Aim How Should we Remember Franz Boas Do
Aim: How Should we Remember Franz Boas? Do Now: You are given a job to study the culture of the Inuit (Native Americans) in northern Canada. Do you: a) Just read books by previous anthropologists who studied the Inuit, so you do not have to freeze to death? b) Travel to northern Canada, but just observe the Inuit? c) Travel to northern Canada, study their language, and try to participate in the Inuit culture?
I Armchair Anthropology Many early anthropologists did not conduct their own research; instead, they analyzed the work of others from their armchairs! Example: Edward Burnett Tylor (1832 – 1917) Wrote Primitive Culture (1871) which claimed evidence for the pseudoscience of Social Darwinism. Edward did travel to Cuba and Mexico for 6 months, but he mostly spent his time with other anthropologists. Edward Burnett Tylor In his book Primitive Culture, Tylor said culture is "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. ” *This is the 1 st definition of culture by an anthropologist.
Armchair Anthropology Continued… Source: Primitive Culture 1871, Edward Burnett Tylor “Civilization actually existing among mankind in different grades, we are enabled to estimate and compare it by positive examples. The educated world of Europe and America practically settles a standard by simply placing its own nations at one end of the social series and savage tribes at the other, arranging the rest of mankind between these limits according as they correspond more closely to savage or to cultural life. The principle criteria of classification are the absence or presence, high or low development, of the industrial arts, . . . the extent of scientific knowledge, the definiteness of moral principles, the condition of religious belief and ceremony, the degree of social and political organization and so forth. Thus, on the definite basis of compared facts, ethnographers are able to set up at least a rough scale of civilization. Few would dispute that the following races are arranged rightly in order of culture: — Australian, Tahitian, Aztec, Chinese, Italian. ”
II Frank Hamilton Cushing (1857 – 1900) A) Cushing was argued that ALL people have a culture that they draw from. B) 1 st anthropologist to compare two cultures (in his case Western and Zuni Native American). C) 1 st participant observer who entered and participated in another culture rather than studying and commenting on it from his armchair. Living amongst the Zuni in New Mexico, Cushing was initiated into The Priesthood of the Bow warrior society, taking the name "Tenatsali" which means medicine flower.
III Franz Boas (1858 – 1942) A) Did fieldwork among the Kwakiutl Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest. B) 1 st Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University and 1 st head of the Anthropology Department at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC. C) Legacy: 1. Salvage Ethnography: Knowing that Westernization was encroaching on traditional culture, Boas believed in gathering as much information as possible about a culture (historical artifacts, photos, recordings of spoken languages, songs, oral interviews with elder informants, etc. ) 2. Development of Cultural Relativism: Anthropologists should view a culture from within its own cultural lens instead of your own, and without making judgements. Ethnography: The scientific description of the customs of individual peoples and cultures. Controversy: Due to his belief in the importance of salvage ethnography, Boas dug up many Native grave goods for studying and display in museums (including AMNH). Today, the law NAGRPA allows Natives to sue to have their artifacts returned.
The Kwakiutl of the Pacific Northwest
Franz Boas Continued… Legacy Continued… 3. Four Field Approach: The four-field approach in anthropology sees the discipline as composed of the four subfields of Archaeology, Linguistics, Physical Anthropology and Cultural Anthropology. 4. Developed anthropological theory of Historical Particularism: Culture, NOT race, determines human behavior. Your Culture Your Behavior
Franz Boas 1883 – 1884 studied the Inuit (Eskimo) of Baffin Island, Canada
Franz Boas re-enacting the Kwakiutl hamatsa ritual dance to get rid of cannibal spirits, for an exhibit at the United States National Museum (1895).
George Hunt 1854 – 1933 was a consultant to American anthropologist Franz Boas, and a linguist and ethnographer in his own right.
Key Vocabulary 4 Field Approach Armchair Anthropologist Cultural Relativism Edward Burnett Tylor Ethnography Frank Hamilton Cushing Franz Boas George Hunt Historical Particularism Participant Observation Salvage Ethnography
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