BGCSE (Boas), Franz

(1858-1942) - Amer. anthropologist. Lived in Germany, was educated at the University max Heidelberg, Bonn and Kiel. Scientific activity began in Kiel, where in 1881 he was awarded the degrees Doctor of Philosophy, and Dr. med. Science. Initially, the scope of his scientific interests were physics and mathematics, however, still a student, he switched to Financials. and cultural geography. In 1883-84 he. spent geogr. research on Baffin Island, at once began to collect etnogr. collection. In 1887 he moved to the U.S.. From 1888 to 1892 he taught anthropology at the University are Clark. From 1896 to 1905 was a curator at the Amer. Museum of Natural Science. stories. In 1896, adopted at Columbia University Press as a lecturer in anthropology. Three years later became professor. Anthropology, Columbia University Press, where he worked until his retirement in 1937. For many years, conducted extensive research on physical anthropology, ethnology and linguistics. He was elected to the National. Academy of Sciences, headed by Amer. association of science (American Association for the Advancement of Science). One of the founders of the Amer. anthropological. Association (1902), the journal 'International Journal of American Linguistics' (1917).
The basis of Professor. of B. and training of anthropologists at the Columbia University are lying field work. Since early. 80 x 19 in. to 1900 B. explored the cultural territory NW. Pacific coast from Alaska to Oregon. His work is dedicated to the ethnography of the Eskimo (The Central Eskimo. 1888), was published by the Bureau of Amer. Ethnology as a model organization anthropological. Studies in the U.S.. At cut-there work on the NW. Coast has published over 12 books and numerous articles.

During field studies B. had the following objectives: identify differences and similarities of language, physical characteristics and social customs of the Indians; show their culture for what it is by the Indians, based on a group of Kwakiutl Indians. Exploring certain cultural traits - folklore, myths, depict, arts, crafts, a system of kinship, etc., B. recorded their areas of distribution, which is not always appropriate to their concept of cultural diffusion. Culture of each individual tribe, was a mixture of independent but overlapping each other vectors (types of folklore motifs of art), a rye-shaped psikhol. unity of the Kwakiutl. By definition, B. 'genius' of the people integrated Dep. elements in a meaningful whole. The published texts he served as material for the development of structuralist Levi-Strauss, on a B-cerned. had a great influence. Latest publication of the results of field studies was 'Kwakiutl culture - reflected in the mythology' (Kwakiuti Culture as Reflected in Mythology. 1935).

Experience gained B. in sharp those field studies allowed him to come to the conclusion that the study of decomp. parties biol. and cultural essence of man should be made by different methods: measurement and statistics for biology. features, tests, and grammatical. analysis for language analysis and coherent dissemination of research to cultural phenomena. Additionally stratigrafich. (arheol.) methods to study the cultural past. This approach has identified 'four field' of anthropology, to-rye became the basis for the preparation of anthropologists at Columbia University are.

B. brought to Amer. anthropological tradition of German cultural-historical. school and, in fact, created a school history. Ethnology - direction, determined the development of Amer. anthropological. thoughts with a. 19 to 30-ies. 20 at., A school, for heaven-abandoned Morgan Heritage.

Disciples B. were such eminent anthropologists like Kroeber, Uissler, Lowe, Benedikt, M. Meade, P. Radin, L. White and others. B. laid the foundation Professor. preparation of anthropologists in the U.S..

B. as a theorist relied primarily on the experience of field research. Understanding the duality of culture - cultural traits spread through the diffusion and interaction, their integration into a fixed pattern and integrity, B. contrasted the dominant evolutionary anthropology 19. He developed the concept of 'cultural area', for the development of-swarm in 1910 described the seven cultural areas North. America (Inuit, North. Pacific coast, Zap. Plateau MacKenzie, California, Great Plains, East. Woodland, South-West). His disciple Herskovits proposed a scheme for cultural territories of Africa in 1924, etc.. The school B. the classification of cultural territories retain their importance until the middle. 20 in.

B. understanding of the scientific (historical) method as the accumulation of a large number of facts and their subsequent description, in contrast to theor. generalizations evolutionism. Unlike evolutionists, to-rye sought to emphasize the universal and the similarities in different cultures, he stressed the peculiarities of each culture as a res-t of his own. Development. The difference, feature amer. Anthropology after B. is the recognition of the concept of 'culture' main. He made a great contribution to the development of ethnography, linguistics and other areas of anthropology.