ANTHRO 3AC Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Franz Boas, Scientific Racism, Body Plan
17 Nov 2020
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Lecture 6. 2: the emerging science of sociocultural anthropology: franz boas (1858 - 1942) First professor of anthropology at columbia university: boazian problematization/methodology, identify the problem. Separate biological, social, economic, political aspects of racialization: classify. - separate the component parts of a problem into various aspects or classes: compare. - both cross-cultural and historical analysis: establish the native"s point of view . Cannot speak of absolute solidity of racial classification. All new generations are mixed: analyzes common usage in light of empirical evidence. - classification of the various components of the problem: biology (heredity and selection) physiology, environment, mentality, and personality. Effects of mixing: biology, degeneracy among populations (effect of race-mixing) => important argument: while body form may differ widely among humans, body function does not. => apply same argument to cultural and social institutions: while the forms differ, their functions do not. Boas and sociocultural anthropologists generally apply this same argument. Direct attack on scientific racism: environmental conditions.
