franz boas 1858-1942 boas en route to baffin island 1883 and central inuit; to study reflectivity of...
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FRANZ BOAS 1858-1942
Boas en route to Baffin Island 1883 and Central Inuit; to study reflectivity of sea-water
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS3wqv96VcM
Anthropologists playing golf
Odyssey Series on Boas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv8cYPiWNDc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS3wqv96VcM
Personal Life
Born: July 9, 1858 Minden, Westphalia, Germany
Parents: Meier Boas & Sophie Meyer Boas
Married to Marie Krackowizer
Education
Studied geography & physics at Universities of Heidelberg, Bonn, and Kiel
Earned B.A. degree: University of Heidelberg in 1881
Same year, earned Ph.D. from University of Kiel
Early Research
Expedition to Baffin Land, Canada in 1883-1884
Fieldwork among EskimoInterest in anthropology
Immigrated to U.S. (1885)
Early Career
Worked for journal ScienceEditorial position
Fieldwork: 1885-1896North Pacific Coast of North America for museums
Career
Project: World's Fair in Chicago (1892-1893)
Native American cultures to general public
Pioneered life group displaysDioramas
Chicago World’s Fair Diorama
Career
Moved to New York (1896)Assistant Curator: Ethnology & Somatology (physiology & anatomy)
American Museum of Natural History
Lectured: Columbia UniversityProfessor of Anthropology,1899
Research
Best known: Kwakiutl Indians Northern Vancouver & adjacent mainland of British Columbia, Canada
Established new concept of culture & race
Research
Everything important to study of culture
Collecting data on all facets of a culture was necessary to understand culture
Kwakiutl Indians
Kwakiutl Indians
Bear Totem Pole Wearing a Mask
•Inuit perceive & name hundreds of colors & qualities of sea-water
•Earliest anthropological attempt to employ phenomenology
• Development of human consciousness and self-awareness
CENTRAL ESKIMO STUDY
Analyst seeks to understand phenomena by grasping how they make sense within the framework of subject’s thought-world
Hamats'a coming out of secret room," and "Kwakiutl Indian ceremony for expelling cannibals."
1885:1885: First expedition to Northwest Coast (Bella Coola)
1886:1886: 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
• No storage rooms or cases
• No natural lighting
• Life groups most demanding
• Time
• Materials
• Skill
The Practice of Museum Exhibits
• Labels – “ultimate limitation to the possibility of a museum anthropology”
• Boas believed artifact secondary to monographic interpretation of scientist
Boas at American Museum, 1900
Typological vs. Life Group
U.S. National Museum
Life group, 1896
U.S. National Museum
Typological, 1890
Museums: Entertainment, Instruction, Research
Boas curator at American Museum 1896-1905
Over 90% of visitors “do not want anything beyond entertainment”
Museums: Entertainment, Instruction, Research
Visitor groups:ChildrenSchool teachersResearchers
Researchers justify large museums “for the advancement of science”
Countered early evolutionist views of Louis Henry Morgan & Edward Tylor Stages each culture went through during development
Franz Boas and his students changed American anthropology forever
Cultural Relativism
Cultural relativismDifferences in peoples result of:
HistoricalSocialGeographic conditions
All populations have complete and equally developed culture
Historical Particularism
Each culture has a unique history
Not assume universal laws govern how cultures operate
Assumptions of Historical Particularism:
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1.Rejects general laws, rankings, concept of “progress”
2.No simple or complex societies -- only different societies
3.“Unilineal evolution” is ethnocentric
Assumptions of Historical Particularism:
6. Not 6. Not CCultureulture, but cultures
7. Culture7. Culture, not race, determines behavior
8. Methodological rigor8. Methodological rigor
•Superorganic: Product of collective or group life
•Individual has an influence
•Unconscious: Filter through which reality is perceived
•Not the object of attention
•Adaptive: Culture 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 established Boasian doctrines in North American universities:
Alfred A. Kroeber Ruth Benedict Margaret Mead Rhoda Métraux Robert Lowie Edward Sapir Paul Radin Alexander A. Goldenweiser Clark Wissler
Cultural Relativism Historical Particularism “Race, language, and culture” as
independent variables Superorganic Cultural Determinism Data Collection “without” theory Emphasis on Fieldwork 4-field approach
FRANZ BOAS
Contributions to Anthropology
1937--Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Columbia Un.
Made anthropology a distinguished and recognized science
Contributions to Anthropology
Authored many books: ExamplesAuthored many books: Examples
Growth of Children (1896 – 1904)The Mind of Primitive Man, 1938Primitive Art, 1927Anthropology and Modern Life, 1938
Race, Language, and Culture, 1940Dakota Grammar, 1941
Contributions to Anthropology
Boas was entertaining Professor Paul Rivet and other colleagues at a luncheon in the Faculty Club (Columbia Un).
He collapsed into the arms of Claude Claude Levi-StraussLevi-Strauss and died on December 21, 1942.