“The History of Anthropology” – Boas (1904)
-Anthropologists occupy themselves with problems relating to the physical and mental
life of mankind as found in varying forms of society, from the earliest time to the present,
in all parts of the world.
-Their researches bear on the form and function of the body (biology) and upon all kinds
of manifestations of mental life (language, invention, art, religion, social organization,
law)
-Anthropology has two distinct methods of research and investigation: 1) the historical
method, which seeks to reconstruct the actual history of mankind. Some study the
earliest history of man, others study the inhabitants of remote regions, and still others the
survivals of early times that still persist. 2) the generalizing method, which attempts to
establish the laws of its development.
-Interest in the customs and appearance of foreign peoples has existed for centuries, but
only when the relation of those societies to our own civilization became the subject, were
the foundations laid for anthropology. Its germs found in the relations between pagan
religions and Christianity, with the conclusion that the lower forms of culture were due to
degeneration.
-The beginning of anthropology took place during the 2nd half of the 18th century, where
the foundational concept was formed by the rationalists, preceding the French revolution.
Herder was the first to express the thought of the development of the culture of mankind
as a whole.
-Although the knowledge of the evolution of civilization was anthropology’s ultimate
aim, biological anthropology developed through the great zoologists of the 18th century
and eventually focused its efforts on the classification of the races of man and the
discovery of valid characteristics to describe the varieties as one or distinct species.
-During the 19th century, Klemm combined the classificatory and historical aspects,
looking at the mental differences between races and the question of polygenism and
monogenism.
-The first attempts at the explanation of new lands and peoples by travelers were
speculative, deductive and focused on geographical discoveries. Thus geographers
analyzed the information, paying special attention to man and nature, i.e. the relation
between the dependence of culture on the geographical surroundings, and the control of
natural conditions gained by man with the advance of civilization.
-The middle of the 19th century saw the beginnings of anthropology from approached
from 3 different perspectives: the historical, the classificatory, and the geographical.
-At about the same time, Darwin’s theory of evolution revolutionized the whole method
of natural and mental sciences, causing old theories to be revised and revised again,
eventually subordinating historical fact to nature in the creation of historical evolution.
-Due to evolution, anthropologists began seeing a uniform process in which civilization
had developed throughout the world, noticing a similarity between the customs of remote
districts as proof of the uniformity of development. The laws which the uniform
development of culture abided by became the new problem for anthropologists to take on.
-Due to the work of Spencer and Tylor and the generalizations made by such “pioneers,”
anthropology ceased losing its character as a single science and became a method
applicable to all mental sciences (first religion and law, then ethics, esthetics, literature,
and philosophy)
-Bastian and Gerland looked at the generalized view of the evolution of culture. Bastian
saw in their sameness, the effect of the sameness of the human mind which he termed
“elementary,” declining further consideration of origin because he considered an
inductive treatment of the problem to be impossible. He also believed culture was
modified by the influence of their geographical environment. Gerland shared the same
views regarding the influence of environment on culture, but believed that the elements
found in many parts of the world are a common inheritance from an early stage of
cultural development.
-The endeavor to establish a line of evolution led to new attempts at classification,
through biology, culture, and linguistics.
-Linguistics and the origin of language was one of the most discussed problems of the
19th century. The historical treatment of the linguistic problem developed before the
historic aspect of the natural sciences was understood, and was used to classify the
languages of mankind.
-Biological anthropology was greatly influenced by the introduction of the metric
method, due to Quetelet. By applying this method, it appeared possible that the races of
men could be subdivided into types characteristic of definite geographical areas and of
the people inhabiting them.
-Due to the conflicting nature of the three approaches, they could not be used to
determine the same line of evolution. It was determined that they reflected a certain
group of facts specific to each sub-discipline, but which can be made to compliment each
other.
-The evolutionary method, which was based on the sameness of cultural traits the world
over was viewed in two ways: 1) the sameness was assumed as proof of a regular,
uniform evolution of culture (as mentioned before) 2) the sameness was assumed to
represent the elementary idea which arises by necessity in the human mind (as mentioned
before). These two viewpoints were brought into prominence by the debate over the
theory of their independent origin and that of their transmission from one part of the
world to another.
-Folkore, beginning with records of superstitions and customs and of popular tales,
became the science of all the manifestations of popular life, and is thus considered a
branch of anthropology. Folkorists are concerned with the folklore of Europe, thus
supplementing the material collected by anthropologists in foreign lands. Folklore is
divided into two camps: the psychological and the historical theory.
-Boas recognizes that the multifarious origin of anthropology is reflected in the
multiplicity of its methods. Although the limits are constantly being overstepped, all
fields require special knowledge which is not encompassed in general anthropology. He
goes on to say that “the time is drawing near when the biological branch of anthropology
will be finally separated from the rest and become a part of biology.” He advocates
though, that the field researcher have a firm grasp of the all the anthropological methods,
across the disciplines, as all of them are needed for the investigation of his problem.
-Boas admits that rather than a simple line of evolution, it appears that there are multiple
converging and diverging lines, making the striking feature of evolution, diversity. He
also admits that in the study of the history of cultures, there is a natural inclination to
compare them to our own culture, which he believes reduces the ability to evaluate our
work objectively. He argues for retaining value from all forms of culture to serve as a
check against the view of our culture as the ultimate standard.