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Franz Boas was a German-American anthropologist who revolutionized anthropology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He rejected the idea that cultures could be classified in stages of development and argued that all human groups had evolved equally. He emphasized understanding cultures in their own contexts rather than by race, environment or genetics.

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Ana Althea Gregori Conte
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27 views3 pages

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Franz Boas was a German-American anthropologist who revolutionized anthropology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He rejected the idea that cultures could be classified in stages of development and argued that all human groups had evolved equally. He emphasized understanding cultures in their own contexts rather than by race, environment or genetics.

Uploaded by

Ana Althea Gregori Conte
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Born in Germany 150 years ago, Franz Boas became professor of anthropology at Columbia

University in New York City in 1899 and held the post until his death in 1942. He demolished the idea
that humankind can be classified into three sequential stages of development: savagery, barbarism
and civilisation.

Unlike many of his predecessors, Boas did not see culture as predestined towards the ultimate goal
of the equivalent of European civilisation. He also rejected the corollary prejudice that those who
differed from enlightened and sophisticated European society were inferior or less developed
members of the human species.

Boas made dominant the view that all surviving human groups have evolved equally but in a
multitude of different ways. Culture must be understood in its context and was a unique adaptation to
a particular set of historical circumstances, and not merely generated by race, environment or
genetics.

So-called primitives were a source of diversity with new ideas to offer. Boas has been credited as the
first scientist to publish the view that whites and blacks are fundamentally equal, as are all people.
Moved by the hospitality of Eskimos towards him, he said, “a person’s worth should be judged by the
warmth of his heart.”

Many anthropologists relied on missionaries or traders for data collection. Racial bias and bigotry
were rampant. Boas argued that these anthropologists, who pronounced on the nature of man from
their armchairs, organised their second-hand data in unsystematic ways to support their preconceived
ideas.

One could only understand a culture by going on location, learning the language and gathering sound
evidence relating to the people’s lore, religion, physical appearance, marriage customs, diet and
handicrafts.

His writings were used in the US to oppose immigration restrictions based on race in the 1920s and
to influence the 1950s civil rights struggle. His hope was that people would learn to be tolerant of
difference.

Other anthropologists were inspired by Boas to study and record the vanishing cultures of many tribal
peoples. This work has gained in significance over time, as westernisation and globalisation continue
to blot out more and more indigenous cultures.

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