In this insightful study, Frank Boas connects aspects of human history with their manifestation in the modern world, describing such topics as race relations, nationalism and education.
When this book was first published in the 1920s, the United States was grappling with racial tensions, with heightening discrimination against black Americans. As such Boas leads with the topic of race, exploring the cultural contrasts that occur between different races. The relationship between a person’s country, and the ideology of nationalism, is explored. Ideas of eugenics, whereby humans breed according to desired traits, are investigated and their limitations explained. Later in the book, concepts such as crime in modern society, and concepts of cultural stability are examined.
Frank Boas is commonly described as the ‘Father of American Anthropology’, in that he pioneered means of understanding the present of North America through the lens of its past. Noted for his strong opposition to pseudoscientific beliefs that sought to affirm faulty notions of racial superiority, Boas was likewise famous for asserting that no culture could be ranked as objectively better or worse – a concept known as cultural relativism. Ideas of evolving refinement, whereby a culture grows more sophisticated with age and interactions between people, are energetically dismissed.
