Boasian anthropology

Overview

It was based on an understanding of human cultures as malleable and perpetuated through social learning, and understood behavioral differences between peoples as largely separate from and unaffected by innate predispositions stemming from human biology—in this way it rejected the view that cultural differences were essentially biologically based. It also rejected ideas of cultural evolution which ranked societies and cultures according to their degree of "evolution", assuming a single evolutionary path along which cultures can be ranked hierarchically, rather Boas considered societies varying complexities to be the outcome of particular historical processes and circumstances—a perspective described as historical particularism.

Another important aspect of Boasian anthropology was its perspective of cultural relativism which assumes that a culture can only be understood by first understanding its own standards and values, rather than assuming that the values and standards of the anthropologist's society, can be used to judge other cultures. In this way Boasian anthropologists did not assume as a given that non-Western societies are necessarily inferior to Western ones, but rather attempt to understand them on their own terms. From this approach also stemmed an investment in understanding and protecting cultural minorities, and in critiquing and relativizing American and Western society through contrasting its values and norms with those of other societies. Boasian anthropology in this way tended to consider political activism, through scientific education about society, a significant part of the scientific project.George W. Stocking. "the basic Assumptions of Boasian Anthropology" in Delimiting Anthropology: Occasional Essays and Reflections, Univ of Wisconsin Press, 2001

The program of research and public education activities pursued by Boas, his former students, and their associates—eventually including most of the field of anthropology as practiced in the United States—encompassed a number of discrete areas of inquiry and activity. These include many anthropological specializations and neighboring inter-disciplines, such as those known today as museum anthropology, folkloristics, linguistic anthropology, Native American studies, and ethnohistory.

Boasian anthropologists

Boas had a large group of students who dominated the first generation of professional anthropologists in the United States, and went on to found many of the earliest anthropology departments in the country. Among the prominent students of Boas who became exponents of Boasian anthropology were:

• Ruth Benedict
• Ruth Bunzel
• Roland Burrage Dixon
• Alexander Goldenweiser
• Melville Herskovits
• Zora Neale Hurston
• Melville Jacobs
• Alfred Kroeber
• Alexander Lesser
• Robert Lowie
• Margaret Mead
• Elsie Clews Parsons
• Paul Radin
• Gladys Reichard
• Edward Sapir
• Frank Speck
• Leslie Spier
• John R. Swanton
• Ruth Underhill
• Gene Weltfish

Critiques

In the mid 20th century, Boasian anthropology came under critique both from those students who wanted to reintroduce evolutionary processes into the study of culture, and from those who disagreed with its relativist stance and its view that biological differences did not reflect innate differences in human ability or potential. In the late 20th century earlier Boasian anthropology was also critiqued for its acceptance of race as a valid biological category, leading to attempts to redefine a neo-Boasian anthropology which studies the particular historical trajectories leading to the construction of social categories of cultures and races.

References

References

1. Handler, R. (1990). Boasian anthropology and the critique of American culture. American Quarterly, 42(2), 252–273.
2. Shapiro, W. (1991). Claude Lévi-Strauss Meets Alexander Goldenweiser: Boasian Anthropology and the Study of Totemism. American Anthropologist, 93(3), 599-610.
3. Darnell, R. (1977). Hallowell's "Bear Ceremonialism" and the Emergence of Boasian Anthropology. Ethos, 5(1), 13-30.
4. William Y. Adams. The Boasians: Founding Fathers and Mothers of American Anthropology, Rowman & Littlefield, 2. sep. 2016
5. Regna Darnell. 1998. And Along Came Boas: Continuity and Revolution in Americanist Anthropology. John Benjamins Publishing
6. (2015). "Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences".
7. Zumwalt, Rosemary Lévy. (1988). "American Folklore Scholarship: A Dialogue of Dissent". Indiana University Press.
8. (1973). "American Anthropology and the Development of Folklore Scholarship: 1890-1920". Journal of the Folklore Institute.
9. (2017). "A Holistic Humanities of Speaking: Franz Boas and the Continuing Centrality of Texts". International Journal of American Linguistics.
10. (2016). "Sources and Methods in Indigenous Studies". Routledge.
11. (2010). "Ethnohistory's Ethnohistory: Creating a Discipline from the Ground Up". Social Science History.
12. Frank, G. (1997). Jews, multiculturalism, and Boasian anthropology. American Anthropologist, 99(4), 731–745.
13. Visweswaran, K. (1998). Race and the Culture of Anthropology. American Anthropologist, 100(1), 70-83.
14. Bunzl, M. (2004). Boas, Foucault, and the "Native Anthropologist": Notes toward a Neo-Boasian Anthropology. American Anthropologist, 106(3), 435-442.