Anthropology 1020E Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Franz Boas, Cultural Anthropology, Cultural Relativism
27 Apr 2015
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Culture as sociocultural anthropology"s most significant contribution to human thought (txt:48) Culture as an alternative to race in the us especially. Among other things, boas did research that countered prevalent american beliefs in hereditary. Weakness and inferiority of certain immigrant nationalities. (txt:48) What we learn as members of society allows us to pursue various paths in life. Disproved american ideas about immigrant populations and their ability to be successful to a certain degree in america at the time (especially african americans as well as new immigrant populations) Emphasis on nurture over nature; on culture over race. For boas and his students (including mead), fighting racism and ethnocentrism was a primary mission. (txt:48) Female circumcision (txt:51) or as, some call it, female genital mutilation. Cultural relativism does not equate to moral relativism. Not being objective and considering cultural relativism would disable anthropologists from getting a good idea of where practices originate and what purpose they serve in a society.
