The Passion of Franz Boas

Abstract

The reputation of Franz Boas as a scientist declined in the decades after his death in 1942, but his reputation as a champion of human rights and an opponent of racism remained intact. More recently, however, some writers have questioned the sincerity, the results, and the political implications of his anthropology and his work against racism and ethnocentrism. Others have been critical of his relations with colleagues and students such as Ella Deloria and Zora Neale Hurston. In this essay I discuss some of these claims and present a more positive view. Franz Boas was passionately and consistently concerned about human rights and individual liberty, freedom of inquiry and speech, equality of opportunity, and the defeat of prejudice and chauvinism. He struggled for a lifetime to advance a science that would serve humanity, and he was as much of a humanitarian in private as he was in public. [Boas, political struggles, human relations]

Engineers Engaging with Community: Negotiating Cultural Difference on Mine Sites

“…Franz Boas, considered the founder of American anthropology, is generally seen as a man whose entire career was dedicated to demonstrating the racial, linguistic and cultural equality of all peoples (e.g. Hyatt 1990, Lewis 2001. "Even if it was not explicitly theorized, Boas' antievolutionism had a strongly anti-racist cast; Boas fought against the disparagement of primitive peoples, of ethnic immigrants, and of blacks in the United States by valorising their customs and showing these to be at least as sophisticated and as intricate as our own" (Knaupft, 1996, p. 21).…”

Franz Boas: Boon or Bane?

“…(See chapters in Stocking 1968Stocking , 1974Stocking , 1992Stocking , 1996Stocking , 2001. Among others are those by Glick 1982, and Bunzl, Liss, Jacknis, and Berman, all in Stocking 1996, Lewis 2001a. There are also a number of publications that present extensive passages from Boas's letters and diaries, especially Rohner 1969, Cole 1983, and Mü ller-Wille 1998.…”

“…[N. Boas 2004:viii] Franz Boas's grandson realized that he was ''one of a very few left who was able to bring the humanitarian Franz Boas back to life,'' and this book, ''in part a photographic record of his life,'' is intended to let us know Boas better, ''not only as a pioneer scientist in his field, but as a compassionate human being, a devoted family man, a man who dedicated his life to the welfare of mankind, and who with scientific precision destroyed the myth of racism'' (N. Boas 2004:ix). A casual reader might think that this is oversensitivity on the part of an adoring family member, but as I have shown (Lewis 2001a), there has long been a thriving Boas-bashing industry in American letters. This book adds some material useful for the discussion.…”

“…(Boas quoted in Mü ller-Wille 1998:171). And he acted upon this ideal throughout his life (Stocking 1992;Lewis 2001a; N. Boas 2004).…”

Type I and Type II errors in culturally sensitive conflict resolution practice

“…Boas and many of his students were in addition politically active in liberal, antiracist, and antifascist movements (Hyatt, 1990;Lewis, 2001). In this sense, then, there was a political and moral component built in to the scientific and technical meaning of the term culture from the very beginning.…”