The Passion of Franz Boas Author(s): Herbert S. Lewis Source: American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 103, No.

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HERBERTS. LEWIS

ProfessorEmeritus Departmentof Anthropology University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI 53706

The Passionof FranzBoas

as a champion The reputation of FranzBoas as a scientistdeclinedin the decadesafterhis deathin 1942, buthis reputation intact.Morerecently,however,some writershavequestionedthe sinof humanrightsandan opponentof racismremained andhis workagainstracismandethnocentrism. Others of his anthropology cerity,theresults,andthe politicalimplications In this essay I have beencriticalof his relatios with colleaguesandstudentssuch as Ella DeloriaandZoraNeale Hurston. discuss some of these claims and presenta morepositive view. FranzBoas was passionatelyand consistentlyconcerned andthe defeatof prejuabouthumanrightsandindividualliberty,freedomof inquiryandspeech,equalityof opportunity, andhe was as muchof a He struggledfor a lifetimeto advancea science thatwould servehumanity, dice andchauvinism. in privateas he was in public.[Boas,politicalstruggles,humanrelations] humanitarian

the puregrammatical My aim has been to conjureup "neither as Foucaulthimnor the psychological subject," subject deep the one who says 'I' in the works, self once put it, "butrather the letters,the drafts,the sketches,the personalsecrets." -James Miller,ThePassion ofMichel Foucault hen a group of scholars believes that they have a new and better way to understand reality than their teachers and predecessors, it is quite natural that they turn on those forerunners and try to demonstrate their superiority. To them the previous generation seems hopelessly old-fashioned, wrongheaded, and on the wrong track. This was the case in anthropology in the mid-1950s when a group of dynamic young scholars entered the field. They were convinced of the necessity to turn anthropology into a "real" science, one that could deal with regularities, causality, and law. The answers were to be sought in the core features of material culture and technology, the organization of economies, and the relations between culture and environment. Leslie White and Julian Steward were the gods; Morton Fried, Marvin Harris, Robert A. Manners, Marshall Sahlins the Younger, Elman Service, and Eric Wolf were among their prophets. Under these circumstances, Franz Boas, who had strongly cautioned against hasty and unsupported generalizations and against determinisms of all sorts (biological, geographical, economic, or psychological), whose ethnographies did not come to closure in tidy packages, would seem to be a foolish old man holding back the advance of science. His suspicion of universal categories, his rejection W
x

of grand narratives (before we knew that this is what they were called), and his stress on diversity and historical contingency were not appreciatedthen. He was, however, honored for his insistence upon the equality of all peoples and his battle against racism and ethnocentrism, even if his approach to science was in disrepute. It is understandable that each intellectual generation feels it must distance itself from its predecessors, something Boas himself understood and appreciated.1 In the 1960s, however, criticism of Boas began to develop an additional dimension-an attack on the character of the man himself. Leslie White (1966:26-28) accused Boas of a number of unpleasant things, especially of being receptive only to Jewish students and being prejudiced against American scholarship. It was a nasty little piece, but it probably had some lingering effect, as these things often do. (In fact, Boas's allies and closest associates included such non-Jews as Ruth Fulton Benedict, Elsie Clews Parsons, Gladys Reichard, Margaret Mead, Frederic Ward Putnam, Livingston Farrand,Henry H. Donaldson, Frank Speck, W J McGee, Fay-Cooper Cole, Alfred Tozzer, and L. C. Dunn.) More recently, however, there has been an efflorescence of denigration of Franz Boas, his motivations, his relations to others, and, most seriously, the long-term impact of his ideas on race and culture. One of the earliest manifestations of this new view of Boas came in a paper by William S. Willis Jr., in which he argued (among other things) that Boasian "Scientific antiracism was concerned only secondarily with colored peoples" (1969:139, emphasis in original). Willis contended that "scientific antiracism" was in

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to combatanti-Semitism andan inrealityboth an attempt tellectual weapon in the struggleof Boas and the other of anthroJews aroundhim "forthe domination European the United States" He concluded that in 139). (p. pology the effortof Boas andhis colleaguesto combatracismwas of coloredpeoplesfor the benefit exploitation just "another in the influentialwork as a chapter This paperappeared editedby Dell Hymes, Reinventing (1969), Anthropology of the andit reflectedthe generalangeranddissatisfaction late 1960s.Willis wouldlaterdevelopconsiderable respect for FranzBoas, but this piece was one of those that set a tone for succeedingdiscourseon the subjectof anthropology and "the study of dominatedcolored peoples" (p. 146).3 In the era of postcolonialand criticalstudiesthereis a newertropethat sees Boas's work as even more harmful. K. Visweswarancontends that Boas's "scientificantiracism"itself hadterrible results.In a 1998 papershe writes, "I suggestthe disturbing to expossibilitythatthe attempt pungerace from social science by assigningit to biology, as Boas and his studentsdid, helpedlegitimatethe scientific studyof race,therebyfuelingthe machineof scientific racism"(1998:70). Whatcan be more of a condemnation than that? What we used to think was "a good thing," Boas's many-sidedattackon racism,we are now told was in fact very bad-not just becauseothersmisusedhis science butbecausehe got it so wrong. It is true,of course,thatthe findingsof science may be co-opted and used by those with differentand pernicious agendas.I contend,however,thatthishas not beenthe case It has not been cowith Boas's "scientificanti-racism." Visweswaran and misused as believes, nor has she opted it coherent of how occurred and what role a given picture Boas's workcould have playedin it. In fact, the realpoint of Visweswaran'sarticleis to presentherown thinkingon anda potential the nature of "race" as a socialconstruct political tool for the use of the dominated.The questionis and inacwhy she felt it necessaryto launchan irrelevant curateassaulton FranzBoas in orderto accomplishthat aim.4 Similarly,FranzBoas's effortsto learnaboutKwakiutl culturethroughthe texts collected in (Kwakwaka'wakw) to harshcritithatlanguageby GeorgeHuntare subjected Bauman(1999). Gocism by CharlesBriggs and Richard ing far beyond earliercritics like Verne Ray (1955) and Leslie White (1963), who had foundBoas's effortsinadequateif not useless, Briggs andBaumancontendthatthese Whiledenyingthatthey intendto texts weretrulyharmful. damnBoas (p. 481), they find that his work "fit into the largercontours of colonial dominationthat increasingly deprivedNative Americancommunitiesof land, material wealth,and culturaland linguisticautonomy" (1999:516)! find him in controlof white They "complicit naturalizing Native Americancommunitiesand the ideology of 'asof white people" (p. 139).2

similation'" (p. 519) andtheyeven claimthattheseKwakwaka'wakwtexts "formedcrucial dimensionsnot only of but of creatingan Americandiscipline of anthropology constructing fin de siecle modernityas well" (1999:522, emphasisadded).All thisbecausehe urgedGeorgeHuntto collect accuratedescriptionsof the technology,customs, in their beliefs, laws, and storiesof the Kwakwaka'wakw, and preconown language,concentrating on "traditional" tactmaterial as muchas possible. this dense fiftyThere is no room here to deconstruct a we ask how series of recondite but texts, may pagepaper, read by at most a handfulof academicspecialists,could conseconceivably have had such world-constructing At a when Kwakwaka'wakw time the (and all quences. Native American communities) had been under white dominationfor generations,when their way of life and practiceswere underconstantattackand had undergone how manychanges,couldthe collectionof texts,no matter ineptly done, possibly have had such consequencesfor these peoples-and for "modernity" as well? Briggs and Bauman can only assertit; they cannotdemonstrate it. Theirpaperrepresents a commonpattern in deconstructionistandpostcolonialscholarship: the attempt to demonstrate thatsome phenomenon thatmightseempositiveor at least neutralwas, in fact, injuriousto the "Other." In this case it is "thetextualconstruction of Others" (p. 482)-in theirwords.Notingthat"Ethnopoetics andpost-structuralist critiques of ethnography have convergedof latein casta favorable on Boas's oeuvre" (p. 481), the ing light authorsset out to demonstrate that this favorableevaluation is wrong. (They cite, among others,Clifford 1982, 1988;Hymes 1981, 1985;Krupat1992.) Theirpaperhas a outcome,one thatleaves us poorerin our sadlypredictable of understanding Boas, his work,andthe processesof social and culturalchange.As Hymes and otherspoint out, the textsremainas a recordof the language, poetry,beliefs, ideas, arts,and practicesof the people, availablefor both the descendantsof the Kwakwaka'wakwinformantsas well as for outsiderlinguists,anthropologists, and literary scholars.Dell Hymes writes of his studies of texts from thesecollections,"Ithinkof it as repatriation, for the benefit of descendants of those who inhabited the narrative tradition and of others who can learn from it. Lear more deeply what was therebefore the whites came, what has been lost"(1999a:xviii,also 1999b;cf. Berman1996;DeMallie 1999; Jacknis 1996:209). It was precisely Boas's insistenceon tryingto record"whathas been lost,"which Briggs andBaumandeplore,thatmakesthe texts so valuabletoday. In anothersphere,as ZoraNeale Hurston,Boas's onetime student,has become a figure of considerable importance, a numberof writers (Hazel Carby [1990], Karla Holloway [1987], Susan E. Meisenhelder[1999], Guido Podesta[1991]) believe they have discoveredthatBoas's influencewas actuallybanefulto Hurstonand her work.

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andencourOne mightthinkthata teacherwho supported a in the to Ph.D. black woman 1920s a the get through aged and of southern culture study Negro mightbe appreciation lauded for this, but one would be wrong. As George Hutchinsonwrites, "Yet Boas's very encouragement of Hurstonas an anthropologist has, in recent years, been used againsthim in arguments [long on innuendo,shorton evidence] about how she had to fight for creativeindependence!"(1995:70, also 462-464). Meisenhelder,for the focus of her reexample, blames Boas for "dictating her as an aid or informant searchandtreating rather thana in her own right"(1999:15), and she writesof researcher Hurston's"covertresistance" to him. At best, these assertions arebaseduponunnecessarily harshreadingsof a few lettersbetween Hurstonand Boas, but they are typicalof the currentdiscourse(e.g., Meisenhelder1999:14-17; cf. Podesta1991:397).5 Holloway goes even farther, drawingupon the terrible if not of slavery,writing, image of the Southern plantation, "It is not unfairto see 'PapaFranz'as the paternalwhite overseerto this black woman studentwho called herself Barnard's'sacredBlack cow' in a forthright andunambiof her status" (1987:2). Whatcan guous acknowledgment be moredamningthanthis,if true?I suggest,however,that such an interpretation is bothunwarranted by the available evidenceandunhelpful for ourunderstanding of Hurston's life or accomplishments.6 LikeZoraNeale Hurston, EllaDeloria,a Dakotawoman who workedclosely with FranzBoas, has also gainedbelated recognitionas an author.In this case, Janet Finn in theirrelationship as (1995) believestherewereproblems well, imputing culturalinsensitivityand lack of underto Boas. (See morebelow.) standing Thus, accordingto these accounts,not only did Franz Boas hold backthe advanceof science and treatnon-Jewish students andminority womenbadly,buthe was also refor the both of "scientific racism" and sponsible resurgence the creationof a climateconduciveto colonialdomination as well. The last shredsof Boasianpride,the last propthat sustainedrespectfor Boas's accomplishments in the quest for the good, the true,and the humane,has been knocked fromunderhim. Farfromhavingstoodup to anddefeated scientificracism,Boas is now seen to have been complicit in furthering in naturalizing it, as well as being "complicit whitecontrolof NativeAmerican andcomcommunities," plicit in the failureof liberalpluralismand the developmentof "thelanguageof cloakedracism" (Star1997).

Franz Boas and the Zeitgeist

I contendthatmost of these negativeclaims aboutBoas arenot well-foundedcriticismsof the resultsof his anthropological work or of his relations with others but are and sometimesfar-fetched. (Thereis no largelygratuitous room here to take them on in detail,but one could make

convincing argumentsagainst them all.) Why do these writersmakesuchharshbutunsupported claims,andwhat does it tell us aboutourtimes? As neverbefore,anthropologists andtheirinterlocutors are looking at anthropology's past in a critical manner. This trendbeganas partof the generalcriticismof American and "Western" society duringthe late 1960s (Hymes 1969, for example).It was sparked by the generaldissatisfactionand the angerthataccompanied the VietnamWar and was heightenedby the strugglesof the civil rights movement,the movementfor women's rights,the worldwide studentmovementsof the late 1960s, and concern aboutthe conditionof peoplesin the colonialworld.Some of the earliest critics and advocatesof "criticaltheory" drew heavily on Marxist writings, but they were soon joined, and overwhelmedby, scholars concerned with women's studies, black and other ethnic studies, the Frenchconnection(Foucault,Derrida,and many others), postcolonialand subalternstudies, culturalstudies, and "critical studies."Clearlythe discourseof criticismof anis over-determined (see Lewis 1998a). thropology Along with these came "theliteraryturn"of postmodernism,CliffordGeertz'spieces aboutthe writingof anand the developmentof a historiography of thropologists, anthropology ably led by GeorgeW. StockingJr.Whereas Stockingand many of those he has inspiredtend toward "historicism" (Stocking 1968:1-12), much of the other has the to "critical writing negativeairthatis fundamental studies"and Critiqueof Anthropology. Given these cirit is not surprising thattherewill be a variety cumstances, of critiques of FranzBoas. He presentsa huge target; there is so muchof him everywhere thathe is veryeasy to hit.7 Over the decades there have been several distinct sourcesof criticismof FranzBoas. The first majorcriticism within the field of anthropology came from those who took the scientistic and positivisticperspectivethat was usually associated with neo-evolutionism,cultural materialism. Boas was portrayed as a ecology, andcultural merecollectorof facts, rushingaboutto save scrapsof informationabout dying cultures with "a philosophy of 'planless hodge-podge-ism'" (White 1943:355). Earlier thanthis, of course,the proponents of racialdeterminism and"nativism" saw Boas as an enemy whose workthreatenedtheirview of the necessityfor "whitesof solid AngloSaxon stock" to keep the "lesser breeds"from spoiling theirAmerica.And even todaytherearethose on the right of the sociopolitical spectrum,such as the late Allen Bloom (1988) and Dinesh D'Souza (1995), who consider whatthey believe to be the cultural relativism of Boas and his students and morally politicallyreprehensible. Normally we would expect that those who have condistemptfor positivismandscientismmightbe favorably posed towardone who is thoughtto have been opposedto the same things. We would also expect that enemies of racism,who celebratediversity,would also celebratethe

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man who led the fight againstracismandfor the appreciation of othercultures.But we wouldbe wrongagain.Even be seen as a forerunner thoughFranzBoas can reasonably of certainkey ideas thatare held deartoday,his criticson side seem more unforgiving than the "postmodernist" side. thoseon the "modernist" rationalefor such critiquesmight be A postmodernist Boas's becausethey contextualize thatthey are important work and his activities as a liberalbeyond his own selfawareness.Such analyses are meant to show the uninin a tendedconsequencesof even high-minded scholarship society such as ours. But these fashionablecritiquesare often insensitiveto historicalcontext, eschew benign but and are equally reasonable alternative interpretations, cavalieraboutcauseandeffect.They rarelyincludea demof the actuallinkagesbetweenthe writtenword onstration thatthesetexts aresaidto havecausedto "the harm the and Other." In the restof the essay I offer a view of the FranzBoas, with specific referenceto his politicalactivitiesandhis relationswith others,thatI hope may encouragesome readof FranzBoas andmorecritiers to be moreunderstanding cal of the negativeclaims. His life was lived in the service of preciselythe valuesprofessedby manyof his critics,and he achieved positive results that few scholarshave ever matched.While it is certainlytrue that anyone's best effortsmay go wrong,andone's scholarship maybe misused and perverted by others,I believe thatBoas's criticshave thatthishas beenthe case. so farfailedto demonstrate

Franz Boas's Ideals

FranzBoas's valueswill seem naive to some today,but here is a summaryof the centralbeliefs that he brought with him from the startof his long career,as they can be derivedfromhis published writingsandletters. the sci1. Boas believedin the pursuitof "truth" through "in the interestsof mankind" ence of anthropology (a however, phrase he often used). Any such "truths," could only be tentativeand falliblebecausehe (like his the pragmatists)recognized that all contemporaries, premises, conclusions, and beliefs are-and by their very naturemust be-subject to criticism,challenge, modification,and furtherinterpretation. (For more on see Lewis 2001.) As Boas himBoas and pragmatism our generation self wrote,"Whatever may achievewill attainin course of time that venerableaspectthat will lay in chainsthe mindsof the greatmass of oursuccesnew effortsto free a futuregensors andit will require erationof the shacklesthatwe areforging"(1918:140). andhisHis science was built upon bothhumanistic as well as those of the physical scitoricisttraditions ences. When appropriate, for studiesof humangrowth and child development,or studiesof humanvariation, he wouldcall uponanthropometry andthe new field of At statistics(in which he was a significantinnovator). and othertimes he addressed humanhistory,creativity, emotion,perhapsthroughthe arts or languageor even politics. For him to advancehis program meantnot only carand the out research rying reporting resultsbuttraining in the institutions students, establishing anthropological United States and elsewhere,securingfundingfor reand strivingto get research searchersand institutions, resultspublished.He worked actively and simultaneously on all of thesefrontsuntilthe day he died. 2. He believed,earlyin his careerat least, thatanthropology-science--could be used to improve the human conditionby lessening the reign of the unknownand of tradition" [Stock("theirrational ignorance authority andmisunand the ing 1979:96]) by decreasing barriers amongpeoples. He thoughtof anthropolderstandings with which to fight for the rights of the as atool ogy and And he believedin taking oppressed the mistreated. an activist stance in the world regardlessof the odds againsthim and the causes in which he believed. "For Boas, 'doing something'always meant using his science in the causeof man"(Bunzel 1962:6).This will be in this paper. amplydemonstrated 3. He insisteduponfreedomof inquiryandfreedomof expression and was devoted to the idea that a person should develop his or her own "innatepowers" and He fought shouldbe a thinking, individual. independent the of tradition and convention constraints ("the against

In Defense of Franz Boas

It is difficulttodayto realizethe extentof FranzBoas's and as a influence as a scholar,as an institution-builder, was so of his work because the intellectual, scope public enormousand his impact was so widespread.In the absence of any complete biography,we must dependupon widely scattered articles and chapters.8Even George to our Stocking's numerousindispensablecontributions of FranzBoas pale before knowledge and understanding the magnitude of the man's effortsand accomplishments, andDouglasCole's recentbiography (1999) of Boas takes us only up to 1906.TheAA memoirseditedby A. L. Kroeber (1943) and Walter Goldschmidt(1959) broughttogetherthe efforts of more than a dozen specialiststo discuss andevaluatedifferent aspectsof his work,buttheydid not begin to cover the total rangeof even his scholarship, Unlet alonehis politicaleffortsor his institution-building. about his that should be written til we get the greatworks life andwork,we mustcontinuewritingarticlesandchaplittlebits to the overallmosaic.9 tersandhopeto contribute

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shacklesof dogma")all his life. (Boas quotedin Stocking 1974:4142.) hisconcerns: In 1939Boaswroteto JohnDewey about
Therearetwo mattersto which I am devoted:absoluteintellectual and spiritualfreedom, and the subordination of the state to the interestsof the individual;expressed in other of conditionsin which the individual forms, the furthering can developto the best of his own ability-as faras it is posof the fettersimposeduponus sible with a full understanding and the fight againstall forms of powerpolicy by tradition; of states or privateorganizations. This means a devotionto of I a true democracy. objectto the teachingof sloprinciples intended to befog the mind, of whateverkindthey may gans be. [11/6/39]1'

other[hand],a struggleto defendthe validityof alternative cultural worlds"(1979:97).And throughout his career,almost 60 years,he laboredceaselessly to put these values intopractice.

The Background
FranzBoas derivedthese core values fromthe worldin which he grew up, in Germanyat a moment in history when there was a strongpolitically liberal,intellectually self-conscious movement among scientists, artists, and thinkers (Liss 1996). This momentdrewuponelementsof the Enlightenment and the Romantic-Liberal movements Jews who wereinfluand,in the case of the manyGerman enced by it, the Jewish prophetictraditionas well. (Boas himself would probablyhave been hesitant to acknowledge the last,however[Glick1982;Liss 1997].) "Thebackground of my early thinkingwas a German home in whichthe ideals of the revolutionof 1848 were a valuedsciliving force"(Boas 1938a:201).This tradition ence, knowledge,freedom,andthe role of the freethinking individual. Its heroes included Kant, Herder, Goethe, Schiller,Lessing,Moses Mendelssohn, Beethoven,andthe Von Humboldtbrothers(Wilhelm the linguist,educator, and statesman; Alexanderthe great traveler,geographer, and cosmographer). It was a peculiarly GermanmoveJews embraced ment,andone thatmanyGerman passionAnd these Jews was Boas's (Mosse 1985). ately among mother, Sophie, who was an educatorand feminist, to whomhe was particularly close." FranzBoas was bornin 1858, a decadeafterthe unsuccessful revolutionof 1848, but despitethe rigidregimeof ChancellorBismarkthere were still people in Germany who believed in these principles. One of these was RudolphVirchow,a physician,pathologist,scientist,and radicalactivist,who was prominent in Germanscienceand Boas admired Virchow politics. greatly,took a course in with him before anthropometry embarkingon his Baffin Islandfield tripin 1883, andclearlylookeduponthe older manas a figureto emulate(Stocking1974:22). The failureof the Revolutionof 1848 had,however,led to the emigration to America of the "Forty-Eighters," people such as Franz'suncle by marriage, AbrahamJacobi,who becamea leadingphysiciananda well-knownandoutspoken liberal humanitarian (Boas and Meyer 1999; Link Ottilie abolitionist and translator and sup1949); Assing, of Frederick Carl libSchurz,prominent porter Douglass; eral politicianwho fought againstslavery and corruption andfor education, andthe rightsof laboring "culture," people; andFelix Adler,the founderof the Society for Ethical who workedfor maternal andchildwelfare,mediCulture, cal care for the poor, and civic reform (as did Jacobi). Franz'swife's father,ErnstKrakowizer, who died before Boas couldmeethim,wasanother such"scientist, physician,

4. He ferventlybelieved in the absolute value of equal for all individuals andpeorightsandequalopportunity He hated and into cateples. classifying lumpingpeople and insisted the of individualgories upon importance ity. He had contempt for chauvinism and narrow loyaltiesat the expense of othergroupsand of humankind. This also meant respectingother ways of life, othercultures, andnot assuminga priorithe superiority of one's own.
It is somewhatdifficult for us to recognize that the value which we attribute to our own civilizationis due to the fact that we participate in this civilization,and that it has been all our actions since the time of ourbirth; but it is controlling that conceivable there be other civilizations, certainly may basedperhapson differenttraditions and on a differentequilibriumof emotion and reason, which are of no less value thanours,althoughit may be impossiblefor us to appreciate their values withouthaving grown up undertheirinfluence. The generaltheoryof valuationof humanactivities,as develresearch,teachesus a highertoleroped by anthropological ance than the one which we now profess. [Boas 1911:208209]

5. Althoughhe arguedstrenuously againstthe assumption thatone's own culture(American,German,"western," or any other)was superior to others,he did not, as a result, arguethatone shouldsuspendjudgementon matters of ultimatevalues. He was not an ethicalrelativist but believed fervently in the pursuitof these values (Bunzel 1962:9). As ananthropologist I feel verystrongly thatit is possible to
state certain fundamental truths which are common to all the form in which they occur in mankind,notwithstanding are a special societies. These generalhumancharacteristics protection against a general relativisticattitude.I believe thatthe abilityto see the generalhumantruth underthe social forms in which it occursis one of the viewpointsthatought to be most stronglyemphasized.[letterto ACLS, 2/17/41, emphasisadded]

FranzBoas's perspective has been described by George Stocking"as a struggleto preservethe culturalconditions of the searchfor universalrational knowledge,and on the

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reformer" (Liss 1996:179). FranzBoas joined this company in America in 1887.12

Franz Boas's Ideals in Words and Action

After completinghis Ph.D. in psychophysicsin Germany (U. of Kiel), servinghis year of compulsoryservice in the Germanarmy,and spendinga yearcarryingout researchamongthe Inuitof BaffinIsland,Boas hadto decide whereandhow to pursuehis goals andhis career.We are to have the evidence of his thinkingfrom letters fortunate thathe wrote to his parentsin Germanyand to the young MarieKrakowizer, womanhe loved andwantedto marry, who lived in New York. he wroteher(December23, Whilehe was in Baffinland 1883): in is deeplyimplanted andoldcustoms Thefearof traditions
life here [among andin the same way as it regulates mankind, the Eskimos],it halts all progressfor us. I believe it is a difficult strugglefor every individualandevery people to give up andfollow the pathto truth.... I believe,if this trip traditions has for me (as a thinkingperson)a valuableinfluence,it lies of the viewpoint of the relativityof all in the strengthening cultivation[bildung]andthatthe evil as well as the valueof a person lies in the cultivationof the heart[herzensbildung], whichI findherejust as muchas amongstus, andthatall service, therefore,which a man can performfor humanitymust serve to promote truth. Indeed, if he who promotes truth searchesfor it and spreadsit, it may be said thathe has not lived in vain! [Cole 1983:33,37]13

a partin it" (12/8/30, Boas quotedin Rohner1969:295).14 Consideringthe apparentlyheartfelt sentimentshe exactivityalone pressedto Marieandto his uncle ("scientific and his is not enough;I mustbe able to livingly create"), behavior,it is very likely thathe was thinking subsequent at least as much of politicalprogressas his personalacademic advancement (Hyatt 1990:12; Stocking 1968:150; cf. Barkan1992:78-79).

Early Years: The Critique of Racism and Ethnocentrism

FranzBoas came to the United States to stay in 1886, he and, althoughhe rapidlywon professionalrecognition, for hada difficulttimeearning a living andfindingstability the firstdecade.He held a numberof temporary positions until 1896, when he finally got posts in New York at the UniAmericanMuseumof NaturalHistoryandColumbia this time he had a versity. During growing family, with four children(he eventuallyhad six, but one died within the first year),and he carriedon an incrediblepace of research, publication,and organization.His research inthe cluded fieldwork in Northwest Coast ethnography, and generalstudyof Indianlanguages,andanthropometric statisticalstudiesof the growthand developmentof childrenin Worcester, He workedas an assisMassachusetts. tant editorof Science, starteda programof researchand at Clark University,and collaboteaching anthropology at the World's ratedin the organization of anthropology Columbian Expositionandthe FieldMuseumin Chicago. Boas played a leading role in foundingthe American Folklore Society and editing the Journal of American in raisingthe statusof the Anthropological SoFolk-Lore, of in and furtherciety Washington (Stocking 1968:283), ing researchon AmericanIndian languagesthroughthe Smithsonian/Bureau of AmericanEthnology.Duringthis he a period published numberof classic articleswith portentoustheoretical andthe book The Central implications, and andlesserarticles. Eskimo, manyreports, monographs, His bibliography for the years 1886-96 contains170 items that rangeover the fields of physical and culturalanthropology, linguistics,psychology,geography,andmeteorolin Kroeber1943). And throughout this ogy (bibliography amountof time and periodhe hadto expendan inordinate energy on personal and professionalstruggles at Clark Universityandthe Field Museum,and with the Bureauof American Ethnology(Hyatt1990;Stocking1960, 1968). The idea thatFranzBoas did not engage in overtpolitical activityduringhis firstdecadesin the UnitedStateshas becomewidelyaccepted. is the mostdismissiveof (Barkan Boas's political concerns, writing, "the ivory tower remained a secludedhaven for him duringthe next thirty years" [1992:89], but see also Baker 1997; Levenstein 1963; Stocking 1979) Given his employmentproblems andthe activitiesandaccomplishments enumerated above,

And on January 22, 1884Will fortunebe good to me thatI can hope to see our fondest wishes realizedspeedily?I do not want a Germanprofessorto my scienceandto shipbecauseI know I wouldbe restricted teaching,for which I have little inclination.I should much preferto live in Americain orderto be able to furtherthose ideas for which I live.... WhatI want to live and die for, is equal rights for all, equal possibilitiesto learn and work for poor andrich alike! Don't you believe thatto have done even the smallest bit for this, is more than all science taken together?I do not think I would be allowed to do this in Germany.[Cole 1983:37]13

After spendingthe winterof 1884 in New York,he returnedto Germany,where he accepteda position at the Ethnological Museum in Berlin and gained the title of Docent in Geography. By 1886 he had left Germanyand soon aftercommittedhimself to life in the United States (Herskovits 1953:12). Looking back on his decision in 1930, he wrotehis sister,"Themainreasonwas probably thatI saw no futurethereandthatI wantedto get married. [Mariewas an American.]But therewas more behindit. The anti-Semitismduring my university years, the intriguesin Berlin when I wantedto habilitatemyself, and the ideathatAmericawas politicallyan idealcountry seem to havebeenthe mainmotives.The draftprobably also had

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ask whenhe wouldhave had time to we mightreasonably become politicallyengaged,but thereare otherreasonsto question this idea. Although he may not have been inandcausesduring volved in specificpoliticalorganizations he first in was his years America, alreadyworkingtoward of a new view of humanityin keeping the establishment withbothhis science andhis values. When Boas began his work in America,evolutionism in anthrowas the dominant (even "hegemonic") paradigm of pology, sociology, and politicaleconomy. Intellectuals the politicalleft were as investedin evolutionismas were those on the right(see Pittinger1993;Ster 1931). In addition to evolutionism,racialdeterminism and Social Darwinismwerealso in the ascendance (Harris1968;Stocking 1968), andthese touchedthe emotionsandsocioeconomic interestsof AmericanandEuropean elites even more.This was the era of the passageof Jim Crow laws, racialsegregation,and anti-blackand antiforeigner agitation.Despite theirentrenched statusin AmericanandEuropean intellectual and political life, however, Boas, a new immigrant, to combatall of these fromthe very virtuallyalone,started of his career,drawinguponhis view of humanbeginning and on his science. Werethesenotpoliticalacts? ity attack on in addition Boas's to its theoretievolutionism, cal and technicalaspects,involvedan attempt to establish the commonhumanity of "primitive man"in scientificand populardiscourse;to remove the supposedgap between "our"minds and "theirs;" and to questionthe assumption that "our"culture is special, exalted, better than others (Boas 1888, 1899, 1904). As Stocking(1968) has shown, the evolutionismof this periodwas heavily weightedwith of the biologicalandmentalinferiority of "the assumptions coloredraces"and "theprimitives." Boas attacked this positiondirectly,froma varietyof perspectives, beginningas as his first articles in Science. For early example, in one to demonstrate shortpaperhe attempted that,contraryto "the mind of the native acceptedopinion, enjoys as well the beautiesof natureas we do; thathe expresseshis grief in mournful songs, and appreciateshumorousconceptions"(1887:383)."Thesefew exampleswill show thatthe mind of the 'savage' is sensible to the beautiesof poetry and music and it is only the superficial observerto whom he appears and stupid unfeeling" (p. 385). (Foran example of the view he was contestingsee J. Lubbock1865.) Boas's work on "racialdifference," in physicalanthrohad the intended effect of pology, calling into question60 or 70 yearsof "scientific" racialdeterminism, the intellectual rationalization for segregation.His researchon "The Half-BloodIndian" is one earlyexample.A key elementin the argumentof the racial determinists was that "hybrid races show a decrease in fertility,and are thereforenot likely to survive"[Boas 1894a:138]and that they show (Boas 1894a). general physical and mental deterioration But the conclusionsof his research, publishedin Popular Science Monthly,showed somethingquite different:both

the fertilityandthe stature of the "Half-Blood Indian" surthat of either of the In addition passed populations. parental to the contributions of this studyto the studyof humanheof the racredity,it was a directchallengeto the arguments that were ists and the laws barring just then intermarriage Not long after,he would advocateinbeing promulgated. betweenblackandwhite.Whatcouldbe more termarriage politicalanddaringin the racistclimateof thattime? Beginningin 1894, Boas beganto directlyconfrontthe man"and questionof the differencesbetween "primitive "civilized man," and racial differencesand racial prejudices in a seriesof papersthateventuated in his 1911book, The Mind of PrimitiveMan. The main arguments were: "Thereis no fundamental differencein the ways of thinkbeing of primitiveandcivilizedman.A close connection tweenraceandpersonality has neverbeenestablished. The conceptof racialtype as commonlyused even in scientific literature is misleadingand requiresa logical as well as a (Boas 1938b:v). He also argued biological redefinition" that "achievements of races do not warrant us to assume that one race is more highly gifted than another" (Boas 1894b;Boas quotedin Stocking 1974:227);thatcivilizations are the productof history, includingdiffusion and thanbiology; "thatenvironment has an imchance,rather portanteffect upon the anatomicalstructureand physiological functions of man" (1911:75); that each "race" containsso muchvariation withinit thatthe averagedifferences betweenit and othersare much less thaneach containswithinitself;andthatracialprejudice is "themostformidable obstacle to a clear understanding" of these (1911:245). problems He concludesthe book with a plea for greater tolerance of other"formsof civilization" and sympathy for "foreign races"so that,"as all raceshave contributed in the past to cultural in one or so progress way another, they will be caof the if we areonly interests of mankind, pable advancing to them a fair (1911:278).The willing give opportunity" book was very influentialand widely read, one of those "bookswhich have changedmen's minds"(Bunzel 1962: 10; Degler 1989:17-19), basic for all who wantedto believe in the equalityandcommonhumanity of all peoples. In addition,as Hutchinson the points out, leadingliberalleft weeklies, The Nation and The New Republic,both "relied on closely associatedwiththe HarlemRenaissance, the Boas school for commentary and reviews concerning andracialtheory" (1995:209). anthropology Boas's comparative studiesof European and immigrants their American-bor descendants(e.g., 1910-13, 1916, 1922) struck"a stunningblow at those who doubtedthe power of the environment" (Degler 1989:3). Boas had a in problems of growth,environment lifelonginterest (espeand heredity,beginningwith cially healthand nutrition), his studiesof growthin Worcester in 1890, andin 1908 he received fundsfor a studyof almost18,000new immigrants and their American-born children.The results, reported

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from 1912 on, indicatedmarked changesof formfromthe What was most strikingwas his to the children. parents untilthenconsidthat head index), shape(cephalic finding and stableovertime, eredbothdiagnosticof "racial" types was shown to be quiteunstableandclearlyaffectedby environmentalchange. This was of major importancebecause (a) it pointedto "a greatplasticityof humantypes" It that (b) could be seriouslyinfluencedby environment. usefulness called into the of the ceeffectively question or "racial identifireconstruction phalicindexfor historical cation,"and it was one moreelementcalling into question the accepted view of "race."He also reportsthe finding that "The average statureof childrendecreases with the is takenas size of the family"(1940a:63).Insofaras stature a measureof healthandbiologicalsuccess, he is reporting a findingrelatedto class andliving conditions.He was always concernedwith the impactof socioeconomicfactors on health,nutrition, growth,andwell-being,boththeoretiand cally practically. The series of papersthat Franz Boas publishedfrom 1910 until his deathin 1942 reportthe findingsof his rethatled him (a) to denythe usesearchon aspectsof "race" fulness of the concept;(b) to stress the need to consider each personnot as a memberof a "race" but as an individand demonstrate the in to ual; (c) ways which socioeconomic conditions(andthuspoliticaldecisions)affectedthe of variouspopulations.'5 well-beingandachievements All of these gave ammunition to those who wantedto believe in equality,who were againstJim Crow, and who To take basedimmigration restrictions. opposed"racially" Boas's injust one example,CarlDegler has documented fluence in turning the sociologists of the University of of behavior(1991: Chicagoaway fromracialexplanations J. Ster put it, "Itmust be creditedin 84 ff.). As Bernhard thata considerable largemeasureto Boas andhis students modification of the thoughtof the nationhas takenplacein recentyears in this important field of controversy" (1959: also 218, Stocking1968:300).

Research into Other Social Problems

In January a proposalto the 1905,FranzBoas submitted American Bureauof Ethnologyandthe CarnegieFoundation for a massive comparative study,focusing on AmeriHe called for a major can Indiansand Negro populations. multifacetedresearcheffort with five main components. The firstthreewereoriented towardbothspecifichistorical andgeneraltheoretical issues,butthe fourthandfifth were directedto social andeconomicproblems. Partfourwas to be a studyof the effects of social condiandracemixtureuponthe Inditions,climaticadaptations, ans with the intentionof gainingunderstanding in orderto guide governmentpolicy with respect to educationand economicdevelopment. He hopedthatsuch studieswould help mitigate the hardshipsthat Indianswere enduring.

(One idea was to explorethe potentialeconomic and culturalrole of Indianartssuch as potterymaking,basketry, andwoodcarving.) Althoughhe was not involved in an organizedmovement for Indian rights at this time, as early as 1898 he spoke out againstthe outlawingof the potlatchin Canada, andhe continuedto writeagainstthe prohibition of Indian dancingandthe use of peyote.In 1903 he wroteto Natalie thatthe culCurtis,"Ithinkyou arequiterightin regretting turalachievementsof the Indiansare not made use of in theireducation. On the whole, the neglectto takeinto considerationthe cultureof the tribe has the effect that the thatthe Indiansreceive is a very thin veschool-teaching neer covering their ancient ideas, or, in less favorable the character of the Indians insteadof upcases, it degrades them" (8/20/03). lifting He seems to have been concernedaboutIndianrights andcultureall his life, buthe felt powerlessto help. ("Ihad a councilwiththe Indians, who arereallysuffering because of the stupidpersecutionof their customs by the [CanaI can do nothingaboutit, but promised dian]government. to do my best in Ottawa.I am not certainwhatI can do because the missionaries here arebehindit all. It goes so far thatthe childrenin school are not allowed to drawin the traditional to prestyle of theirpeoplebut [only]according scribed models" [to Ernst, 11/18/30; Boas quoted in Rohner1969:291].)The firsttime anthropologists hadany hope of affectinggovernment policy was duringthe New Deal and the administration of John Collier as commissionerof Indianaffairs,but manywere suspiciousof Collier.In a letterto Collier(12/7/33),Boas speaksof the detrimentaleffects of the allotmentsystem, of the leasing of land, and of the failings of Indianboardingschools. "I if I statethatthe contempt of merelyrepeata commonplace customsandbeliefs of the Indianswhichis instilledin the youngis one of the elementsthatmustbe overcome." In the fifth partof his researchproposalhe called for a also dealing with parallelstudy of the Negro population, "racemixture" as well as with child development, health, and education.This study,too, would be directedtoward the amelioration of poverty,discrimination, andsociopoliticalmarginalization. The projectwas not funded,butthis proposal,madealmost a centuryago, shows thatFranzBoas was urgingeven then-studies of changeand of social, political,and economicconditions forbothscientific andpractical reasons. The image of him as a fact collector,merelyinterested in "gettingall the old customsbeforethey died out,"is quite He alwayshadin mindthe widerimplications incorrect. of his studies,and this proposalwas not an exceptionbut a in the part of his programfor a scientific anthropology serviceof mankind. This was in keepingbothwithhis German liberal activist inheritanceand with the sentiments commonin the contemporary Erain America. Progressive

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Franz Boas's Professional Activities, 1896-1914

deIn 1896, FranzBoas establishedthe anthropology at ColumbiaUniversityand taughtgraduate stupartment dents includingA. L. Kroeber,RobertH. Lowie, Edward Sapir,WilliamJones(a Mesquakie[Fox] Indian),AlexanPaulRadin,andquitea few undergradder Goldenweiser, uatewomenat Barnard College.(His betterknownwomen Ruth Benedict, MargaretMead, like graduatestudents, RuthBunzel,EstherGoldfrank, andMay GladysReichard, untilsome yearslater.)He led Edel,did not enterColumbia a majoreffortto trainstudentsand send them out to study AmericanIndianlanguagesand cultures,while he carried out ethnographic fieldworkand publicationhimself, pribut not marily, only, aboutthe Kwakiutl.He was editorof
and the driving force behind the Journal of American Folk-

otherAfricanAmericanleaders.Respondingto Marshall Hyatt'sclaim (see note3), VernonWilliams(1996) writes:

with leading African American Yet Boas's correspondence intellectuals such as BookerT. Washington, W. E. B. DuBois, Carter G. Woodson, Alain L. Locke, George E. Haynes, AbramHarris, CharlesS. Johnson,MonroeN. Work,Charles H. Thompson,and Zora Neale Hurstonreveals that he not only displayedan astonishing degreeof realempathywith the andthe blackmasses plightof AfricanAmericanintellectuals but also performed such practical functionsas assistingthem in obtainingjobs and foundationsupport,fighting for academic freedom, and nurturing studies of African American historyandlife in the social sciences.[p. 37]

Lorefrom 1908 to 1924, andof ColumbiaUniversity Confrom 1910 through tributions to Anthropology the 1930s. Boas organizedandcoordinated the research andpublication of the massive Jesup North Pacific Expedition,a projectthatinvolvedmanyscholarsin the studyof peoples on bothsides of the BeringStraits(Boas 1903).The results constitutemuch of the basis for our ethnographic knowledge of Siberiaas well as of the NorthwestCoastof North Americaand Alaska.He workedon the ethnographic exhibits of the AmericanMuseumof NaturalHistory,above all preparingthe magnificentNorthwestCoast hall. He served as active editorof severaljournalsand triedto deSchool"for the studyof Asian velop both"aGreatOriental culturesand the International School of AmericanArcheology andEthnologyin Mexico (Godoy 1977). And, as always, he was constantlyoccupied in the search for the funds to support his own and his students'and collaborators'research andpublication. The needto beg for moneyhim dreadfully-did not end untilthe day which bothered he died. In November 1902, he wrote to Columbia'spresident, NicholasMurray the establishment Butler,recommending of an undergraduate of anthropology program "particularly in connectionwith the teachingof history and the social sciences. It is perhapsthe best meansof openingthe eyes of students to whatis valuablein foreigncultures, andthus to develop a juster appreciation of foreign nationsand to bringout those elementsin ourown civilizationwhichare commonto all mankind" This sounds (Stocking1974:291). very much like the Universityof Wisconsin-Madison's "Global Cultures" established program, just90 yearslater.

The Race Problem and the African American Past

Shortlyafterthe turnof the century,Boas becamemore directlyinvolved with "therace problem" by contributing activelyanddirectlyto the effortsof W. E. B. DuBois and

On May 31, 1906, at the invitation of DuBois, Boas deliveredthe commencement addressat the all blackAtlanta of AfUniversityandspokeaboutthe Africanbackground ricanAmericans.In this upbeattalk he urgedhis listeners to takeheartfromthe knowledgethat"theNegro racehad contributed its liberalshare" to the development of human cultureandthatthe historyandethnography of Africagave ample evidence of the skill, creativity,and ambitionof theirancestorsandkin. He spokeof the politicalandartistic skill of the peoplesof WestAfrica,of the greatmarkets it is there,andof the energyof Africankings."If,therefore, claimedthatyour race is doomedto economic inferiority, you may confidentlylook to the home of your ancestors and say, that you have set out to recoverfor the colored thatwas theirsbeforethey set foot on people the strength thiscontinent" (Stocking1974:313). W. E. B. DuBois, a toweringpolitical and intellectual figure in AmericanNegro life from the 1890s until his deathin 1963, wrote,"Franz Boas cameto AtlantaUniverwhere I was sity teachinghistoryin 1906 and said to a You class: neednotbe ashamed of yourAfrican graduating and then he recounted the of black past; history kingdoms south of the Sahara for a thousand years. I was too astonishedto speak. All of this I had never heard and I came then and afterwards to realize how the silence and of or even be neglect science can let truth utterlydisappear distorted" (DuBois 1939:vi). unconsciously DuBois had receivedhis Ph.D. fromHarvard, wherehe had studiedwith WilliamJamesand othergreats;he had done graduatework in Germanyand had publishedhis own researchon AmericanNegroes,but this was the first time he was exposed to such a view of Africaandits connection to the AmericanNegro. He soon began studying and writing about Africa himself and became a leading of Pan-Africanism. proponent Boas becamedeeplyinvolvedin the NAACPin its early years,and when DuBois publishedthe second numberof Darker Races, Franz Boas contributed the lead article: "TheReal Race Problem"(1910). Boas wrote and spoke out on this topic over andover againfor the restof his life, andhe encouraged the studyof bothAfricanandAmerican
the NAACP's new journal, The Crisis: A Record of the

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Negro culture.He envisionedand workedfor an Encyclopedia of the Negro Race, an Africaninstituteand African museum (combining public exhibits with scholarly researchon AfricaandAfricanAmericans[Beardsley1973: at 60]), and "theadoptionof a 'black studies'curriculum He was involved with G. CarColumbia" 1990:96). (Hyatt ter Woodsonof HowardUniversityandhis Centerfor the andtryingto Studyof NegroLife andHistory,stimulating and training and supporting fundresearch, Negro scholars such as Alain Locke, ArthurHuff Fauset,AbramHarris, and James F. King. (For fuller accountsof FranzBoas's many activities in the struggle against anti-blackracism of AfricanAmeriandfor the improvement of the situation Williams see Baker 1996. See cans, 1998; Hyatt 1990; Willis 1975 on Boas and Negro folklore,and Hutchinson andthe HarlemRenaissance.) 1995 on Boas, Herskovits, Boas's studentsincluded Herskovits,whose contributions to the studyof the "New WorldNegro"as well as to ZoraNeale Africanstudiesin Americaare extraordinary; whoseinterestin southern Hurston, Negroculturewas fosteredandpartlyfundedanddirectedby Boas andhis other students;David Efron, whose study Gesture,Race and the cultural andclass basisof Culture(1941) demonstrated gestures;and Otto Klineberg,a social psychologistwhose work on the limitationsof intelligence testing, with its built-inculturalbiases, shouldbe far betterknowntoday. Klineberg'swork,inspiredanddirectedby Boas, is of cenbecauseit formsthe experimental basisfor tralimportance the claim thatintelligencetestingis culturally biasedanda poor indicatorof groupdifferences-still a centralissue. The Bell Curveby Herrstein and Murray(1994) represents preciselythe sort of ideas that Boas fought hardest Boas did against.Thatbookexists not becauseof anything but becausethe lessonsthathe andhis collaborators taught us have beenforgotten (Boas 1931;Klineberg1935). The "race involvedmorethanblacksandIndiproblem" however. ans, Prejudicewas directedtowardimmigrants but northwest fromeverywhere Europe,especiallyagainst andeasternEuropeandAsia. The sothose fromsouthern called nativistmovementbecamea centralissue in American life in thisperiod,as prominent writers "Anglo-Saxon" and politicalfigureswroteaboutAnglo-Saxonsuperiority demiseof "thegreatrace"if these"lesser andthe imminent breeds"were to continuefloodingAmerica'sshores.Boas contested these ideas in the press and on the speaker's stand.'6He questioned the premises and promises of eugenics, anothermajor enthusiasmof the time (Boas 1917a). The problemof racismand prejudiceremainedamong Boas's centralconcernsall his life, untilthe momentof his death.Paul Rivet, the Frenchanthropologist who was being honoredat the luncheonat which Boas died, reports thathis last wordswere:"Onemustnevertireof repeating erroror an impudent thatracismis a monstrous lie" (1943:
313).17

to current to stress,contrary It is important myth,thatin his battleagainstthe then-current conceptsof raceandbio"ethnicgroup" Boas neversubstituted logical determinism racismon manyfronts, or "culture" for "race." He attacked butneverin a way thatsuggeststhatculturehas the quality to "race." of permanence thathadpreviously been ascribed One of his cardinal principles, which he constantly the biological from the cultural preached,was to separate andbothfromlanguage,andto note thateach of these is a differentrealm that operatesindependentlyand with its own rules.He also repeatedly stressedthe variabilityand in He was firmly inherent these changeability phenomena. and fundamentally what are called "essenagainst today and always emphasizingthe inditializing" "totalizing," vidualand variability withingroups.He held to this point of view whetherhe was dealingwith biology, culture,or politics(Liss 1997;Ster 1959:238).

The Great War of 1914-18

The periodof WorldWarI was a time of controversy in intellectual and politically liberal circles in the United States, and it was a source of great distressfor Boas for manyreasons. 1. He was normallyagainstwar unless it was in self-defense or in defenseof a powerfulprinciple.In this case he was convincedthatthe war was due to nationalism and superpatriotism, attitudeshe hated, as well as to 1917b:156-158; greedandpride.(See his "Patriotism" letterto Erst, 7/29/17;Hyatt1990:126.) 2. He disapprovedof the effect the war was having on Americandemocracyand condemnedthe xenophobia thatthe warhadunleashed in AmericaagainstGermans and German culture. Although he had become an American,he still loved and respectedwhat he saw as the positivethingsin the German intellectual andscientific traditions. Therewere seriousattackson freedom of speechthataffectedhis friendsandcolleaguesin additionto offendinghis deepestprinciples. 3. He fearedthe effect of the waron Germansociety:"He predictedthata Germandefeatwould unleasha hatred for centuriesto capableof stirringup 'her nationalism come,' " while "a victory would create an arrogance thatwould be equallydamaging." (Hyatt1990:122,afterRohner1969:271) 4. He was disturbedby the destructionin Europe,both from deaths due to fighting and from malnutrition, dislocation,and poverty.He was concernedaboutthe to pursuescience and learning, inabilityof Europeans andhe still hadfamilyandfriendsin Germany. 5. His two sons wereeligibleforthe draft. AlBoas, as always,was veryvocal aboutthesematters. Gerthoughhe was in anexposedpositionas an immigrant man and a Jew in a time of xenophobia,from 1914 until

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Americanentry into the war in 1917 he wrote numerous articlesand gave speeches againstAmericaninvolvement (Boas 1945). Once the United States enteredthe war he stopped his public pronouncements,but he remained deeplyinvolvedin the causesof peoplewho hadbeenpunishedfor speakingout. He foughtbattlesfor two colleagueswho were accused of disloyaltyand were removedfrom theirjobs. One was Leo J. Frachtenberg, a linguist who got his Ph.D. under Boas and workedon Indianlanguagesfor the Bureauof AmericanEthnology. Frachtenberg was summarilydismissedin late 1917 on the grounds thathe hadmade"utterances derogatory to the Government of the UnitedStates," andBoas spenta greatdeal of time andefforttryingto get him reinstated. "Iam not a bit pleasedwiththe way Frachtenbergfalls all overhimselfto provehis loyalty,butthatis not the point"(letterto Lowie, 12/3/17).On December26, 1917, Boas wrote to his son, Ernst,"I have mobilizedthe Association of Professors,the Evening Post, 3 senators, I hopethisidioticnonsense Keppelin the WarDepartment. will be stoppedfor once"(cf. Hyatt1990:128). The secondcase involvedJamesMcKeenCattell,one of the leadersof Americanpsychologyand a long-timecolat Sciencein leagueof Boas at Columbia(andhis superior much war the and 1887-88). Cattell,very against veryouthad written to the of members the spoken, Congressurging them to defy Wilson and "to supporta measureagainst sending conscriptsto fight in Europeagainsttheir will" (Cattellquotedin Hyatt1990:127). Columbia'simperiouspresident, NicholasMurray But"toridhimselfof an implaler, saw this as an opportunity cable enemy" (Hyatt 1990:127), so he and the boardof trusteestriedto dismiss Cattellfrom Columbia.Boas led the battleto support his resistance him, and he broadened into a more general confrontationwith Butler's highhandedadministration. He attacked whathe saw as the loss of freedomof speech and of consideration of the faculty's opinions,and he led a movementto developnew guaranat Columbia.18 tees of facultygovernance These don't exhaustBoas's wartimeactivitiesby any means. Among otherthings, he campaigned on behalf of scholars who were affected European adversely by the war, especially for Germanand Austriananthropologists who had been caughton the wrong side of the lines and And afterthe warhe led effortsto support were interned.l9 art and science in Germanyand Austria,which included in thosecountries andgetting collectingbooksfor libraries food relief to Vienna.At firsthe workedthrough the GermanisticSociety,of whichhe was the founder, andthenhe helped establishthe EmergencySociety in Aid of EuropeanScience andArt. On January 30, 1922, Boas wrote to W. H. R. Rivers, one of Britain'sleading anthropologists and a physician, a massive a for of the study suggesting plan problemof senourishment and increased riously inadequate morbidity

and mortality of CentralandEastamongthe populations ern Europe.He hopedthatRiverscould get the support of the Royal Society for a studyof "pathological conditions, actualfood amounts,medicalobservations[bones,tuberculosis, growth],"of the relationsbetween social conditions and nourishment, and of growth and physiological and psychologicalfunction.Noting that the "aftereffects of this periodof partialstarvation will undoubtedly be felt for manyyears," he urgedthatthis studybe donefor practical purposes,for preventionand improvement of current of such conditions,and for basic scientific understanding problems. He hadearlier B. Davenport to join himin urgedCharles an effortto get fundingfor a majorstudyof U.S. armysoldiersbeforethey weredischarged, in an effortto test questions of heredityversus environment.20 AlthoughDavenport was a leading proponent of eugenics and racial he was one of the majorfiguresin the organideterminism, zationand fundingof Americanbiology, and Boas had to withhim. tryto cooperate Boas's involvementin all of these projectsshouldhelp dispel the myth that Boas saw anthropologyas just the of languagesand culturesin danger studyof "primitives," of extinction, of the quaintandexotic, "theOther." Once the war was over, he sent a letterto The Nation the actionof the WarDepartment and publiclydenouncing fourindividual who went to Mexico to enanthropologists in the cover of their science (Boas gage espionageusing 1919a).JohnDewey advisedhim not to send the letteron the groundsthathe would be suspectbecauseof his German originsand this might lessen his usefulnessfor good causes in the future(3/9/17). This act was costly to Boas, as he expected;he felt impelledto resignfromthe National Research Counciland suffered fromthe American reprisals Associationand the Bureauof American Anthropological Ethnologyas well (Hyatt 1990:131-134; Stocking 1968: andre270-307). Butlerretaliated by firingGoldenweiser But Boas hadinsisted fusingto hireanother anthropologist. on actingon his principles. Althoughhe vehementlyopposedWorldWarI, he was and humane in his attitudeto those who understanding went to war.Boas's son Ernst,who laterbecamea prominentphysician,enlistedas a medicalofficer when he realized thathe mightbe drafted. The lettersthatBoas wroteto him aredirectedagainstthe war andthe stupidity of politiare but of and Ernst his dilemma. cians, they understanding July24, 1917I have no rightto criticizeyou and can understand yourdecision. But I am sorrythatyou yielded to torturing uncertainty and the pressureof circumstances, and thru your voluntary to the war. entryinto the armyhavegiven yoursilentapproval It is not a question [it goes withoutsaying?] that your army service will bringus worrisometimes, in this periodof universaltorture andcares.My dearboy, no matterwhatyou do, best wishes my go withyou.

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Next came the problemof Heine, his youngerson. August 15, 1918Heine is naturallyall wroughtup [aboutthe draft].I believe is determined his attitude by the fact thathe does not want to seek the servicethathe be a coward,andthathe will therefore most fears.I shall try to convincehim thatit takesmorecourage to act rightthanto appearcourageous.Whetherthatwill me in matter. If my fatherhadtriedto persuade help is another this mannerwhen I was young I would not have followed his advice.If I can convince him I shouldlike to try to get him in the ambulance service.You areall wrongwhenyou say thatit makesno differencewhetherone kills oneself or whetherothers do it. You would speak differentlyif you had thrusta bayonetinto the abdomenof a man who also just does that thathe is compelledto do.

of the bitter RalphLinton'saccountwas actuallya product disputesthathe laterhad with RuthBenedictand,perhaps, with Boas himself, afterhe joined the Columbiafacultyin
the 1937?21

Boas's Continuing Public and Political Activities

Boas becameincreasinglydisillusionedwith American on freedomof speech that politicallife as the restrictions in I World War began grew increasinglyoppressive,and he becameincreasingly criticalof imperialism andcolonialism, includingthe Americanimperialistventurein the andLatinAmerica.In 1919he attacked coloniPhilippines of native peoples in The Nation, alism and the treatment writing,amongotherthings,
of valuablerawproducts Any policy thatincreasesproduction of the countrywithoutregardto the future,or by exploitation thatdestroysthe basis of the industrialand social life of the natives,must be condemned.... It is obvious that [different] so long as colonies andtheir policies will neverbe introduced inhabitants are consideredas the property of colonialpowers that exploit the land and utilize its inhabitants for their own economic purposes and for the fighting of their battles. [1919b:249]

Thereis a well-knowntale among anthropologists that holds that FranzBoas was so upset when Ralph Linton, then a graduate afterthe war in an army student,returned uniformthat Boas threw him out of the department and toldhim thathe wouldneverget a degreeat Columbia. But theircorrespondence gives a differentpictureof theirrelathe war: and after tionshipduring first letterin the corre1917-Linton's 11, September file is on the letterhead of the Army and Navy spondence Men's Association a flag, the Christian (featuring Young "With the the and "War Work Colors," slogan heading He that he wife knows his has Council"). beginsby saying written that had in to tell Boas he enlisted the 149th already andexpectsto go to Francewithina week or two. artillery "Johas decidednot to leave me, butin a spiritandwithintentionswhich make it far more difficultfor me to go on with her thanwithouther."(He thinksthatshe thinksthat withherthanwithouther,andhe he will be moremiserable writesthatJo has had an affairwith a particular archeologist.) "Pleasebelieve that I have enlisted in the hope of findinga way out,butthatI do not believein this war,or in of escapingfromunbearable any war.It is merelya manner conditions."He closed the letter as "Yourfriend,Ralph Linton." on September14: "Iam sorrythatyou Boas responded will not be able to come back nextfall. I can understand yourfeelings ... be patientandawaitas calmlyas you can I expect to see some of the partiesin futuredevelopments. the fall, andI can writeto you moreintelligently thanI can do at the presenttime. I wish you to feel surethatmy sympathies are with you in your great troubles"(emphasis added). The next letters are from 1922. Linton is at the Field and he Museum,having received a Ph.D. from Harvard, asks Boas for his reactionsto a paperon Polynesia.Boas respondspromptlyand cordiallywith a detailed,thoughtful theoretical discussionof cultural andbiologicalchange in relationto the paper.He ends with, "Yourworkis cerandI thankyou forthe opportunity of extainlyinteresting, "with and kindest Is it it," amining regards." possiblethat

In a letterto Ernst on this topic he added, "The only millionsand hope for a betterworld lies in the submerged will in come their It to own. is difficult to they speaktemwith all the are that to cover perately hypocritical phrases the up gameof grab"(5/4/19). Both the political situation and Boas's personal life in the 1930s. He was almost 80 and had lost grew darker his daughter Gertrude to polio in 1924, his son Heine in a railroad accidentin 1925, and Marie,his beloved wife of 42 years,to a hit andrundriverin 1929. He hadhadheart attacksand ulcers. An operationto remove a cancerous growthfrom a nerve in his face years earlierhad left him with some contortion of his face and difficultypronouncdifficultfor a ing certainsounds, which was particularly and a who workedwith frequentpublic speaker linguist phonetics. Despite these troubles,the political and economic circumstances of the GreatDepressionandthe rise of Nazism and Fascism in Europe led him to speak out more frequently, giving speeches and writing in left and liberal periodicalsabout racism, chauvinism, attemptsto limit freedomof inquiryandspeech,abouteconomicinequality and unequaleducational Here is an excerpt opportunities. froma 1940piece:
The undernourished, ill-clad child of the slums, the isolated child in a remotevalley, the Negro child in the Southis not in a positionto develop freely the resourcesthatlie in his mind andbody.Thecommunities to which suchchildrenbelongare so poorthattheycannotgive adequate help,even if they knew how to do it. Withoutfederalhelp this situationcan neverbe remedied.Just as little as the needs for an adequatehealth

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service can be met withoutfederalhelp can our fundamental educationalneeds be met by the inadequate resourcesof local communities.[1940b:189]

Nor did he only speakof these thingsin lofty terms.In additionto active campaigning for child welfare,he contributed to institutions himselfandsoughtthe contributions of wealthypeople (letterto Mrs.DwightMorrow1/17/33). In additionto his many politicaland public service activities, he continueda remarkable pace of research,writHis lastmajorpublication ing, editing,andpublishing. projects included General Anthropology(editor and major of many 1938c; the editingand organization contributor), of his majorpapersas Race,Language, andCulture, 1940a; A Dakota Grammar,with Ella Deloria, 1941; Kwakiutl Tales (posthumous1943); and he was workingon a volume to be calledKwakiutl whenhe died. Ethnography He startedto combatNazism and all it stood for quite early. He fought against their racial ideas (e.g., Barkan 1988; Kuznick 1987) for freedomof speech in Germany, andonce againhe workedon behalfof European scientists, artists,and othersin need of asylumand work.His correspondenceof the 1930s containsmany requeststo chairs and administrators to considerhiringthis one, or to bring thatone to campusfor a seriesof lectures.He wroteon behalf of Wieschoff-the GermanAfricanistwho was dismissed from his post in Germanybecause his wife was Jewish-and Paul Rivet, Julius Lips, Roman Jakobson, Paul Kirchhoff,and RudolphKayser, Einstein's son-inlaw (in Germanliterature). When a Cubanprofessorwas jailed by the dictatorFulgencioBatista,Boas wrote to a Carleton Beals, recommending leadingLatinAmericanist, action. Despite his complaintsthat he had no energy, he seems indefatigable in his politicalactivities-writing letleftters,attending meetings,andjoining (andorganizing) liberal organizations. Columbiagraduatestudentsof the time tell of going alongto protecthim whenhe wentoff to on JaneR. arguewithAmericanNazis andothers(Ebihara, Mead Hanks,1988;Goldfrank 1978; 1959). In a long letterto RuthBenedict,aftergiving his latest in Europein Ocreadingof Hitler,Stalin,andthe situation tober1939,he writes, I am moreinterested in ourown civil liberties and,as you theChamknow,I amin thatfight.Justnowwe areattacking ber[ofCommerce] of theState of NewYork, whowant tosee ourfreehighschoolschopped etc.I off, religion introduced, wish I hadmorestrength, butI cannot undertake any work thatrequires physical strength. My heart simplywon'tstand it. [Boasquoted in Mead1959:413 ff.] Here is a brief sample of his activitiesduringhis last years: He was a founderof the AmericanCommitteefor DeFreedom,which actively fought mocracyand Intellectual racialdiscrimination andthe investigation andintimidation of teachersin colleges and high schools (6/4/42, to John

Davies). Among otherbattles,the Committeetook on the Dies Committee,forerunner of the House Un-American ActivitiesCommittee.He foughtfor the endingof the poll tax laws that made it difficultor impossiblefor Negroes (blacks)to vote in many southernstates,and he wrote to chide senatorswho failed to vote. He lent his name and contributed money to the Scottsborodefense. He was a memberof the boardof the Councilon AfricanAffairs,togetherwith Paul Robeson,RalphBunche,and Max Yergan. He hopedthattheirresearchwouldbe directedto the aim of gettingthe colonies out of the controlof imperial rulers. And everyday's mailbrought new requests for help fromprivateindividualsandleadersof politicalandcharitableorganizations. When a biology teacherat the Bronx High School of Science wrote to Boas telling him thattheirbiology textbook contained"a drawingshowing markeddifferences between the chromosomesof Negroes and White men," Boas checked with his colleague, the geneticist L. C. andthe Dunn,andthen wroteto complainto the publisher of schools, and notifiedWalterWhite,the superintendent of the NAACP. president On April 4, 1942, the managingeditor of The Jewish the Surveyaskedfor a shortarticlefromhim condemning of FatherCoughlin,andcallingfor the ban"Jew-baiting" ning of his magazine,Social Justice.Boas replied,"Inmy opinionthe only kind of protestthatmeansanythingis to attackthe whole attitudeof races towardone another.If you want a note in which I accuse at the same time the
Jews for their anti-Negro attitude I will write it." (How

does thatsquarewith the accusation thatBoas's attackon anti-black was a cover for a defenseof Jews?) prejudice He campaignedfor the freedomof the jailed leaderof the AmericanCommunistParty,EarlBrowder.Although not a Marxisthimself,duringthis periodhe devotedmuch of his time and energy to politicalcauses associatedwith
the far left (Goldfrank 1978:123 ff.; Ster 1959:239-241).

He wroteto Browder,who was in the AtlantaPenitentiary, "Howevermuch I may disagreewith the methodsof your partyand the demandfor obedienceof partymembers,I recognizethatthe final ideal of yourpartyagreeswith this
lofty ideal," that is, "they envisage a group consciousness that must embrace humankind as a whole and forbid group

conflict"(5/17/41). He was impressedwith the fact that members of mankind." If FranzBoas was politicallynaive, it was a naiveteof the left, notthe rightor the center. In the lightof all this I find it difficultto understand how JuliaLiss can write,"WhatBoas did not addresswere the systems of power over which even his science could not rise"(1995:130).
many of the young people he had met "who profess to be Communists... are attractedby the ideas of equality of all

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The Political and the Personal

Many a greatpublic figure who fights for all the right in public causes turns out to be more of a humanitarian than in private,to "love man in generalmore thanin the (See, for example,Ray Monk's biographyof particular." Bertrand Russell [1996].) This was far from the case with Franz Boas. Here are four examples of the mannerin level.22 whichhe implemented his beliefs at the individual Dr. Albert Gatschetwas a linguistwho workedon Indian languagesandethnologyfor the Bureauof American Ethnology.As he aged he developedsevere mentalproblems, andby 1905 he was unableto function.He was given leave but withoutpay, leaving his wife and child with no means of support.Boas was outraged and "petitioned membersof the Smithsonian, the CarnegieInstitute,and for redress" (Hyatt 1990:76). As a result of Congress Boas's efforts,the CarnegieFoundation for the Advancement of Teachinggranted him $1,000 per annum.He died a yearlater,however. HermanK. Haeberlin came fromGermany to studyanwith He a Boas. was brilliant student andwent thropology to work among the pueblos first, then among the Snohomish of the NorthwestCoast.He had started publishing excellentwork,buthe haddiabetesandbecameincreasing ill. Boas arranged for his care, helped pay for it, and eviin loco parentis.Unfortunatedentlytook on responsibility died fromacidosisin 1918 at the age of 26. ly Haeberlin was an early studentof Boas, AlexanderGoldenweiser brilliant but very very difficult-undisciplinedandself-intheir correspondence Much of revolves around dulgent. Boas's attempts to findresearch and funding teachingpositions for Goldenweiser,or helping him out of trouble. Goldenweiserdranktoo much, and he fell in love with women morethanwas wise or very nice. Boas usuallyput but when Goldenweiser left his wife up with his problems, for another woman("adeep,tried,andunslakable emotion thathas come intomy life-my love for Miss... .") andrefused to contributeto the maintenanceof his wife and wrote child, Boas put his foot down. When Goldenweiser yet again asking for work or researchmoney, Boas responded, "You should, throughyour lawyer, ask for a judgementagainstyourselfwhich would bindyou to such financialsupport... [forhis wife andchild]. It is the very least thatyou can do on behalfof yourchild."He tells him to stay out of New Yorkin orderto avoid conflictwith his ex-wife. "If you will accept this plan please write me. If in regardto not, I am sorryI shall not do anythingfurther whole case. I think future on your your depends the question whetheryou can makeup yourmindto acceptobligations thatany decentmanhas andlive accordingly." Goldenweiser'stelegramreads,"Acceptyour messagein spirit
and in letter.. ." (5/27/26-7/2/26).

how good she was when he firstmet herin 1915. He hired her to work with him and his studentstranslating Lakota texts in one of his courses.(It was her firstpayingjob, as she laterreminded Boas.) Boas contactedher in 1926 and asked if she would be interested in workingwith him on and corresponthe Dakota language.Their collaboration dence continuedfrom thattime until he died. He encouraged her, he found money for her, and he supportedher workin the field andfor herstaysin New York,whereshe could writeup her material with more scholarlyresources than she had in Kansas.She also taughtsome courses at Columbia (Medicine1980, 1999;Schildkrout 1989:553). In 1935 and 1936, Boas urgedElla Deloriato come to New York for work, and from her lettersto him it seems clear that she really wantedto. She kept setting dates to come butthenwouldwriteto postponehertrip.Finallyshe wrotethatshe couldnotcome becauseof herresponsibility to her family,especiallyher sister,who neededher.Based on this incident,JanetFinnaccusesBoas of cultural insenhe was her to come to New York, sitivity: pressing putting herin a difficultpositionwhenshe couldnot andwouldnot leave her family (1995:136-139). But it is clear that she hadn't told him of those obligationsearliernor was she generally averse to travel and residence away from her family.She hadstudiedat Oberlin Collegein OhioandColumbia TeachersCollege in New York and had happily stayedat Columbiaon severaloccasions.23 Finn assumesthatBoas, as a white man, wouldn'tunderstandthe power of kinship obligationsthat kept Ella Deloriaclose to herfamily.But a letterthathe wroteto his sisterToni,whenshe was ashamed to accepthis help when she neededit, gives a different picture.He wrote,
It dependsentirelyupon how stronglyone feels aboutfamily solidaritywhich stems from a person's love for his parents, his attachmentto common childhood experiences,his attitudes toward life and his charactertraits which were implantedin him as well as in all the othermembersof the family. If the feeling of belongingtogetheris still strongwithinus and if it has not been killed by outsidecircumstances which have forced us into [other]paths then I can not understand to accepthelp]. [ 10/29/06] yourfeelings [of unwillingness

Ella Deloriahas beenjustlyrediscovered (as ZoraNeale Hurstonhas) many years afterher death.But Boas knew

In fact, in his graduate studentdays Boas had declined an opportunity to work at the laboratory of Hermann von the leader in the field of in Helmholtz, psychophysics, orderto remaincloserto Toniat a time whenshe was quiteill stereo(Cole 1999:51).JanetFinn,workingwith a cultural of makes him about that,although type Boas, assumptions areprobably untrue. Boas hadhis own powerfashionable, ful sense of family loyalty,andthereis everyreasonto believe that he understoodthe importanceof kinship and to Indianpeopleas well. community Finn also writes, "While Deloria's labor supported Boas's ethnographic seemed agenda,herrole as informant to be valuedmorethanherrole as a scholar" (p. 137). I can

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find no evidence for this. One merely needs to read the glowing letterthathe wrote for her in 1937 to see his respect for her. "She has a thoroughgraspof the grammar and spiritof the language.... and she is thoroughly conversantnot only withthe formsbutalso withthe veryintricate psychologicalbackground.... Her knowledgeof the subjectis unique"(Deloria 1944: xiv). RobertH. Lowie, Boas's eminentformerstudent,expressedhis admiration for Ella Deloria'sfieldworkandwroteto Boas tellinghim thathe was going to base his graduate seminaron her Dakota Texts(2/27/35). On anotheroccasion(7/16/34) Boas wroteto JohnColof IndianAffairs, recommending Delier, Commissioner loriaas one of those"qualified individuals who mightbe of assistancein the workof rehabilitating Indian tribalorganizationand social life."He notes thatshe "hasan excellent and thata reportsubgraspof the needs of the situation" mittedto Collierby one of Boas's formerPh.D. students was merelya repetition of whatMiss Deloriahadtold her. Boas recognized qualitywherehe foundit. But supposeFranzBoas had been insensitiveat some point in his long relationshipwith Ella Deloria as Janet Finnclaims.Is thisworthnotingto the exclusionof the fact thatas a resultof Boas's training, andadencouragement, vice, and his commissionsand financialsupport,she was able to develop a careerthatgave her well-deserved pride and satisfactionand broughther considerable honor?She published one classic linguistic work in her own name (DakotaTexts[1932]) and was coauthorwith Boas of another,A Dakota Grammar (1941), a work that some linof an American guists considerto be the finest grammar Indianlanguage.("So many people are asking aboutour I feel very proudto be your co-author," wrote grammar, Deloria, 7/15/41.) From the work that she did with Boas she gained the confidence,experience,contacts,and recommendations thathelped her to write and publishother works and to obtainspeakingengagementsand positions thatgave hera moresecureandmorehonoredlife. Herlast lettersto Boas arefull of the satisfaction she felt as a result of herresearches, herincreasing visibility,andhercontacts andsense of collegialitywithotheranthropologists suchas Ruth Benedict,EdwardKennard, Otto Klineberg,Gladys andRuthLandes. Reichard, Ella Deloria wrote to Boas regardinga tributeto him that had appeared in the New YorkTimes in 1939, "It is isn't but not a whit more than you deserve. beautiful, it, Please allow me to add my feeble bit to the well merited betterthanmany, praise,who havereallyknownyou rather throughmany years of profitableassociationwith you. I would not tradethe privilege of having known you, for anythingI can thinkof" (7/17/39). She laterwrote,"You have alwaysbeen my best friendandhave helpedme to do whatI wantedto do in the past;I thinkmaybeyou mightbe able to help me again,through yourinfluenceandadvice" (6/17/41, emphasisadded).

Perhaps we can deconstructthese texts and see her wordsas mereflatteryand a sign of her dependenceupon him, but this would probablydo a grave injusticeto Ella Deloria,her feelings, and the realitiesof her life story.In the absenceof any otherevidence,in the lightof theirlong, mutually respectful and profitable collaboration, why searchfor hiddenmotives and misunderstandings thatdiminishbothor eitherof them? These four cases arejust a few of the many thatcan be found in the massive correspondence that Boas left behind.24

Conclusions
FranzBoas was not an ethicalrelativistbut believed in and spenthis life workingand fightingfor certainvalues: for all, understanding andmutualappreequalopportunity ciationamongpeoples,freedomof speechandinquiry.He was the best instrument to use thoughtthat anthropology for thesepurposesanddid not prostitute himself or his science in the pursuit of theseendsbutsoughtfearlesslyto inthe causes of sociocultural behavior.He was as vestigate and as in farsighted clear-eyed anyone his time, an opponentof racism,ethnocentrism, imchauvinism, inequality, perialism,war, censorship,and political cant and mindHe was acutelyawareof the causes fogging sloganeering. and consequencesof inequalityand understood the material bases of much of it. The image of "PapaFranz"as nothingbut a fact collectorcould not be furtherfrom the truth. (See Lewis 2001.) It wouldbe foolishto denythatothersmaypervert a person's work or that one's intentionsmay be irrelevant because one's effortsmay lead to very differentresultsthan thosethatwereintended anddesired.It is far-fetched, howto the developever, to arguethatFranzBoas contributed ment of "scientificracism"or to ethnic chauvinism,nationalism, or colonialism. Those who claim this bear a heavy burdenof proof they are far from meeting. These were all well establishedbeforehis time;his contribution was to fightthemandto tryto replacethemwith appreciation of "theOther." He cannotbe held accountable for the factthattheseevils still exist,butthereis a verystrongcase to be madethatthereis less of it becauseof his efforts. TheevidenceindicatesthatFranzBoas was an outstandhumanbeing, both in termsof whathe ing and admirable and what he achieved,in his values andthe way attempted in whichhe puttheminto practice.He was willing to bear greatcosts for his beliefs,even whenthesewentagainsthis personal,professional,and scientificinterests.The record also shows thathe dealtwith his colleagues,students,and family in a deeply humaneway. Althoughone may approve of much that a persondoes but profoundlydisapproveof otheraspectsof thatperson'slife andwork,we do not have to make that compromisein the case of Franz
Boas. This is not to say that Boas cannot be legitimately

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criticized for anything he ever did or said, but it is to argue against the too-easy attribution of guilt, especially in light of the major differences between the world of his early days and today. Franz Boas both professed and acted upon the finest and highest ideals of his (and our) culture and time. These are: concern for the dominated and oppressed, respect for "others" as individuals as well as for other cultures; tolerance and humane dealing; and respect for the eternal quest for knowledge about ourselves and the world. Despite all the uncertainties and decenterings, the reversals and questionings of values of the current moment, at base, I believe most of us would still want to be judged by how well we served these interests.5

Notes
Acknowledgments.I owe a debt to the American Philosophical Society for an Andrew Mellon Resident Research Fellowship and for permission to publish materialfrom their collections. I must also add personal thanksto Beth CarrollHarrocks,Rob Cox, and Roy Goodman of the APS Library staff for their professional and friendly support.In additionI wish to thank Walter Goldschmidt, Dr. Norman F. Boas, LeonardB. Glick, Jay Miller, Amelia Schultz,JohnLandgraf, George Hutchinson,Michael C. Coleman, George M. Foster, FrancisSchrag,FrankSalamone,Mitchell Hart,May Ebihara, and my fellow researchersat the APS, Sara Trechter,Kevin Dann, NathanielComfort,and David Miller. As always, special gratitude is due my wife, Marcia. 1. "I must confess I often am annoyed with the young people who forget what they owe to us seniors,and then I get still more angryat myself that I am upset by it, for it is quite natural, and they should feel that they think and work for themselves" (letterto son Ernst,4/13/18). 2. It is impossible to discuss the many problemswith Willis's articlehere,but one must recordthe fact that,with respect to these allegations,a quotationfrom Boas is misleading and referenceto a letterin Rohner(1969) is irrelevant(p. 139). 3. It is interestingto contrastWillis's anger in this piece that he shows in a later articledealing with the understanding with Boas's lifelong efforts to supportthe study of African American folklore (1975). Willis would later offer sympathetic comments about Boas in the 1990 documentaryfilm The Shacklesof Traditionand was workingon a biographyof Boas at the time of his death. By then he had come to respect Boas greatly,accordingto FrankSalamone(personalcommunication). Marshall Hyatt, in a fair and useful book, suggests that were the immediBoas's own experienceswith discrimination thancall atate stimulusfor his attackson racism, but "rather tention to his own plight and risk accusationsof subjectivity, Boas chose another aspect of bigotry, that directed against Afro-Americans,at which to vent his distress"(1990:33-34; also 1989:21-23). Comparethe differingviews of Baker 1998: 266; Hutchinson1995:69 ff.; Liss 1997; Williams 1996:53. 4. For fuller responses to Visweswaran's paper see Lewis (1998b) and Stassinos(1998).

5. The letter that Meisenhelder(1999:15) cites as proof of Hurston's "posturing as a deferential disciple" (4/21/29) seems to be what one would expect from a 27-year-old neophyte who is askingadvice from her advisor,especially an advisor who is the world's leading authorityon the topics she is asking about.Boas's suggestions to her as to what to look for thanevidence of "Boas's controlof in the field (5/3/27), rather Hurston's work" (Meisenhelder 1999:201), are the suggestions thatany good advisormight give to a young student.Indeed, this particularadvice might have been quite useful for Hurston's subsequentwork because he urges her to pay less attentionto the content of stories (many of which had been previouslyrecorded)and more to diction, style, and performance. Boas wrote, "The methods of dancing, habitualmovements in telling tales, or in ordinaryconversation;all this is materialthat would be essentially new." She closes her letters to Boas with "Most affectionately yours" (12/27/28) and "Love"(4/21/29)! Shouldthese expressions be takenas prima facie evidence of her dominationby Boas, or may we credit her agency in this matter? 6. George Hutchinson writes in response to Holloway, "Regardlessof Hurston'sfeeling of her general status at Barnard,her view of Boas was unambiguouslypositive-a bright student's view of an admiredteacher"(1995:464; also Hurston 1942:178-179). F. Lionnet-McCumber (1993:263-264) gives an altogethermore positive view of Boas's influence on Hurston,as do Williams (1996:48-51) and Hill (1996). 7. Even George Stocking,who taughtus aboutthe problem of presentism(1968), falls prey to this tendencywhile discuss(1979:110-113), distributingpassing ing Boas's kulturkampf or failing marks to Boas based upon the political ideas of Stocking's own world in 1979. How valid, one wonders,will these judgements sound in 2040? (In conclusion, however, Stocking offers an endorsementof Boas's general standpoint similarto the one in this paper.) 8. Douglas Cole workedfor many years to preparethe first of two projectedvolumes of Boas's biography but unfortunately he died before it could be published.This valuablevolume has been publishedposthumously,however (Cole 1999). 9. There are quite a few works that consider FranzBoas's values, politics, and personal history. See, for example, Lee D. Baker (1997, 1998), Elazar Barkan (1988), Melville J. Herskovits(1953), GeorgeHutchinson(1995), MarshallHyatt (1990), Peter Kuznick (1987), Alexander Lesser (1981), Harvey A. Levenstein (1963), Julia Liss (1995, 1996, 1997, 1998), Enid Schildkrout (1989), George Stocking (1974, 1992), andVernonJ. Williams(1996). This piece complements those and, despite some inevitable overlap, offers new material and a new emphasis. 10. EdwardSapir and RuthBenedict wanted to stop Margaret Mead from going to Samoa. Although Boas, too, had been concerned for her health and safety, he wrote to Ruth Benedict, "In my opinion an attemptto compel her now to give up the trip ... would be disastrous.Besides it is entirely against my point of view to interferein such a radical way with the future of a person for his or her own sake-unless there is actual disease that needs control" (Darnell 1990: 186-187). His daughterFranziskatold an interviewerthat he had the same reactionto her desireto be an actorand dancer.

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11. His motherestablishedthe first Froebelkindergarten in theirtown, Minden,Westphalia. 12. After Jacobi's first two wives died, he marriedMary Putnam,a physician, feminist, and pioneeractivist in the consumer movement (Link 1949). She was a relative of the FredericWardPutnam,who became prominentanthropologist an early patronand friend of Boas. For an interestingaccount of the membersof this group who were so importantto Franz Boas, see Boas and Meyer (1999). 13. Bildunghad long been a key concept for Germanintellectual humanistslike Boas and his circle, from the time of Goethe and Herder on. It meant something like "the unhinderedgrowthof the powers of the individual"(Diehl 1978:19; cf. Mosse 1985). Boas's declaration of his aims to John Dewey (above) makes even more sense in the light of this doctrine(cf. Liss 1996.). 14. Accordingto AndrewZimmerman (2001), the committee that evaluated Boas's papers for his habilitation"neither welcomed his studies of the Inuitas important monographson a previously neglected subject nor reacted against the chalof the university.These lenge they posed to the ethnocentrism academicssimply could not comprehendthe scholarlyinterest of Boas's anthropology" (p. 45). 15. Thereis no full study yet of the developmentof Boas's ideas aboutthe natureof race and racialdifferences.He began his careerat a time when "racialscience"was overwhelmingly dominant,and he fought its influence by every means at his disposal, but in his early years he was certainlysomewhatlimited by the prevailingideas and informationin the field. (See, e.g., Vernon Williams's [1996] discussion of Boas [1894b] and the problemof comparativebrainsize.) There is no room to consider the matterhere, but if it is true that Boas never completely rejectedthe very notion of "race"as Ashley Montagu did in the 1940s, it is also true that Boas was Ashley Montagu'smentorand inspirationon this topic. 16. Madison Grant, the author of the popular "nativist" book, The Passing of the Great Race (1916), complained to the biologist CharlesB. Davenport,"I have been greatly disappointedin the failure of the Americanbiologists to support me, as they all seem to be eitherafraidof Boas or else impregnated with socialism, but I have had unqualifiedendorsement and supportfrom the foreign biologists, especially the English" (1917). 17. This accountcomes from Paul Rivet, the guest of honor at the lunch at which Boas died. Rivet reportsthat the next sentence, his last, was, "TheNazis themselves recentlyhad to recognize the correctnessof the facts thatI had proclaimedregarding Europeanimmigrantsin America." MargaretMead (1959:355) gives a somewhat different version that Esther Goldfranksensibly disputes(1978:121-123). 18. In the Cattell battle and many others, Boas had the aid of his friend and supporter, Dr. Elsie Clews Parsons, an alumnaof Barnard and a past trusteeof Columbia,a womanof considerablewealth and position marriedto a Republicanstalwart. She was also a radicalfeminist, a socialist, an enemy of convention, an indefatigable fieldworker, prolific author of works of ethnographyand folklore, and a generous supporter of Boas andhis students'researchand publication. 19. In one letter (4/12/15), he wrote to W. H. R. Rivers aboutthe anthropologists Von Luschan,Penck, and Graebner,

who were "guestsof the Britishnation"while doing fieldwork in variouspartsof the British Empire. "I think you feel as we do, that these men who were guests ... should be sent home; and I want to ask you most urgentlyto do all in your power in London to obtain for Von Luschan and Mrs. Von Luschan safe-conductthroughCopenhagenor Rotterdam." 20. Contrary to Derek Freeman'scontention,Boas did not blindly insist that environmentwas all. His researchesin this area were always aimed at the understanding of both heredity and environment (Degler 1989:9-10; Tanner1959). 21. Linton had been appointed"senior anthropologist" by the Columbia administration.Boas, Ruth Bunzel, and Ruth Benedict had wanted Benedict to have that position. There was an unpleasantrivalry between them, "[a]ndthe war continuedunabated until Lintonleft Columbiain 1946 to become SterlingProfessorof Anthropologyat Yale" (Goldfrank1978: 110-111). But accountsof the reactionsof the Boasiansto his not the appointment only speakof professionaldisagreements, incident Modell 1989; 1983). alleged post-war (Caffrey 22. Herskovits writes of "the two currentsin Boas's life, the personal and professional, which stand in such marked contrast-the first calm conventional, warm in human relations, the second turbulent, courageous,whereinBoas was the who dominatedthe scene in which he supremeindividualist, for so many years played his role" (1953:13). Ruth Bunzel gives a more complicated picture of his personality (1962: 5-10), and it is obvious that in this area of his life as in every other there is a great deal to be investigated. Boas's official contains many indications of warm relations correspondence with others,especially with his former women students(usually indicating close relations with his wife and children as well) and with certainmale colleagues (e.g., McGee, Tozzer, Jastrow). 23. By 1938 she had gained respect as an experton Indian cultureand was made a memberof the Phelps-Stokesproject to study the situation of the Navajos. By the 1940s she had won recognitionas a creativeorganizerof Indianpageantsand fairs and was invited many places to talk and organize. Increasingly she received researchgrants and challenging positions, and she wrote about Dakota culture in addition to her continuing linguistic work. She gained considerable prominence and seems to have enjoyedit. 24. Here is one more: In the summer of 1913, when she was a studentat the Indian school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Rose Whipper(of the Sioux nation)workedfor the Boas family, helping care for their children. She and Boas maintained an intermittent from then until 1936. As far as correspondence I can tell, Boas had no "ethnographicagenda";rather,Rose Whipperwas frequentlyin need, and Boas respondedto her with respectful and friendly advice and materialhelp, once writing to Ella Deloria to try to locate her when he had heard thatRose might be in need. 25. It is worth repeatingMichel de Montaigne's observation, made about 1580: I see most of the wits of my time using their ingenuity to obscure the glory of the beautiful and noble actions of anand conjuring tiquity, giving them some vile interpretation up vain occasions and causes for them. Whatgreatsubtlety!
Give me the most excellent and purest action and I will

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plausibly supply fifty vicious motives for it. God knows what a variety of interpretations may be placed on our inward will, for anyone who wants to elaboratethem. [1948: 170]

Note on Archival Sources

Unless otherwiseindicated,the letterscited in the text arein the American Philosophical Society Library,from the Franz Boas collection, B/B61.

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