Race, Language, and Culture

Franz Boas

University of Chicago Press, 1982 - Social Science - 647 pages

This volume is a collection of the most important essays written by Franz Boas on the science of anthropology.

"Franz Boas is the father of American anthropology and one of the founders of the field of modern anthropology. The book, Race, Language, and Culture, is a collection of some of his most important essays."—David Schneider, University of Chicago

"An exceptional book. Exceptional because it brings into one volume sixty-two papers written by the most influential figure in American anthropology. . . . Exceptional in that it exhibits the wide range of interests and scientific exactness which made it possible for one man to exert such a profound influence on the growing science of anthropology. . . . This is a volume every student of anthropology will wish to possess; it will also have a wide distribution among other students of the social sciences, and all interested in the problems of race."—Fay-Cooper Cole, American Anthropologist

Contents

• RACE AND PROGRESS 1931 317: 3
• MODERN POPULATIONS OF AMERICA 1915 1827: 18
• REPORT ON AN ANTHROPOMETRIC INVESTIGATION: 28
• CHANGES IN BODILY FORM OF DESCENDANTS: 55
• NEW EVIDENCE IN REGARD TO THE INSTABILITY: 76
• INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT: 82
• CONDITIONS CONTROLLING THE TEMPO OF DEVEL: 89
• of growth of males and females 96 chronological age and physiological: 98
• STATISTICAL STUDY OF ANTHROPOMETRY 1902 131137: 131
• THE HALFBLOOD INDIAN 1894: 139
• REVIEW OF DR PAUL EHRENREICH ANTHROPOLO: 149
• REVIEW OF WILLIAM Z RIPLEY THE RACES: 155
• Description of human types largely based on skeletal material 165: 165
• THE RELATIONS BETWEEN PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL: 172
• tions 176 types defined as variables 177 difference between a con: 180
• RACE AND CHARACTER 1932: 191
• INTRODUCTION TO INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL: 199
• THE CLASSIFICATION OF AMERICAN LANGUAGES: 211
• CLASSIFICATION OF AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES: 219
• SOME TRAITS OF THE DAKOTA LANGUAGE 1937 226231: 226
• МЕТАРНORICAL EXPRESSION IN THE LANGUAGE: 232
• THE AIMS OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH 1932 243259: 243
• SOME PROBLEMS OF METHODOLOGY IN THE SOCIAL: 260
• THE LIMITATIONS OF THE COMPARATIVE METHOD: 270
• THE METHODS OF ETHNOLOGY 1920 281289: 281
• EVOLUTION OR DIFFUSION 1924 290294: 290
• THE ETHNOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF ESOTERIC: 306
• DOCTRINES 1902 312315: 312
• THE HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN RACE 1911 324330: 324
• ETHNOLOGICAL PROBLEMS IN CANADA 1910 331343: 331
• RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN NORTHWEST AMERICA: 344
• THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF THE KWAKIUTL: 356
• THE GROWTH OF THE SECRET SOCIETIES OF: 379
• THE DEVELOPMENT OF FOLKTALES AND MYTHS: 397
• INTRODUCTION TO JAMES TEIT THE TRADITIONS: 407
• THE GROWTH OF INDIAN MYTHOLOGIES 1895 425436: 425
• DISSEMINATION OF TALES AMONG THE NATIVES: 437
• REVIEW OF G W LOCHER THE SERPENT IN KWA: 446
• STYLISTIC ASPECTS OF PRIMITIVE LITERATURE: 493
• THE FOLKLORE OF THE ESKIMO 1904 503516: 503
• ROMANCE FOLKLORE AMONG AMERICAN INDIANS: 519
• SOME PROBLEMS IN NORTH AMERICAN ARCHAEOL: 525
• REPRESENTATIVE ART OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLE 1916 535540: 535
• REVIEW OF MACCURDY STUDY OF CHIRIQUIAN: 541
• THE RELATIONSHIPS OF THE ESKIMO OF EAST: 593
• THE CONCEPT OF SOUL AMONG THE VANDAU 1920 608611: 609
• ADVANCES IN METHODS OF TEACHING 1898 621625: 621
• THE AIMS OF ETHNOLOGY 1888 626638: 627
• THE STUDY OF GEOGRAPHY 1887 639647: 639

About the author

Franz Boas, a German-born American anthropologist, became the most influential anthropologist of his time. He left Germany because of its antiliberal and anti-Semitic climate. As a Columbia University professor for 37 years (1899-1936), he created both the field of anthropology and the modern concept of culture. Boas played a key role in organizing the American Anthropological Association (AAA) as an umbrella organization for the emerging field. At both Columbia and the AAA, Boas encouraged the "four field" concept of anthropology; he personally contributed to physical anthropology, linguistics, archaeology, as well as cultural anthropology. His work in these fields was pioneering. Both directly and through the influence of such students as Ruth Benedict, Melville J. Herskovits, Alfred L. Kroeber, and Margaret Mead, he set the agenda for all subsequent American cultural anthropology. In His lifetime Boas had many leadership roles including: Assistant curator at the American Museum of Natural History; editor of The Journal of American Folklore; president of the New York Academy of Sciences, and founder of the International Journal of American Linguistics. Boas is the author of hundreds of scientific monographs and articles. He died in 1942.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Race, Language, and Culture; Midway Reprints
• Author: Franz Boas
• Edition: illustrated, reprint, revised
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1982
• ISBN: 0226062414, 9780226062419
• Length: 647 pages
• Subjects: Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural & Social; Social Science / Anthropology / General; Social Science / Anthropology / Physical; Social Science / Archaeology; Social Science / Ethnic Studies / American / Native American Studies; Social Science / General