
 Professor of Anthropology,1899
Research
 Best known: Kwakiutl Indians
Northern Vancouver & adjacent
mainland of British Columbia,
Canada
 Established new concept of
culture & race
Research
 Everything important to study
of culture
 Collecting data on all facets of a
culture was necessary to
understand culture
Kwakiutl Indians
Kwakiutl Indians
Bear Totem Pole
Wearing a Mask
CENTRAL ESKIMO STUDY
• Inuit perceive & name hundreds of
colors & qualities of sea-water
• Earliest anthropological attempt to
employ phenomenology
• Development of human consciousness
and self-awareness
Analyst seeks to understand phenomena by
grasping how they make sense within the
framework of subject’s thought-world
Hamats'a coming out of secret room," and "Kwakiutl Indian ceremony for
expelling cannibals."
1885: First expedition to
Northwest Coast (Bella
Coola)
1886: First collecting trip
for American Museum of
Natural History (New
York City) to Nootka and
Kwakiutl — massive
documentation of
Northwest Coast culture
The Practice of Museum Exhibits
• No storage rooms or cases
• No natural lighting
• Life groups most demanding
• Time
• Materials
• Skill
The Practice of Museum Exhibits
• Labels – “ultimate limitation to
the possibility of a museum
anthropology”
• Boas believed artifact secondary
to monographic interpretation of
scientist
Boas at American Museum, 1900
Typological vs. Life Group
U.S. National Museum
U.S. National Museum
Typological, 1890
Life group, 1896
Museums: Entertainment,
Instruction, Research
 Boas curator at American Museum
1896-1905
 Over 90% of visitors “do not want
anything beyond entertainment”
Museums: Entertainment, Instruction,
Research
 Visitor groups:
 Children
 School teachers
 Researchers
 Researchers justify large museums
“for the advancement of science”
Cultural Relativism
 Countered early evolutionist views
of Louis Henry Morgan & Edward Tylor
 Stages each culture went through
during development
 Franz Boas and his students
changed American anthropology
forever
Cultural relativism
 Differences in peoples result of:
 Historical
 Social
 Geographic conditions
 All populations have complete
and equally developed culture
Historical Particularism
 Each culture has a unique
history
 Not assume universal laws
govern how cultures operate
Assumptions of Historical Particularism:
1. Rejects general laws, rankings,
concept of “progress”
2. No simple or complex societies
-- only different societies
3. “Unilineal evolution” is
ethnocentric
26
Assumptions of Historical
Particularism:
6. Not Culture, but cultures
7. Culture, not race, determines
behavior
8. Methodological rigor
BOASIAN CONCEPT OF CULTURE
• Superorganic: Product of collective
or group life
• Individual has an influence
• Unconscious: Filter through which
reality is perceived
• Not the object of attention
• Adaptive: Culture helps individuals
adapt to their environment
Images of Native Americans
//thesocietypages.org/socimages
Four Field Approach
SOCIAL
AND
CULTURAL
ARCHAEOLOGY
ANTHROPOLOGY
PHYSICAL
ANTHROPOLOGY
LINGUISTICS
Generation of anthropologists
established Boasian doctrines in North
American universities:
Alfred A. Kroeber
 Ruth Benedict
 Margaret Mead
 Rhoda Métraux
 Robert Lowie
 Edward Sapir
 Paul Radin
 Alexander A. Goldenweiser
 Clark Wissler

FRANZ BOAS
 Cultural Relativism
 Historical Particularism
 “Race, language, and culture” as
independent variables
 Superorganic
 Cultural Determinism
 Data Collection “without” theory
 Emphasis on Fieldwork
 4-field approach
Contributions to Anthropology
 1937--Professor Emeritus of
Anthropology at Columbia Un.
 Made anthropology a
distinguished and recognized
science
Contributions to Anthropology
 Authored many books: Examples
 Growth of Children (1896 – 1904)
 The Mind of Primitive Man, 1938
 Primitive Art, 1927
 Anthropology and Modern Life, 1938
 Race, Language, and Culture, 1940
 Dakota Grammar, 1941
Contributions to Anthropology
Boas was entertaining Professor Paul
Rivet and other colleagues at a luncheon
in the Faculty Club (Columbia Un).
He collapsed into the arms of Claude
Levi-Strauss and died on December 21,
1942.