Franz Boas Theory

Franz Boas is known as the “father of American anthropology”. He is one of the key figures in the development and implementation of cultural relativism. In his “Methods of Ethnology” Boas explains why the ideas of uniform evolution and diffusion may not be effective. He believes that by themselves these methods are inaccurate, and attempts to see ethnological phenomena in its historical development and geographical distribution and in physiological and psychological foundation. Boas believes that it is important to study history in order to understand every living being or a group of people. He thinks that there should be a strong connection between comparative and historic methods of ethnology even though these methods usually oppose each other. These two methods should work together in a system of check and balance. By themselves, in Boas’ view, these methods are often faulty.

In his “Handbook of American Indian Languages” Boas opposes the idea that there is a single psychological principle on which American Indian languages are based. He does not see alternating sounds as evidence of “primitiveness of the speech in which they are said to occur” (Stocking 1974:76). Boas doesn’t think that the notion of “alternating sounds” can be used to categorize cultures. I believe this is one of the cases where he criticizes the evolutionary method. In his essay “On Alternating Sounds” he also mentions subjective perception of various sounds, and takes into consideration cultural bias of the researcher.

While relying on the scientific method, Boas states that there is a need to introduce “sounder philological methods of collection and of historical methods in the treatment of anthropological problems” (Stocking 1974:187). He emphasizes the importance of ethnographic work, criticizes “armchair” anthropology, and rejects the idea of absolute stability of cultures. According to him, cultures are fluid and changing, and they should not be studied as rigid and static entities.

In his time, Boas criticized many existing theories and anthropological approaches. He wrote several papers where he argued against the ideas of racial purity and superiority. He was one of the first anthropologists to state that the concept of “race” was a myth, and disapproved of racism at the time when it was common to openly do exactly the opposite. Boas didn’t believe that race was a biological factor. He argued that is was a social phenomenon.

“The existence of any pure race with special endowments is a myth, as is the belief that there are races all of whose members are foredoomed to eternal inferiority” (c) Franz Boas

Of course, both anthropologists and people of other majors and professions know that myths are not simple fairy tales. Myths have the power to shape people’s perception of the world, lead in a certain direction. The “race” myth has very powerful and very real effects on our lives indeed. By saying “race is a myth” Boas didn’t want to diminish the reality of racism. On the contrary, the purpose was to advocate against the notion that race was a biological factor which made people fall into rigid categories of specific behavioral patterns, level of intelligence, physical development, inclination to commit crimes, etc.

This is only a very brief summary/introduction to Franz Boas and his ideas. He is one of the most significant figures in the field of anthropology, and his approach influenced many other prominent anthropologists such as Edward Sapir, Ruth Benedict, and Margaret Mead.

References:

Stocking, George. 1974. A Franz Boas Reader. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.