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
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOvFDioP
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 Shackles of Tradition (52 min)

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Born: July 9, 1858
 Minden, Westphalia, Germany

Liberal Jewish parents

Meier Boas & Sophie Meyer Boas

Married to Marie Krackowizer
SOCIAL CONTEXT

Anti-Semitism

“Germany” did not exist until 1871
19th century, 350 states linked by
common language
 Some large such as Austria & Prussia
 Holy Roman Empire
 Before
SOCIAL CONTEXT

”Scramble for Africa” (1875-1912)
European
countries
Colonize African continent
SOCIAL CONTEXT
 Three
Emperors' League (1873)
 Coordinated
by German Chancellor,
Otto von Bismarck
 Germany,
 Pledged
Austria-Hungary, & Russia
to consult on matters of
mutual interest
EDUCATION
 Geography
& physics at:
Heidelberg,
Bonn, and Kiel
 1881- Bachelors
degree, University of
Heidelberg
 Ph.D., University of Kiel
TRAVELS
 1883-1884
 Expedition
to Baffin Land, Canada
Fieldwork—Eskimo

https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&hl=en&q=Soma
tology#gs_ssp=eJzj4tDP1TfIMjDIBgAKNgJD&hl=en&q=ba
ffin+island
Anthropology
 1885--Immigrated
to United States
OCCUPATION
Journal
Science
Editorial position
Fieldwork
along North Pacific
Coast of North America for
several museums 1885-1896
OCCUPATION
 1892-1893--Chicago
Native
 Life
World's Fair
American cultures
group displays
Dioramas
CHICAGO WORLD’S FAIR DIORAMA
BOAS’ CAREER
 New
York (1896)
American Museum of Natural
History
Assistant
Curator of Ethnology &
Somatology (physical anthropology)
 Columbia
University:
Professor
of Anthropology (1899)
BOAS’ WORK
 Best
known: Kwakiutl Indians
Northern
Vancouver & mainland of
British Columbia, Canada
 New
concept of culture & race
BOAS’ WORK
 Everything
important to study
culture
 Collect
data on all facets of a
culture
Not
just religion, kinship etc.
KWAKIUTL INDIANS
KWAKIUTL INDIANS
Bear Totem Pole
Wearing a Mask
CENTRAL ESKIMO (IGULIK) STUDY
Inuit 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
Understand phenomena by grasping how they make
sense within the framework of subject’s thought-world
(cultural relativity)
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
Demonstrating Eskimo harpooning, 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 exhibited artifact secondary to written
interpretation by scientist
TYPOLOGICAL VS. LIFE GROUP
U.S. National Museum
Typological, 1890
U.S. National
Museum
Life group, 1896
2/19 HAMAT’SA SOCIETY INITIATION
Highest ranking Kwakiutl secret society
 Kwakiutl dance - a winter initiation
ceremony.
 4 days long and very complex
 Hamatsa dancers represent a cannibal
spirit who lives in the sky
(Bakbakwalanooksiwae)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzmNlejM
KA0
MUSEUMS: ENTERTAINMENT,
INSTRUCTION, RESEARCH
 Boas
curator at 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 result of:
 Historical
 Social
 Geographic
 All
conditions
populations have complete
and equally developed culture
CULTURAL RELATIVISM
Countered
early evolutionist
view of stages of development
Franz
Boas and his students
changed American
anthropology
HISTORICAL PARTICULARISM
 Each
 Not
culture has a unique history
assume universal laws for all
cultures
ASSUMPTIONS OF HISTORICAL
PARTICULARISM:
1. Rejects general laws: Ranking,
“progress
2. No simple or complex societies
Only different societies
3. Unilineal evolution= Ethnocentric
27
ASSUMPTIONS OF HISTORICAL
PARTICULARISM:
4. Not Culture, but cultures
5. Culture, not race, determines
behavior
6. Methodological rigor
CONCEPT OF CULTURE
• Superorganic —Product of collective or
group life
•Individual has an influence
• Unconscious — Filter through which
reality is perceived
• Adaptive — Culture helps individuals
adapt to 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
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 Faculty Club.

He collapsed into arms of another wellknown anthropologist, Claude LeviStrauss, and died on December 21, 1942.