ANT E105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Cultural Anthropology, Margaret Mead, Scientific Racism
Document Summary
Worked in museum of natural history, nyc (1895-1905) Created first us anthropology department at columbia u. (1899) Argued that there was no necessary path of development in human society. Technologically less-complex societies were not at an earlier phase. Museum displays focused on the material products of culture. Fit the people and the cultures that produced similar artefacts into the same evolutionary stages. Museum displays should show the peoples and cultures that produced the artefacts. Boas: inequality of races was social, not biological. Studies of children of immigrants in nyc. Cultures must be studied in themselves, rather in relation to some universal standard. Cultures are meaningful in their own terms, even though they may not be meaningful in the terms of others (including anthropologists"). Anthropology and its intellectual ancestors have always been applied. Boas had strong principles felt scientists should be active citizens. Criticized divisive, oppressive, unscientific ideas: racism, nationalism.
