FRANZ   BOAS1858‐1942

Boas en route to Baffin Island 1883 and Central Inuit; to study reflectivity of sea‐water

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS3wqv96VcM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5NSKRc07Fo&feature=relatedDances

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS3wqv96VcMOdyssey Series on Boas

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 KielEarned Bachelors University of Heidelberg in 1881 Same year, earned Ph.D. from University of Kiel

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Expedition to Baffin Land, Canadain 1883-1884

Fieldwork among the EskimoBecame interested in anthropology

Immigrated to United States in 1885

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Worked for journal ScienceEditorial 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’ CAREERMoved to New York in 1896

Became Assistant Curator of Ethnology & Somatology

American Museum of Natural History

Lectured at Columbia UniversityProfessor 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 INDIANSBear 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

4/12 TYPOLOGICAL VS. LIFE GROUP

U.S. National Museum

Life group, 1896

U.S. National Museum

Typological, 1890

MUSEUMS: ENTERTAINMENT, INSTRUCTION, RESEARCH

Boas curator at the American Museum 1896-1905

Over 90% of visitors “do not want anything beyond entertainment”

Visitor groups - children, school teachers, researchers

Researchers justify large museums “for the advancement of science”

CULTURAL RELATIVISMDifferences in peoples the result of:HistoricalSocialGeographic conditions

All populations had complete and equally developed culture

CULTURAL RELATIVISM

Countered early evolutionist view of Louis Henry Morgan & Edward Tylor

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

4. Is ethnocentric23

ASSUMPTIONS OF HISTORICAL PARTICULARISM:

6. Not Culture, but cultures

7. Culture, not race, determines behavior

8. Methodological rigor

• 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.

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 trained under Boas at Columbia University and established Boasiandoctrines in North American universities: 

Alfred A. Kroeber Ruth Benedict Margaret Mead Rhoda MétrauxRobert Lowie Edward Sapir Paul RadinAlexander A. GoldenweiserClark Wissler

Cultural RelativismHistorical Particularism“Race, language, and culture” as independent variables SuperorganicCultural DeterminismData Collection “without” theoryEmphasis on Fieldwork4-field approach

FRANZ BOAS

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, 1938Primitive Art, 1927Anthropology and Modern Life, 1938Race, Language, and Culture, 1940Dakota 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 well-known anthropologist, Claude Levi-Strauss, and died on December 21, 1942.