This anthology brings together some of Boas’s most incisive anthropological writings, deliberately setting aside his more well-known ethnographic studies. The distinction between these two facets of his work can be summarized by a quote from the University of Chicago: “Ethnography aims to describe life as it is lived and experienced, by a people, somewhere, sometime. Anthropology, by contrast, is an inquiry into the conditions and possibilities of human life in the world.”
With this focus, the collection presents twelve lesser-known but pivotal essays on anthropology, including the seminal Anthropology and Modern Life.
Here is contents of the book:
Anthropology and modern life
What is anthropology?
The problem of race
The interrelation of races
Nationalism
Eugenics
Criminology
Stability of culture
Education
Modern life and primitive culture
Uncollected anthropological writings
1. Anthropology
2. An Anthropologist’s View of War
Development of larger units
Disappearing groups
Present conditions
Possibility of further extension
Race relationships
The bonds of language
Conclusions
3. ‘A precise criterion of species’
4. Anthropology
5. Psychological problems in anthropology
6. Rudolf Virchow’s anthropological work
7. Some philological aspects of anthropological research
8. Some recent criticisms of physical anthropology
9. The history of anthropology
10. The study of geography
11. The origin of death
12. The limitations of the comparative method of anthropology
