Father Franz Boas--Father of American Anthropology Essays -- essays pa

Father Franz Boas--Father of American AnthropologyFranz Boas is often referred to as the father ofAmerican anthropology because of the great influence he hadin the lives and the careers of the close great generation ofanthropologists in America. He came at a time whenanthropology was not considered a true science or even a pregnant discipline and brought an air of respectabilityto the profession, giving those who followed a passion andan example of how to approach anthropology. Boas directedthe field studies and trained such prominent anthropologistsas Alfred Louis Kroeber, Robert Lowie, Margaret Mead, aswell as others. Although he did not leave as his legacy anyspecific line of scene, he left a pattern that wasfollowed by numerous scientists in the next generation.Franz Boas canvas physics and geography in Germany andleft to pursue his hypothesis on was born and raised inGermany and studied physics and geography. After receivinghis doctorate in geography he left Germany and wen t toBaffin Island to test his hypothesis on Arctic geography. While he was there he became fascinated with the Eskimos andhow they lived. From then on he was no longer a geographerbut an Anthropologist. Boas was Jewish and was criticized all his life aboutbeing Jewish. His work showed his resentment ofAnti-Semitism, reflecting the belief that all men arecreated equal. At the time anthropology was based on thebeliefs of men like Tylor and Spencer who believed inevolutionary theories that stated that some stack are moreevolved than others. They believed in categorizingdifferent cultures depending on how evolved they were. These men also did not do any field work, they receivedtheir information from missionaries, government officials,and other people who traveled the world. They categorizedcultures by putting them into a line starting withbarbarians and ending with white people. Anthropologiststhen ranked them depending on how civilized they thoughtthey were. They also felt that people at the high end ofthe line(whites) had one time been where these othercultures are and feel this sort of a psychic whiztowards them. Boas was the first anthropologist to do field work. Hebelieved it was essential to live with certain cultures toget the real feel of what they were like. He be... ...tists who were trying to get the larger picture. Boaswas raise in studying a very small and specific windowof time, which came from the data that he collected whileperforming the field work he deemed necessary to analyze aculture. There is no question that anthropology as a disciplineand as a science took on a reinvigorated life after the arrival ofFrank Boas. Not only did anthropology gain respect in thescientific and the civilian world, but also it gainedrespect in the anthropological field as well. The work thatBoas performed, both in studies and in organization skills,were testaments to a man who has given so much to thediscipline. He was qualified to profoundly in fluence a number ofthinkers and scientists in his own field the validity of hismethods of work and get them to institute them across theboard for use by all anthropologists. Boas was able to do this not only for himself, but moreimportantly, for the generations of American anthropologistsafter him. The influence that he had on Mead, Radin, et. al.is quite remarkable and inevitably to be noted. Boas role andhonor as the head of American anthropology is welldocumented and most deserved.