My Favorite Character of Anthropology ?

FRANZ BOAS

                                                     (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942)

Boas was a German-American Anthropologist was born in Minden, Westphalia. He studied at the Heidelberg and Bonn Universities, after got a postgrade title in 1881 like physicist and geographer by Kiel University. In 1886 he moved to America. After works like teacher of several universities, finally he came to enter to Columbia University in 1899, directing this way the most influent anthropology department in the country. Specialist in the languages, culture and evolution of the American native societies, was the relativist school founder and. In 1911 wrote “The Mind of Primitive Man”, work that was really important, since its publication, was one of the basic texts of anthropology, a discipline that Boas contributed greatly to establish and diffuse. He co-founded the American Anthropological Association and, since 1931, was president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

His most important contributions:

- He studied to Kwakiutl Indians for more than 40 years.

-Developed visual anthropology.

-Precursory of historical particularism.

 -Propelled anthropological linguistics.

- Notable contributions in physical anthropology

-Progress in the field work.

His Books

-The Relation of Darwin to Anthropology

-The Mind of Primitive Man (1911)

-Race, Language, and Culture (1940)

-The Shaping of American Anthropology

-Anthropology and Modern Life (1928)

-Changes Inform of Body of Descendant of Immigrants (1911)

-Culture and Race (1913)

-Primitive Art (1927)

-Dakota Grammar (1941)

As you can see Boas was one of the greatest anthropologists of the last century, not only by the amount of work and material stuff that he do, but its development and introduction of scientific method in anthropological work, is therefore regarded as the father of American anthropology and founder of modern anthropology.

Document reference from:   http://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/b/boas.htm

                                               http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Boas

                                               http://www.liceus.com/cgi-bin/aco/ant/boas.asp

        Bibliography:  Ino Rossi y Edwards O’Higgins, 1981, teorías de la cultura y métodos antropológicos, pp 92-101, Barcelona, editorial Anagrama.