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Franz Uri Boas [a] (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and ethnomusicologist. [22] He was a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". [23] [24] [25] His work is associated with the movements known as historical particularism and cultural relativism. [26]
Cultural relativism is the view that concepts and moral values must be understood in their own cultural context and not judged according to the standards of a different culture. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] It asserts the equal validity of all points of view and the relative nature of truth, which is determined by an individual or their culture.
Boas says the primary difference between primitive and civilized society is a shift from irrationality to rationality caused by "an improvement of the traditional material that enters into our habitual mental operations." Boas concludes the book with an examination of racism in the United States. He expresses his hope that anthropology can lead ...
Franz Boas (1858–1942), founder of the Boasian tradition in American anthropology Boasian anthropology was a school within American anthropology founded by Franz Boas in the late 19th century. It was based on the four-field model of anthropology uniting the fields of cultural anthropology , linguistic anthropology , physical anthropology ...
Cultural relativism is a principle that was established as axiomatic in anthropological research by Franz Boas and later popularized by his students. Boas first articulated the idea in 1887: "...civilization is not something absolute, but ... is relative, and ... our ideas and conceptions are true only so far as our civilization goes."
The idea of cultural emphasis is rooted form the work of Franz Boas, who is considered to be one of the founders of American Anthropology. [2] Franz Boas developed and taught concepts such as cultural relativism and the "cultural unconscious", which allowed anthropologists who studied under him, like Edward Sapir and Ruth Benedict, to further study and develop ideas on language and culture.
Benedict was a senior student of Franz Boas when Mead began to study with them, and they had extensive and reciprocal influence on each other's work. Abram Kardiner was also affected by these ideas, and in time, the concept of "modal personality" was born: the cluster of traits most commonly thought to be observed in people of any given culture.
The approach is conventionally understood as having been developed by Franz Boas, who developed the discipline of anthropology in the United States. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] A 2013 re-assessment of the evidence has indicated that the idea of four-field anthropology has a more complex 19th-century history in Europe and North America. [ 3 ]