1. Franz Boas
a. Wrote over 700 books and articles
b. Supported biological evolution but not ulineal evo
c. Strongly introduced cultural relativism
d. Culture is a product of its own circumstances, history, belief system
e. Introduced holistic 4-field approach
f. Inductive method – went out and gathered facts
g. British social anthropologists criticized boas for collecting too many facts
h. Collected detailed observations, photographs, data, then generate theory
i. Rigorous approach to fieldwork – talking to people, reading documents,
interviewing members of societies
j. First to identify culture as something everybody has, not a thing people strive to
get more of, rather very diverse from person to person
k. Students:
i. A.L. Kroeber
ii. Ruth Benedict
iii. Margaret Mead
iv. Edward Sapir
l. In university, Boas was psychophysicist
i. physics and math
ii. also interested in geography, physiology, sociology, and psychology
m. PhD on the color of sea water
i. Perception is subjective
ii. Situational factors
iii. Things that seem quantitative may be qualitative
n. 1883: Baffinland
i. thought the arctic peoples would be simpler
ii. realized their complexity (there had been cultural diffusion) (they weren’t
as isolated as he thought) and the need to know a people’s history
iii. psychological study, botanical study, map making
o. 1886 British Columbia (Kwakiutl)
i. becomes more interested in ethnology
p. 1887 phenomena must be understood historically
q. 1887 Museum dispute with Otis Mason and John Wesley Powell
i. Mason: by functional type (without regard to which group made the
tools), evolutionary sequence
ii. Boas: items should be arranged by culture group
1. Scientific validity requires precise data, which includes meaning
2. Understand historical development within the context of a people
as a whole
r. 1888 “On Alternating Sounds”
i. evolutionary philologists (linguists) thought primitive people have
primitive languages
, ii. they thought that the difficulty behind recording their languages were
because the primitive people couldn’t accurately speak their own
language or couldn’t consistently make the correct sounds
iii. But Boas’ claim:
1. Sounds in a language are actually a range of sounds around an
average
2. Hearing = apperceiving
iv. “sound blindness”
1. study where kids would write down perceived sounds listening to
one-syllable words; the words were constantly heard wrong
2. Boas found this to be true within his own studies
s. Four fields
i. All are essential to understanding the human experience
t. Cultural relativism
i. Racism etc morally repugnant
ii. Ethnocentrism repugnant
1. Unscientific
2. Based on assumptions not evidence
3. As a scientist, cultural relativism is vital
u. Historical particularism
v. Diachronic
i. In contrast to british social anthro
ii. History of people was important to understand that society
iii. Took a cross-time view diachronic, rather than a ‘moment’ syncrhonic
w. Instistence on fieldwork, empirical observation, and accuracy
x. Idiosyncratic
i. Interested in the details of individual cultures, histories
y. Anti- biological determinism
2. Diffusion and culture areas
a. Diffusion: the transmission of cultural traits, material and non-material, from one
culture to another, from one culture to another
b. Diffusionism: diffusion is the mechanism in which we can view culture change
i. Extreme view:
1. Things are invented once, and traits are spread outwards
2. Things are rarely new
3. People are basically uninventive
4. Assumes side-by-side contact at some point; neighboring groups
between societies
5. Assumes some groups are more culture rich than others
ii. Contrast with classic evolutionism
1. People will invent the same things eventually as they progress
2. People are naturally inventive
c. Questions?
i. What is human nature?
a. Wrote over 700 books and articles
b. Supported biological evolution but not ulineal evo
c. Strongly introduced cultural relativism
d. Culture is a product of its own circumstances, history, belief system
e. Introduced holistic 4-field approach
f. Inductive method – went out and gathered facts
g. British social anthropologists criticized boas for collecting too many facts
h. Collected detailed observations, photographs, data, then generate theory
i. Rigorous approach to fieldwork – talking to people, reading documents,
interviewing members of societies
j. First to identify culture as something everybody has, not a thing people strive to
get more of, rather very diverse from person to person
k. Students:
i. A.L. Kroeber
ii. Ruth Benedict
iii. Margaret Mead
iv. Edward Sapir
l. In university, Boas was psychophysicist
i. physics and math
ii. also interested in geography, physiology, sociology, and psychology
m. PhD on the color of sea water
i. Perception is subjective
ii. Situational factors
iii. Things that seem quantitative may be qualitative
n. 1883: Baffinland
i. thought the arctic peoples would be simpler
ii. realized their complexity (there had been cultural diffusion) (they weren’t
as isolated as he thought) and the need to know a people’s history
iii. psychological study, botanical study, map making
o. 1886 British Columbia (Kwakiutl)
i. becomes more interested in ethnology
p. 1887 phenomena must be understood historically
q. 1887 Museum dispute with Otis Mason and John Wesley Powell
i. Mason: by functional type (without regard to which group made the
tools), evolutionary sequence
ii. Boas: items should be arranged by culture group
1. Scientific validity requires precise data, which includes meaning
2. Understand historical development within the context of a people
as a whole
r. 1888 “On Alternating Sounds”
i. evolutionary philologists (linguists) thought primitive people have
primitive languages
, ii. they thought that the difficulty behind recording their languages were
because the primitive people couldn’t accurately speak their own
language or couldn’t consistently make the correct sounds
iii. But Boas’ claim:
1. Sounds in a language are actually a range of sounds around an
average
2. Hearing = apperceiving
iv. “sound blindness”
1. study where kids would write down perceived sounds listening to
one-syllable words; the words were constantly heard wrong
2. Boas found this to be true within his own studies
s. Four fields
i. All are essential to understanding the human experience
t. Cultural relativism
i. Racism etc morally repugnant
ii. Ethnocentrism repugnant
1. Unscientific
2. Based on assumptions not evidence
3. As a scientist, cultural relativism is vital
u. Historical particularism
v. Diachronic
i. In contrast to british social anthro
ii. History of people was important to understand that society
iii. Took a cross-time view diachronic, rather than a ‘moment’ syncrhonic
w. Instistence on fieldwork, empirical observation, and accuracy
x. Idiosyncratic
i. Interested in the details of individual cultures, histories
y. Anti- biological determinism
2. Diffusion and culture areas
a. Diffusion: the transmission of cultural traits, material and non-material, from one
culture to another, from one culture to another
b. Diffusionism: diffusion is the mechanism in which we can view culture change
i. Extreme view:
1. Things are invented once, and traits are spread outwards
2. Things are rarely new
3. People are basically uninventive
4. Assumes side-by-side contact at some point; neighboring groups
between societies
5. Assumes some groups are more culture rich than others
ii. Contrast with classic evolutionism
1. People will invent the same things eventually as they progress
2. People are naturally inventive
c. Questions?
i. What is human nature?
