Franz Boas and Cultural Relativism — Key Points

Franz Boas

  • US anthropology founder; 1848–1942.
  • German immigrant; trained in physics and geography; lived in US; faced racism; used experience to inform approach.
  • Fieldwork with Inuit on Baffin Island: learned language, customs, norms; emphasized long-term participant observation.
  • Founded the anthropology department at Columbia and the American Anthropological Association; trained a generation of scholars (e.g., Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead, Edward Sapir, Alfred Kroeber, Robert Lowie, Zora Neale Hurston).
  • Pioneered the four-field approach (cultural, linguistic, archaeology, biological/physical anthropology) and holistic study of humans across space and time.
  • Advocated cultural relativism and rejected ethnocentrism, racism, and sexism; opposed unilinear notions of cultural “advancement.”
  • Emphasized fieldwork and interdisciplinary methods; argued cultures should be understood within their own contexts.
  • Background context: Boas’s immigrant experience informed his critique of racial and cultural hierarchies; he sought to dismantle ethnocentric judgments.

Cultural Relativism vs Ethnocentrism

  • Ethnocentrism: judging other cultures by the standards of one’s own culture.
  • Cultural relativism: behavior in a culture should be understood within that culture’s own standards; cultures are intelligible on their own terms.
  • Boas rejected ethnocentrism and racism; promoted viewing practices through cultural context.

Endocannibalism, Exocannibalism, and Death Practices

  • Endocannibalism: eating relatives after death; exocannibalism: eating enemies.
  • Some societies practiced endocannibalism until mid-20th century; these practices illustrate cultural logic, not universal judgments.
  • Death rituals vary widely (cremation, burial, mausoleums, temple structures like the Taj Mahal); understanding them requires cultural relativism.

Four Fields and Key Figures

  • Four Fields of Anthropology (Boas’s framework):
    • Cultural anthropology
    • Linguistic anthropology
    • Archaeology
    • Biological/Physical anthropology
  • Notable trainees and contributors: Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead, Edward Sapir, Alfred Kroeber, Robert Lowie, Zora Neale Hurston.

Society, Culture, and Enculturation

  • Society: group of people who interact with each other more than with others.
  • Culture: distinctive way of life; beliefs, practices, norms, and material life.
  • Cultures exist within larger societies (e.g., Chinatown communities in NYC and SF within the US).
  • Enculturation: social process by which a culture is learned and transmitted across generations.
  • Acculturation: cultural change resulting from contact with other cultures.

Takeaway

  • Boas established modern US anthropology via cultural relativism, anti-ethnocentrism, and holistic/ four-field methodology; emphasized living with and learning from other cultures to understand them on their own terms.