A Franz Boas Reader: The Shaping of American Anthropology, 1883-1911 (Midway Reprints)

This is an important book to own if you are interested in the history of anthropology. As the title of the book implies, this is a selection of his works written between 1883 and 1911.It was in these years that Boas was most influential in shaping American anthropology. Stocking the editor, selected from Boas' letters, journal articles, lectures andbooks written in this 28 year span. The result is that the reader can access Boas' writingson:1.) The history and development of anthropology.2.) The problems (both theoritical and methodological) in evolutionism, folklore and physical anthropology.3.) How ethnographic fieldwork and linguistics should be done.4.) The idea of race/races in anthropology.5.) The social role of anthropology in American society.Stocking's selections allow the reader to view the development of anthropology in the United States, plus provide insights into Boas as a person. The short essayswritten by Stocking before each section help place the selections in their historical context. Interestingly, several of the issues Boasgrappled with---race as just one example---are still debated and contested by anthropologists today.

Some sixty years after Boas laid the foundation for anthropology in the United States, the profession ralized it was time to study its own history. George Stocking led the way. His intensive review of Boas' work is laid out here with his helpful insights into the founder's essays and articles. The book is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of anthropology.This history differs sharply from Europe's where the traditional subfields of American anthropology are each specialities. (For example, 'anthropology' in England means only cultural anthropology while in France an 'anthrpologist' is trained as a physical anthropologist by American standards.)Boas' insistence that his students, such as A.L. Krober, Robert Lowie, Ruth Benedict, and Margaret Mead, study American Indians because he thought native peoples or their cultures were on the verge of extinction, a commonly held belief in the early twentieth century. Thus, he urged studies of languages, cultures, prehistories, and physical anthropology because he thought racial studies could reveal past history. (Could similarites in physical features between Asians and Indians prove Indian origins in Asia?)In his race to record all that could be recorded, American anthropology started as an historical study eschewing theory, another difference from Europe where grand theories of cultural development were evolving.We owe much to Stocking for his examination of all that Boas did in founding anthropology in the United States.