Transcript PERSONAL INFORMATION Born on July 9, 1858 in Minden

FRANZ BOAS
1858-1942
Boas en route to Baffin Island 1883
and Central Inuit; to study reflectivity
of sea-water
ODYSSEY SERIES ON BOAS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS3wqv96
VcM
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Born
on July 9, 1858 in
Minden, Westphalia, Germany
Parents:
Meier Boas & Sophie
Meyer Boas
Married
to Marie Krackowizer
PERSONAL INFORMATION
 Studied
geography & physics at
Universities of Heidelberg, Bonn,
and Kiel
 Earned Bachelors degree at
University of Heidelberg (1881)
 Same year, earned Ph.D. from
University of Kiel
PERSONAL INFORMATION
 Expedition
to Baffin Land, Canada
in 1883-1884
Fieldwork among the Eskimo
Became interested in
anthropology
 Immigrated
1885
to United States in
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Worked
for journal Science
Editorial position
Fieldwork
along North Pacific
Coast of North America for
several museums 1885-1896
PERSONAL INFORMATION
 Project
for World's Fair in Chicago
1892-1893
 Brought
Native American cultures
to general public at the fair
 Pioneered
concept of life group
displays
Dioramas
CHICAGO WORLD’S FAIR DIORAMA
BOAS’ CAREER
 Moved
to New York in 1896
Became Assistant Curator of
Ethnology & Somatology
American
Museum of Natural
History
 Lectured
at Columbia University
 Professor of Anthropology,1899
BOAS’ WORK
 Best
known for work with
Kwakiutl Indians from Northern
Vancouver & adjacent mainland of
British Columbia, Canada
 Established
new concept of
culture & race
BOAS’ WORK
 Everything
was important to the
study of culture
 Collecting
data on all facets of a
culture was necessary to
understand that culture
KWAKIUTL INDIANS
KWAKIUTL INDIANS
Bear Totem Pole
Wearing a Mask
CENTRAL ESKIMO (IGULIK) STUDY
Inuit can perceive and name
hundreds of colors and
qualities of sea-water and
surfaces unknown in
European languages…
Boas’ study: Earliest
anthropological attempt to
describe a non-European
‘ethno-science’ in
phenomenological terms
Analyst seeks to understand phenomena by grasping
how they make sense within the framework of the
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
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 believed the exhibited artifact secondary to the
monographic interpretation of a scientist
TYPOLOGICAL VS. LIFE GROUP
U.S. National Museum
Typological, 1890
U.S. National
Museum
Life group, 1896
MUSEUMS: ENTERTAINMENT,
INSTRUCTION, RESEARCH
 Boas
curator at the American
Museum 1896-1905
90% of visitors “do not want
anything beyond entertainment”
 Over
 Visitor
groups - children, school
teachers, researchers
 Researchers
justify large museums
“for the advancement of science”
CULTURAL RELATIVISM
 Differences
in peoples the result
of:
 Historical
 Social
 Geographic conditions
 All
populations have complete
and equally developed culture
CULTURAL RELATIVISM
 Countered
early evolutionist view of
developed stages that each culture
went through during development
 The
views of Franz Boas and those of
his students changed American
anthropology forever
HISTORICAL PARTICULARISM
 Each
culture has a unique history
 Should
not assume universal laws
govern how cultures operate
ASSUMPTIONS OF HISTORICAL
PARTICULARISM:
1.
Rejects general laws, ranking on
a scale, concept of “progress”
2.
No simple or complex societies,
only different societies
3.
The idea of “Unilineal evolution”
based on speculation is
ethnocentric
23
ASSUMPTIONS OF HISTORICAL
PARTICULARISM:
6. Not Culture, but cultures
7. Culture, not race, determines
behavior
8. Methodological rigor
BOASIAN CONCEPT OF CULTURE
• Superorganic —The product of
collective or group life; but the
individual has an influence
• Unconscious — A filter through which
reality is perceived, but which is not
itself the object of attention
• Adaptive — Culture ultimately helps
individuals adapt to their environment
IMAGES OF NATIVE AMERICANS
//thesocietypages.org/socimages
REPRESENTATION OF THE “PRIMITIVE” AMERICAN INDIAN
Four Field Approach
SOCIAL
AND
CULTURAL
ARCHAEOLOGY
ANTHROPOLOGY
PHYSICAL
ANTHROPOLOGY
LINGUISTICS
Generation of anthropologists trained under Boas at
Columbia University and established Boasian
doctrines in North American universities:
Alfred A. Kroeber
 Ruth Benedict
 Margaret Mead
 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
University
 Made
anthropology into a
distinguished and recognized
science
CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY
Author of many books, some of which
are:
 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, professor emeritus of anthropology
at Columbia University, was entertaining
Professor Paul Rivet and other colleagues
at a luncheon in the Faculty Club.

He collapsed into the arms of another wellknown anthropologist, Claude LeviStrauss, and died on December 21, 1942.