franz boas 1858 1942 - people search directoryfaculty.winthrop.edu/solomonj/spring 2012/socl...
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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
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
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
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.