Franz Boas

Franz Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 22, 1942) was one of the pioneers of modern anthropology and is often called the "Father of American Anthropology". Like many such pioneers, he trained in other disciplines; he received his doctorate in physics, and did post-doctoral work in geography.

Early life and education

Franz Boas was born in Minden, Westphalia. Although his grandparents were observant Jews, his parents, like most German Jews, embraced Enlightenment values, including their assimilation into modern German society. Boas was sensitive about his Jewish background, and while he vocally opposed anti-Semitism, and refused to convert to Christianity, he did not identify himself as a Jew. In an autobiographical sketch, Boas wrote:

Related Topics:
Minden - Westphalia - Jew - Enlightenment - German - Christianity

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:The background of my early thinking was a German home in which the ideals of the revolution of 1848 were a living force. My father, liberal, but not active in public affairs; my mother, idealistic, with a lively interest in public matters; the founder about 1854 of the kindergarten in my home town, devoted to science. My parents had broken through the shackles of dogma. My father had retained an emotional affection for the ceremonial of his parental home, without allowing it to influence his intellectual freedom.

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From his early experience at the Froebel kindergarten in Minden, to his studies at Gymnasium, Boas was exposed to, and interested in, natural history. Of his work at Gymnasium, he was most excited by and proud of his research on the geographic distribution of plants. Nevertheless, when Boas attended university — first at Heidelberg, then Bonn — he focused on mathematics and physics (although he also attended a few courses in geography, including one taught by Theobald Fischer). He intended then to study physics at Berlin, but chose to attend the university at Kiel, in order to be closer to his family. There he studied physics with Gustav Karsten. Boas wished to conduct research concerning Gauss's law of the normal distribution of errors, but Karsten instructed him to research the optical properties of water instead. That research became the basis of his doctoral dissertation.

Related Topics:
Gymnasium - Mathematics - Geography - Theobald Fischer - Gustav Karsten - Normal distribution

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Boas received his doctorate in physics from the university at Kiel in 1882. He was unhappy with his dissertation, but intrigued by the problems of perception that plagued his research. Boas had developed an interest in Kantian thought when he took a course on aesthetics with Kuno Fischer at Heidelberg, and at Bonn took courses with Benno Erdmann, leading Kantian philosophers. This interest led him to "psychophysics," which addressed psychological and epistemological problems in physics. He again considered moving to Berlin to study psychophysics with Hermann von Helmholtz, but psychophysics was of dubious status, and Boas had no training in psychology.

Related Topics:
Kantian - Aesthetics - Kuno Fischer - Benno Erdmann - Psychological - Epistemological - Hermann von Helmholtz

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Coincidentally, Theobald Fischer had moved to Kiel, and Boas took up geography as a way to explore his budding interest in the relationship between subjective experience and the objective world. At the time, German geographers were divided over the causes of cultural variation. Many argued that the physical environment was the principal determining factor, but others (notably Friedrich Ratzel) argued that the diffusion of ideas through human migration is more important. In 1883 Boas went to Baffin Island to conduct geographic research on the impact of the physical environment on native (Inuit) migrations. He returned to Berlin to finish his studies, and in 1886 (with Helmholtz' support) he successfully defended his habilitation thesis, Baffin Land, and was named privatdozent in geography.

Related Topics:
Friedrich Ratzel - Baffin Island

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While on Baffin Island he began to develop his interest in studying non-Western cultures (in 1888 he published a book, The Central Eskimo). Moreover, in 1885 Boas went to work with physical anthropologist Rudolf Virchow and Ethnologist Adolf Bastian at the Royal Ethnological Museum in Berlin. Boas had studied anatomy with Virchow two years earlier, while preparing for the Baffin Island expedition. At the time, Virchow was involved in a vociferous debate with his former student, Ernst Haeckel, over evolution. Haeckel had abandoned his medical practice to study comparative anatomy after reading Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species, and vigorously promoted Darwin's ideas in Germany. Like most other natural scientists prior to the rediscovery of Mendelian genetics in 1909 and the development of the modern synthesis in 1918, however, Virchow felt that Darwin's theories were weak because they lacked a theory of cellular mutability. Accordingly, Virchow favored Lamarckian models of evolution. This debate resonated with debates among geographers. Lamarckians believed that environmental forces could precipitate rapid and enduring changes in organisms that had no inherited source; thus, Lamarckians and environmental determinists often found themselves on the same side of debates.

Related Topics:
Rudolf Virchow - Adolf Bastian - Ernst Haeckel - Charles Darwin - Mendelian genetics - Modern synthesis - Lamarckian

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But Boas worked more closely with Bastian, who was noted for his antipathy to environmental determinism. Instead, he argued for the "psychic unity of mankind;" a belief that all humans had the same intellectual capacity, and that all cultures were based on the same basic mental principles. Variations in custom and belief, he argued, were the products of historical accidents. This view resonated with Boas's experiences on Baffin Island, and drew him towards anthropology.

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While at the Royal Ethnological Museum Boas became interested in the Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest, and after defending his habilitation thesis, he left for a three month trip to British Columbia via New York. In January, 1887, he was offered a job as assistant editor of the journal Science, in New York. Alienated by growing anti-Semitism and nationalism, as well as the very limited academic opportunities for a geographer, in Germany, Boas decided to stay in the United States.

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Aside from his editorial work at Science, Boas secured an appointment as dozent in anthropology at Clark University, in 1888. Boas's opportunities at Clark were limited, however, because the university did not have an anthropology department. Moreover, Boas was concerned about University president G. Stanley Hall's interference in his research. In 1892 Boas joined a number of other Clark faculty in resigning, to protest Hall's infringement on academic freedom. Boas was then appointed chief assistant in anthropology at the 1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

Related Topics:
Clark University - G. Stanley Hall - 1893 - World Columbian Exposition

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