Franz Boas was born on July 9, 1858 in Minden, Westphalia, Germany. His parents were Meier Boas and Sophie Meyer Boas. Before transferring his interest to the field of anthropology, Boas had studied geography and physics at the Universities of Heidelberg, Bonn, and Kiel. Boas earned his Baccalaureate from the University of Heidelberg in 1881 and in that same year, earned his Ph.D. from the University of Kiel, Germany. Boas was married to Marie Krackowizer.
It was when Boas went to Baffin Land, Canada, on an expedition in 1883-1884 to do fieldwork amongst the Eskimo that he became interested in anthropology. Boas immigrated to the United States in 1885. At that time Boas started working for a journal called Science, in an editorial position. He then did fieldwork along the North Pacific Coast of North America for several museums from 1885-1896. Part of that time was spent working on a project for the World's Fair to be held in Chicago in 1892-1893. The project was to bring Native American cultures to the general public who visited the fair. The concept of life group displays, known as dioramas, was pioneered by Boas. He moved to New York in 1896 to become the Assistant Curator of Ethnology and Somatology at the American Museum of Natural History. He also started lecturing at Columbia University, where in 1899 he became a Professor of anthropology.
Franz Boas is best known for his work with the Kwakiutl Indians from Northern Vancouver and the adjacent mainland of British Columbia, Canada. While studying the Kwakiutl, he established a new concept of culture and race. He decided that everything was important to the study of culture. In his view, collecting data on all facets of a culture was necessary to understand that culture.
Boas added cultural relativism to the body of anthropological theory and believed in historical particularism. Cultural relativism pointed out that the differences in peoples were the results of historical, social and geographic conditions and all populations had complete and equally developed culture. Historical particularism deals with each culture as having a unique history and one should not assume universal laws govern how cultures operate. This view countered the early evolutionist view of Louis Henry Morgan and Edward Tylor, who had developed stages that each culture went through during their development. The views of Franz Boas and those of his students changed American anthropology forever.
Boas became Professor Emeritus of anthropology at Columbia University in 1937. During his lifetime, he made anthropology into a distinguished and recognized science. Boas taught many students over his lifetime and some of the ones who became very well-known in the field of anthropology are: Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead, Alfred Kroeber, Robert Lowie, and Edward Sapir. Boas was the author of many books during his lifetime, 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
Franz 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. Wingate Todd said Boas
was "one of the most alert and fruitful minds of our time." In the obituary
Robert H. Lowie wrote after Boas died, Lowie said, "he was a great
anthropologist and a great man."
References:
Franz Boas Papers, [Collection Name], American Philosophical Society. Accessed May 28, 2009.
http://www.amphilsoc.org/library/mole/b/boas.htm
Lowie, Robert H.
1944 Franz Boas (1858-1942). Electronic document,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/535755, accessed May 28, 2009.
Boas, Franz. Early Camera Study of Behavior
Written By: Anthropology Students at Minnesota State University, Mankato, 1997
Rewritten By: Lillian Dolentz, 2009