Rebecca Timm
ANTH 2351
Assignment #1: Anthropology Field Research
Dr. Ann Bragdon
February 11, 2012
Shackles of Tradition
Franz Boas, born in Germany 1858. His first discipline was Geography and he wanted to undergo the
journey to map uncharted territory in the Canadian Arctic coastline of Baffin Island, Cumberland
Sound/Davis Straight.
In studying geography, Boaz was taught that a culture was entirely determined by their environment
and his quest was to prove this either to be factual or maybe, be worthy of further study. From his
formal education Boaz seems to have had a scientific view of culture, but his approach was more
humanistic, with the desire to do hands on study in the field.
His primary intent was not geography, but psychophysics – “a method that could relate matter to the
mind, connecting the publicly observable world and a person's privately experienced impression of it”.
During the year of his military service, he published six articles on psychophysics and in order to obtain
sponsorship for his trip, he felt that he needed to confine his research to physical and human geography.
(Harris, 1968, p. 264)
At the time of his new interest, Anthropology was taking hold and was a source of new ideas and Boaz
thought that by studying the Eskimo – their growth, adaptation and diffusion, would be fundamental in
learning our own culture and our own way of life. (vid 4:35)
His initial thought was to change his own life and hopefully change the way society thinks of other
cultures and in turn, how they think of themselves. A year prior to his departure, Boaz prepared by
studying all that he could of the Arctic and also took courses in the Inuktitut language. This preparation
was virtually unheard of in Anthropology at the time and this is also why I believe that Boaz wanted to
connect with the people, not just observe.
Boaz makes a statement that, even though late in the production – I believe it to be the underlying
essence of the man – his reasoning and theory as to why he took such a strong interest in learning about
other cultures:
“all service that a man can perform for humanity must serve to promote truth. If he
who promotes truth searches for it and spreads it, it may be said that he has not lived in
vain” (vid 17:34)
A German newspaper partially funded the Arctic trip, which he supplied detailed articles from the field.
Boaz also kept a detailed diary in which he wrote, “I know very well about the Eskimo migration
(diffusion), the routes they take, how they travel back and forth and the relationships between
neighboring tribes”. (vid 6:47)
Rebecca Timm
ANTH 2351
Assignment #1: Anthropology Field Research
Dr. Ann Bragdon
February 11, 2012
His taught belief in geographical determinism was forever changed. The Eskimo had taught him
significance of culture and that ones environment was at best, secondary. “He concluded that they did
things in spite of rather than because of the environment”. (Harris, 1968, p. 266)
His sense of community within his adopted lifestyle brought realization that Europeans had no right to
judge or to speak ill of the Eskimo because of their lifestyle and customs. That in contrast to Europeans,
“We highly educated people are much worse, relatively speaking” (Boaz vid 14:50) “A persons worth
should be judged by the warmth of his heart” (Boaz vid 15:10)
An interview with a more recent citizen of Frobisher Bay, tells why some Inuit today choose not to live
among the white civilizations. European influence pulled children away from the nomadic Arctic life and
culture by promising a “better” life. With proper education would come jobs and prosperity – but the
jobs never came and left the assimilated Inuit unfulfilled and poor – without jobs to support their
families.
The Arctic exploration and study lasted one year, covering 3,000 miles by foot, dog sled and boat. In
1885, he returned to Germany and worked at the World Ethnographic Museum in Berlin, cataloging a
collection of Belakula tribal masks. The drama and workmanship of the collection captivated Boaz and
raised his curiosity of who made them - and why.
Boaz moved to the U.S. and was married in 1887. Working as the chief assistant to the Anthropology
section, he arranged for native peoples to show off their cultures at the 1893 World Columbian
Exposition in Chicago.
In the late 1890’s, Boaz worked as curator for the New York Museum of Natural History where his
interests grew into learning all that he could about the Northwest Coast Native Tribes. He built a
research program and instituted the idea of going out to do fieldwork with the Indian groups on the
Northwest Coast.
Industrialization was rapidly wiping out the existence of these cultures and Boaz had a sense of urgency
to gather and record as much as he could to preserve their existence. (vid. 22:54)
1897–1902 Boaz directed the Jesup North Pacific Expedition which was funded by Morris Jesup, who
was industrialist-philanthropist and also president of the American Museum of Natural History. The
purpose of the expedition was to investigate the relationships between the peoples at each side of the
Bering Strait and researched the peoples from Siberia, Alaska, and the north west coast of Canada.
(Jesup North Pacific Expedition, 2011)
The expedition included several noted scientists and anthropologists who split the fieldwork where Boaz
remained on the American side. The plan was to answer three questions:
Rebecca Timm
ANTH 2351
Assignment #1: Anthropology Field Research
Dr. Ann Bragdon
February 11, 2012
(1)the origin of the early inhabitants of America (2) the biological relationship between the
peoples of America and the peoples of Asia (3) the relationships between the cultures of the
peoples of America and the peoples of Asia (Jesup North Pacific Expedition, 2011)
Boaz went out to study the area and its tribes and he found patterned similarities as well as differences
between them. With this new information he hoped to find ideas as to how a culture was shaped,
including the environmental differences that they had from each region.
They collected and documented facts on physical characteristics, culture and language. The items that
the tribal members made were also documented as to how it was made, what it was made from, why it
was made and how the item was used. Boaz also began incorporating film to supplement his findings by
recording tasks, skills and dances. Boaz learned through this research that songs, speeches and actions
stressed the meanings of their symbols.
Fort Rupert was the center of Kwakiutl life and it was there Boaz met George Hunt who he partnered
with. Hunt soon became his interpreter as well as helped gather historical collections. Together they
cataloged all that they found, published papers as a joint effort and at times when Boaz had to leave the
field, Hunt stayed and continued as field researcher.
Richard Hunt who is descendant of George Hunt, is an artist who today, carries on cultural traditions of
the Kwakiutl in his work. Richard Hunt admits that without Boas’ contribution in recording their culture
there would now be things that they would not know – uses of particular masks, ceremonies, dances
even language.
Boas states that the many dialects and languages were quite confusing. He understood that language
was a part in itself of the essence of a culture and that the role of language was a vehicle transmitting
culture identity itself. He learned that one needed to understand the language to appreciate the
culture as a whole. (vid. 40:00)
In the early 1900’s Boaz again entered into new interests, furthering his ethnographic curiosities. He
was interested in how a persons physical characteristics changed as they inter-married. Where
evolution was concerned, a persons features changed to adapt to climate etc., but Boaz wanted to know
how much environment played in this theory. Ellis Island and all the new immigrants soon became a
wealth of research material.
The U.S. Immigration Commission employed Boaz to report if certain people should be allowed to enter
the U.S. – basically, were they racially inferior? In 1908 Boaz took head and body measurements and
recorded body shapes and sizes of the new immigrants. This work was deemed necessary by the
Eugenics Society, a biosocial movement that embraced social Darwinism. It is the "applied science or
Rebecca Timm
ANTH 2351
Assignment #1: Anthropology Field Research
Dr. Ann Bragdon
February 11, 2012
the bio-social movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic
composition of a population". (Eugenics, 2012)
Boas’ findings were a very important development as to if a persons racial characteristics placed
limitations on their human potential. White America fought his Ellis Island findings where he
determined that not one race had “fixed” or stable characteristics. Boaz became an advocate,
campaigning for blacks throughout America stating that there was nothing in his findings that said they
were racially inferior. Boaz was the first distinguished, white social scientist in the U.S. who argued that
race did not determine ones character.
Boaz made over 2000 life-like masks from his real-life studies that “catalogs” the numerous racial and
cultural differences that is still in existence today.
On December 21, 1942 Boaz went to a luncheon where he stated that he had a new idea about race –
but before anyone could hear him utter a word of his thoughts, Franz Boas fell backward in his chair
with a convulsion, and died.
With his curiosity, research and questioning of “the rules” placed by the Evolutionists who thought that
universal laws governed all human culture - he broke into a new way of thinking and active researching
in Anthropology by stressing the enormous complexity of cultural variation and maybe because of this
complexity it was wrong to formulate universal laws. He stressed that single cultural traits had to be
studied in the context of the society in which they appeared. (Ember, 1990, p. 188)
The videos closing ended with Boaz’ own statement which brought me to tears:
“My whole outlook on life is determined by one question – How can we recognize the shackles
that tradition has laid upon us...for when we recognize them, we are also able to break them”.
Our shackles can be a negative of preconceived ideas and prejudices that we allow to bind us within a
shell of ignorance and only when we allow ourselves to learn and embrace differences, as well as
likenesses, we can break them.
The world lost a wonderful man who had endless thoughts and new ideas that led him on journeys of
discovery. He shared with the world his findings, hoping to create smaller social divisions in our cultures
while also highlighting the differences that made us each unique. He seems to have been a man who in
his own way, went searching for his own identity – which I believe he found in all the small corners and
within the tribes and individuals that he learned from.
Rebecca Timm
ANTH 2351
Assignment #1: Anthropology Field Research
Dr. Ann Bragdon
February 11, 2012
Comparing Ethnographic Fieldwork
One goal of the “Boasians” was to use their research to cause Europeans and Americans to think about
their own societies in a new light. (Nanda, 2009, p. 54) Today, ethnography is also used in Politics,
Universities, Hospitals, private business to promote cross-cultural communication, profitable and
peaceful coexistence.
Past researchers “pioneered” into fieldwork without much information to go on. ParticipantObservation was relatively new and ethnographers had to go out into uncharted territory to learn every
aspect of the natives they were studying. Today, anthropologists have a wealth of past information to
prepare themselves for climate, culture, geography of region and contacts. They no longer have to go
into a study “blind”.
Early Anthropologists stayed in the field for long amounts of time, gathering as much information as
they could because the fear always held that if they left – their subjects might “disappear”. With todays
technology, globalization, diffusion and easier methods of communication and travel, Ethnographers
have an easier time “keeping up” with the people they are studying.
Also, earlier times ethnographers studied small groups. Today, with the same above reasons,
Ethnographers have to be more adapted to technology and be able to work globally even with one
culture. Children go to other countries for school, parents travel for jobs etc. And now, more than ever,
a culture is not a small centralized group of Native peoples.
With the familiarization of Native Peoples with the works of Anthropologists and also language barriers
coming down in most populated countries, there is a greater opportunity for collaborative
ethnography. Earlier times, Anthropologists published their studies from their own perspectives based
on their observations, participations and research without collaborative input from the culture they
were studying.
Is Ethnography “Useful”?
The Ethnography we know today is very useful. The fieldwork that Franz Boas instituted as common
practice in ethnography gives first-hand insight to other cultures. The “participant-observation” is what
makes other cultures “real” - the experience of doing day to day tasks, acceptable ceremony
participation, language and arts – opens the door to a better understanding and reality to each ones
meaning in the participation. As long as anthropologists enter the field without preconceived theories
of a cultures ways, they will be more open to accumulating factual meanings rather than outsidelooking- in theories.
Rebecca Timm
ANTH 2351
Assignment #1: Anthropology Field Research
Dr. Ann Bragdon
February 11, 2012
Ethnography holds value to both the culture being studied as well as the public who learns from the
research of the Anthropologists. The culture has its history, language, symbols and meanings recorded
and preserved for future generations and the public has a better understanding of the differences that
they may have previously questioned. By learning our differences and respecting each ones meanings
we also have a chance to see our similarities that otherwise might remain hidden from view without
participant-observation.
Bibliography
Ember. (1990). Anthropology 6th Edition. Prentice Hall.
Eugenics. (2012, 02 11). Retrieved 02 11, 2012, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics
Harris. (1968). The Rise of Anthropological Theory. Harper & Row.
Jesup North Pacific Expedition. (2011, 12 01). Retrieved 02 11, 2012, from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesup_North_Pacific_Expedition
Nanda. (2009). Culture Counts. Cengage.