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Franz Boas and Exhibits “ In ethnography, all is individuality”

Franz Boas and Exhibits “ In ethnography, all is individuality”. www.nceas.ucsb.edu/~alroy/lefa/Boas.jpg. The Limitations of the Museum Method in Anthropology and the End of the “Museum Era”.

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Franz Boas and Exhibits “ In ethnography, all is individuality”

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  1. Franz Boas and Exhibits“In ethnography, all is individuality” www.nceas.ucsb.edu/~alroy/lefa/Boas.jpg The Limitations of the Museum Method in Anthropology and the End of the “Museum Era”

  2. Franz Boas (1848-1942) father of American AnthropologyActive during Anthropology’s “Museum Age” 1880-1920Established the concept of cultures as diverse historical developments. Holistic and historic philosophies tied to training in geography and the German romantic tradition Boas 1895, U.S. National Museum

  3. Deduction vs. InductionClassification is not explanation 1887 debate DeductionInduction From the general to the specific From the specific to the general Like causes produce like effectsUnlike causes produce like effects Otis T. Mason Franz Boas U.S. National Museum American Museum Typological Tribal Evolutionary Contextual Classification Life group Form Meaning Universalism Individuality

  4. Typological vs. Life Group U.S. National Museum, Typological, 1890 U.S. National Museum Life group, 1896

  5. Entertainment, Instruction, Research • Boas curator at the American Museum 1896-1905 • Over 90% of visitors “do not want anything beyond entertainment” • Visitor groups - children, school teachers, researchers • Researcher’s justify large museums “for the advancement of science”

  6. The Practice of Museum Exhibits Boas at American Museum, 1900 No storage rooms, natural lighting, cases, life groups the most demanding (time, materials, skill), attempted realism. Labels – “the ultimate limitation to the possibility of a museum anthropology”. Boas believe the exhibited artifact secondary to the monographic interpretation of a scientist

  7. Cultural Relativism Contextual • The human mind has been creative everywhere - Boas Evolution • Advance of mankind from primitive to complex – American Museum President Jesup

  8. Cultural Determinism Anthropology Behavior of all men determined by enculturation Culture as primary determinant of behavior not race Learned behavior paramount Pre-anthropological culture singular, anthropological culture plural Evolutionary theory (E.B.Tylor and Herbert Spencer) Culture in its evolutionary sense, progressive accumulation of human creativity. Customs then viewed negatively as lower evolutionary status. See Stocking p. 870, 872. Phenomenon of World’s Fairs as exemplary of evolutionary theses – ex. World’s Columbia Exposition (also called The Chicago World’s Fair) 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s discovery of the “New World.” Arguments for and against racial assumptions tied to material culture studies.

  9. Web sources Fabulous Imperialism! - The 1893 Columbian Exposition http://www.pinkyshow.org/archives/episodes/060330/060330_1893_columbianexpo.html The Smithsonian Institution at 50 http://www.150.si.edu/siarch/guide/start.htm

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