The measure of America: how a rebel anthropologist waged war on racism, Claudia Roth Pierpont

Résumé du document

Based on Boas's life and achievements, Claudia Roth Pierpont's article ?How a rebel anthropologist waged war on racism' deals with the origins of anthropology in the United States, laying emphasis on the importance of Boas, the "rebel anthropologist?, in the transformation of the common knowledge in those days. As a matter of fact, the young German émigré had decided to settle in the United States and to pursue an academic career. As he wrote, "What I want to live and die for (...) is equal rights for all, equal possibilities to learn and work for poor and rich alike!" Hence the question that arises is, to what extent did Franz Boas deeply changed the conception of anthropology?

Extraits

[...] First, the American Museum of Natural History decided to employ a permanent curator in the anthropological field; secondly, Columbia College expressed the will to establish an anthropology department. Those decisions had both advocates and dissidents, but Boas was determined to keep fighting, and decided to spend his life making a reality of American ideals emphasizes the article. In the early twenties, Boas seemed to be up against the will of a nation He tried to fight against Osborn, the curator of paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History, who published racists articles and who had a deep influence on the contemporary policies. [...]

[...] His popularity and thus influence- increased. Practices, research and thesis While reviewing the evolutionary theory, he developed his own thesis, based on the importance of culture and on the individual (instead of the group). According to him, culture - the total way of life of each population - is unique and distinctive in each group. This asumption was a great way to state that no hierarchy could be drawn between cultures. Instead, each culture is seen as the result of its proper history. [...]

[...] According to the article, he actually thought (and demonstrated) that the primitive ears of anthropologist were responsible for this erroneous view, as they transcribed in different ways what they heard at different times Boas' anthropology was mostly based on social and political arguments rather than on purely scientific ones. As previously mentioned, the positions on public policy issues he opposed were informed (and rationalized by what its militants called science. To change mentalities, Boas had to demonstrate the invalidity of the evolutionary theory, as well as replacing it with an alternative that would support a more liberal political agenda states Sidney M. Greenfield. However, in this context, anthropoligists had few means to lead correctly their research. [...]

[...] Originally, anthropology was based on the study of skulls, and associated with hard sciences. Anthropologists presented their findings as objective science By the twentieth century, most scholars, especially the conservative, had ceased to make explicit the relationship between their scientific undertakings and proposals for public policy On the contrary, they chose to maintain, even if they might knew they were wrong, that they were doing “pure science”. This enabled them to eliminate, in a way, those, such as Boas, who would have different thesis. [...]

[...] To quote him, My ideals have developed because I am what I am and have lived where I have lived He re-conceptualized anthropology, which was previously dominated by evolutionary thinking (Harris, 1968), transforming it into the science that, according to him, would improve conditions by advancing his humanistic and individualistic beliefs One can note that some of current policies base their claims on what are reformulated (in a more politically correct way) evolutionary, racial theories. Perhaps politics should refer to Boas's theories to see current debates with new eyes notably in the United States. Cole p NATURE/NURTURE AND THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF FRANZ BOAS AND MARGARET MEAD AS AN AGENDA FOR REVOLUTIONARY POLITICS1 Sidney M. Greenfield, University of Wisconsin-Milwauke Race and Progress, Franz Boas By opposition to nature, nurture (i.e. empiricism or behaviorism) thesis lays emphasis on personal experiences in determining or causing individual differences in physical and behavioral traits. [...]