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1881 doctoral dissertation in physics from the University of Kiel, on
the color of sea water
psycho-physics
studied in Berlin with Rudolph Virchow and Adolph Bastian.
Bastian was a student of Völkerpsychologie
psychic unity of humankind (an
idea that later influenced Freud’s protégée Carl Jung)
1883-1884 expedition to Baffin Island/Cumberland Sound
returned to Berlin, then to the U.S.
The Jesup Expedition 1897-1902
long-term project on the NW Coast of
N America (Kwakiutl)
Fieldwork
inductive reasoning
all 4 subfields
positivism
salvage ethnography
Cultures are guided by an "unreflected logic" that anthropologists
seek to uncover.
Cultural Relativism
Values are relative: one culture’s terms and categories
cannot be transposed onto another.
limits of relativism
Historical Particularlism
refutation of 19th century evolutionism
p. 90: lays out the program; and p. 95
anti-monolineal evolution
diffusion
Masks
Modern Definitions of Culture
Boas added to Tylor’s definition the notions of plurality,
historicity, integration (a coherent whole), and relativity
separate from race and heredity
Nurture over nature
Social Activism
a short biography may be found at: http://emuseum.mnsu.edu/information/biography/abcde/boas_franz.html
Selected Bibliography of the works of Franz Boas (1858-1942)
Physical Anthropology/Race
1928. Materials for the study of inheritance in man. New York, Columbia
University Press.
1940. Race, language and culture. New York, The Macmilliam Company.
"Anthropology... is often held to be a subject that may satisfy our
curiosity regarding the early history of mankind, but of no immediate bearing
upon the problems that confront us. This view has always seemed to me
erroneous... In the following pages I have collected such of my writings as, I
hope, will prove the validity of my point of view."--Pref.
Linguistics
1911. Handbook of American Indian languages. Washington, Bureau of Ethnology,
Smithsonian Institution.
1917. Grammatical notes on the language of the Tlingit Indians. Philadelphia,
University museum.
1947. Kwakiutl grammar, with glossary of the suffixes. Philadelphia, American
Philosophical Society.
Cultural Anthropology
General/Ethnography
1888. The central Eskimo. Washington, Bureau of Ethnology, Smithsonian
Institution.
1909. The Kwakiutl of Vancouver Island. Leiden, E. J. Brill; New York, G. E.
Stechert.
1911. The mind of primitive man, a course of lectures delivered before the
Lowell institute, Boston, Mass., and the National University of Mexico,
1910-1911. New York, The Macmillan company
1921. Thirty-fifth annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1913-1914.
1925. Contributions to the ethnology of the Kwakiutl. New York, Columbia
University Press.
1930. The religion of the Kwakiutl Indians. New York, Columbia University Press.
1934. Geographical names of the Kwakiutl Indians. New York, Columbia University
Press.
Folklore/Mythology
1894. Chinook texts. Washington, Smithsonian institution, Bureau of American
Ethnology.
1898. The mythology of the Bella Coola Indians. New York, American Museum of
Natural History.
1901. Kathlamet texts. Washington, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American
ethnology.
1902. Tsimshian texts. Washington, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American
ethnology.
1905. Kwakiutl texts, with George Hunt. Leiden, E.J. Brill; New York, G.E.
Stechert.
1906. Kwakiutl texts--second series, with George Hunt. Leiden, E. J. Brill; New
York, G. E. Stechert & Co., 1906.
1910. Kwakiutl tales New York, Columbia University Press; Leyden, E.J. Brill.
1918. Kutenai tales. Washington, Smithsonian institution, Bureau of American
Ethnology.
1918. Kutenai tales, with texts collected by Alexander Francis Chamberlain.
Washington, Smithsonian institution, Bureau of American Ethnology.
1928. Keresan texts. New York, The American ethnological society.
1934,1945. Kwakiutl tales, new series. 2 volumes. New York, Columbia University
Press.
1935. Kwakiutl culture as reflected in mythology. New York, The American
Folk-lore Society.
Art
1898. Facial paintings of the Indians of northern British Columbia. New York,
American Museum of Natural History.
1955. Primitive art. New York, Dover Publications.
Applied Anthropology/Activism
1912. An anthropologist's view of war. New York, American Association for
International Conciliation
1915. Race and nationality. New York, American Association for International
Conciliation.
1928. Anthropology and modern life. New York, W.W. Norton & Company.
1945. Race and democratic society. New York, J. J. Augustin
Franz Boas Collections American Philosophical Society
http://www.germanheritage.com/biographies/atol/boas.html
The correspondence between Mead and Boas