Boas is well known for his theory of cultural relativism, which held that all cultures were essentially equal but simply had to be understood in their own terms. The Franz Boas Papers, Volume 1 examines Boas’s stature as a public intellectual in three crucial dimensions: theory, ethnography, and activism. findings and thoughts, was anthropologist Franz Boas. Born on July 9, 1858 in Minden, Germany, Franz Boas's first anthropologic fieldwork was among the Eskimo in Baffinland, Canada, beginning in 1883. A century ago, when people believed that intelligence, empathy, and human potential were determined by race and gender, Franz Boas looked at the data and decided everyone was wrong. Franz Boas : The Father Of American Anthropology Essay 1446 Words | 6 Pages. Kuper 1999 offers the most comprehensive overview of American cultural anthropology, though from a critical, social anthropological perspective dominant in Britain.
Franz Boas Theory Franz Boas is known as the “father of American anthropology”. I. Boas and the Historicist Paradigm Franz Boas was born in 1858 and reared in Germany 6. It has been argued that Franz Boas contributed little to the emergence of the culture concept in anthropology and in fact hindered its growth. The Reorganisation of American Anthropology. This marked a decisive break with the evolutionary thinking of the period, which attempted to organize … He … He is one of the key figures in the development and implementation of cultural relativism. Leslie White here appraises the work of Franz Boas as field Tvorker and as ethnological theorist. Comparing two cultures was tantamount to comparing apples and oranges; they were fundamentally different and had to be approached as such. In his “Methods of Ethnology” Boas explains why the ideas of uniform evolution and diffusion may not be effective. Franz Boas earned a PhD in physics from the University of Kiel in Germany with a minor in geography, but his lifelong passion became anthropology. Boas' anthropogeographic theory was organized and when and how the content and structure changed. He was known as the Father of American Anthropology. Boas was a white, Jewish male. interest and controversy. Franz Boas is credited with developing the four-field approach of American anthropology: (1) Physical (or biological) anthropology focusses on collecting evidence to explain the biological differences and similarities of the human race. He finds, as we might expect from his previous en- counters on this ground, that on both counts Boas’ contrihutions are far less important than others have made them out to be. “A Franz Boas Reader: The Shaping of American Anthropology, 1883-1911”, p.35, University of Chicago Press 42 Copy quote Anthropology has reached that point of development where the careful investigation of facts shakes our firm belief in the far-reaching theories that have been built up. The Boasians' (followers of Franz Boas) argued for a theory of.