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 EskimoInterest in anthropology

Immigrated to U.S. (1885)

Early Career

Worked for journal ScienceEditorial position

Fieldwork: 1885-1896North 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 displaysDioramas

Chicago World’s Fair Diorama

Career

Moved to New York (1896)Assistant Curator: Ethnology & Somatology (physiology & anatomy)

American Museum of Natural History

Lectured: Columbia UniversityProfessor 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

•Inuit perceive & name hundreds of colors & qualities of sea-water

•Earliest anthropological attempt to employ phenomenology

• Development of human consciousness and self-awareness

CENTRAL ESKIMO STUDY

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."

1885:1885: First expedition to Northwest Coast (Bella Coola)

1886:1886: 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

Life group, 1896

U.S. National Museum

Typological, 1890

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:ChildrenSchool teachersResearchers

Researchers justify large museums “for the advancement of science”

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

Cultural relativismDifferences in peoples result of:

HistoricalSocialGeographic 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:

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1.Rejects general laws, rankings, concept of “progress”

2.No simple or complex societies -- only different societies

3.“Unilineal evolution” is ethnocentric

Assumptions of Historical Particularism:

6. Not 6. Not CCultureulture, but cultures

7. Culture7. Culture, not race, determines behavior

8. Methodological rigor8. Methodological rigor

•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

BOASIAN CONCEPT OF CULTURE

Images of Native Americans

//thesocietypages.org/socimages

SOCIAL AND

CULTURAL

LINGUISTICS

ARCHAEOLOGY

PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

ANTHROPOLOGY

Four Field Approach

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

Cultural Relativism Historical Particularism “Race, language, and culture” as

independent variables Superorganic Cultural Determinism Data Collection “without” theory Emphasis on Fieldwork 4-field approach

FRANZ BOAS

Contributions to Anthropology

1937--Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Columbia Un.

Made anthropology a distinguished and recognized science

Contributions to Anthropology

Authored many books: ExamplesAuthored many books: Examples

Growth of Children (1896 – 1904)The Mind of Primitive Man, 1938Primitive Art, 1927Anthropology and Modern Life, 1938

Race, Language, and Culture, 1940Dakota 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 Claude Levi-StraussLevi-Strauss and died on December 21, 1942.