ANTH 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Franz Boas, Biological Anthropology, Cultural Evolution
Document Summary
Anthropology is the study of human variation over space and over time. Relatively new discipline which only started in the u. s. ~ 19000. Franz boas established the first department of anthropology at columbia university in. All fields tend to be comparative and compare/contrast human societies across time and space. All fields emphasize fieldwork to collect data rather than using secondary data. For the most part, all fields recognize the importance of evolution which broadly means that variation we see today is due to change over time. All fields tend to be holistic and integrate understandings of human biology, behavior, and culture from across the table. Early cultural evolution thought race could be measured using characteristics such as skin color, head size, moral, and mental capacities. Then, races could be classified from inferior/primitive o superior/civilized. Boas and his students directly attacked this racist cultural evolution.
