Franz Boas

E2523

Franz Boas was a pioneering German-American anthropologist often regarded as the "father of American anthropology" for his foundational work in cultural relativism and field-based ethnographic research.

All labels observed (4)

Label Occurrences
Franz Boas canonical 66
Boasian anthropology 1
Franz Uri Boas 1

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (71)

Predicate Object
instanceOf academic
anthropologist
ethnologist
human
professor
academicDegree PhD in physics
birthName Franz Boas self-linksurface differs
surface form: Franz Uri Boas
causeOfDeath stroke
child Franziska Boas
citizenship German Empire
United States of America
countryOfBirth Germany
Prussia
surface form: Kingdom of Prussia
dateOfBirth 1858-07-09
dateOfDeath 1942-12-21
describedAs father of American anthropology
doctoralThesisTopic color perception in seawater
educatedAt University of Bonn
Heidelberg University
surface form: University of Heidelberg

University of Kiel
employer American Museum of Natural History (original buildings)
surface form: American Museum of Natural History

Columbia University
ethnicGroup German Jews
fieldOfWork anthropology
cultural anthropology
ethnology
folkloristics
linguistic anthropology
influenced Alfred L. Kroeber
Ashley Montagu
Edward Sapir
Leslie Spier
Margaret Mead
Melville J. Herskovits
Paul Radin
Ralph Linton
Ruth Benedict
Zora Neale Hurston
influencedBy Adolf Bastian
Rudolf Virchow
knownFor Franz Boas self-linksurface differs
surface form: Boasian anthropology

critiquing scientific racism
developing cultural relativism
field-based ethnographic research
founding American cultural anthropology
promoting historical particularism
languageSpoken English
German
memberOf American Anthropological Association
movement Boasian school of anthropology
name Franz Boas self-link
notableWork Anthropology and Modern Life
Handbook of American Indian Languages
Kwakiutl Ethnography
Race, Language and Culture
The Mind of Primitive Man
opposed biological determinism
scientific racism
placeOfBirth Westphalia
surface form: Minden, Westphalia, Kingdom of Prussia
placeOfDeath New York City
surface form: New York City, New York, United States
positionHeld president of the American Anthropological Association
president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
professor of anthropology at Columbia University
religion Judaism
researchFocus Indigenous peoples of North America
surface form: Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast

Inuit
surface form: Inuit communities of Baffin Island

Kwakwaka'wakw (Kwakiutl) culture
sexOrGender male
spouse Marie Krackowizer
theory cultural relativism
historical particularism

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (69)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Robert H. Lowie studiedUnder Franz Boas
Robert H. Lowie influencedBy Franz Boas
Benjamin Lee Whorf influencedBy Franz Boas
Ernst Boas father Franz Boas
Luther Cressman academicAdvisor Franz Boas
Luther Cressman influencedBy Franz Boas
Ruth Boas relative Franz Boas
Roland B. Dixon influencedBy Franz Boas
Ruth Fulton academicAdvisor Franz Boas
Ruth Fulton studentOf Franz Boas
Ruth Fulton influencedBy Franz Boas
Kwakwaka’wakw (Kwak’wala) hasLinguisticResearch Franz Boas
subject surface form: Kwakʼwala
Sex and Temperament influencedBy Franz Boas
BAE employed Franz Boas
subject surface form: Bureau of American Ethnology
John R. Swanton influencedBy Franz Boas
Mary Haas influencedBy Franz Boas