Franz Boas Biography
Attr: Canadian Museum of History
Franz Boas was a German-American anthropologist, often called the "Papa of American Anthropology", who was born upon July 9, 1858, in Minden, Westphalia, Germany. He is best understood for his contributions to the advancement of cultural sociology, which stressed the significance of understanding the cultural and historical contexts of human behavior.
Boas matured in a family of sellers and was enlightened in physics and also geography at the University of Heidelberg. Nevertheless, his rate of interests soon turned to anthropology, and also he traveled to the Arctic in 1883 to research the Inuit individuals. This trip was the start of his lifelong interest in the research of human cultures.
In 1886, Boas relocated to the United States, where he began showing at Clark University in Massachusetts. He later on ended up being a professor at the University of Chicago, where he showed for 5 years prior to relocating to New York City to end up being a professor at Columbia University. He spent the remainder of his occupation at Columbia, where he established the very first graduate program in anthropology in the United States.
Boas's study concentrated on the research of human cultures, with an emphasis on fieldwork and also individual observation. He believed that in order to truly recognize a society, one had to submerse oneself in it and also discover its language, customizeds, and ideas. He carried out substantial fieldwork amongst the Native American people of the Pacific Northwest, in addition to amongst the Inuit, the Kwakiutl, and also the Tsimshian.
Boas's most significant contribution to sociology was his denial of the concept of organic determinism, which held that specific races as well as ethnic teams were inherently above others. Boas suggested that culture, not biology, was the key component of human actions and that distinctions in actions and also society were the outcome of historic and also environmental aspects as opposed to inherent biological characteristics.
Boas's job had an extensive influence on the area of anthropology and on social science a lot more generally. He trained many of the leading anthropologists of the 20th century, including
Margaret Mead and
Ruth Benedict. He likewise had a significant effect on the research study of race as well as ethnic background, aiding to move the emphasis far from biological distinctions and toward the social and social elements that form identification as well as habits.
Boas passed away on December 21, 1942, in New York City, however his legacy resides on in the field of anthropology and in the broader research of human cultures. His focus on the importance of cultural context as well as his rejection of organic determinism remain to be main to the research study of sociology today.
Our collection contains 16 quotes who is written / told by Franz.
Related authors: Alfred L. Kroeber (Scientist), Zora Neale Hurston (Dramatist), Margaret Mead (Scientist), Lawrence Taylor (Athlete), Ruth Benedict (Scientist)
Franz Boas Famous Works:
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