Franz Boas

Also known as Franz Uri Boas, Father of American Anthropology

German-American anthropologist

OverviewAI-generated

Franz Uri Boas was a German-born anthropologist, linguist, and university teacher who held citizenship in the Kingdom of Prussia, Germany, the German Empire, and the United States. Born in Minden on 9 July 1858, he was educated at the University of Bonn, Kiel University, and Heidelberg University. He studied under Friedrich Ratzel, Theobald Fischer, Carl Ritter, and Wilhelm Wundt. Boas worked at Columbia University, Clark University, the Smithsonian Institution, and the American Museum of Natural History.

His notable works include *The game of cat's cradle*, *Handbook of American Indian languages*, *Freedom for the school*, *Anthropologie in Amerika*, and *Kwakiutl texts--second series*. He was a member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences, the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He is also recognized in the American Academy Arts Sciences collection.

Boas died of myocardial infarction in New York City on 21 December 1942. He spoke English and German. His students included Ruth Benedict, Alexander Goldenweiser, Joseph Greenberg, Alfred L. Kroeber, Edward Sapir, Alexander Francis Chamberlain, and Manuel Gamio. His child was Franziska Boas.

Synthesized by Vinony from 31 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, Firecrawl, Vinony collections. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born: 9 July 1858
Died: 21 December 1942
Works: 225

Top works

The game of cat's cradle
Handbook of American Indian languages
Freedom for the school
[The Northern regions pamphlets]
[The Norse in America pamphlets]

via Open Library + Wikidata

Official website

franz-boas.com →

Link to the official site · not written by Vinony

Wikidata facts

Instance of: human
Given name: Franz
Gender: male
Citizenship: German Empire
Place of birth: Minden
Place of death: New York City
Child: Franziska Boas
Occupation: ethnographer
Educated at: Kiel University
Employer: American Museum of Natural History
Languages spoken: German
Doctoral advisor: Gustav Karsten
Student of: Wilhelm Wundt
Field of work: relativism
Official website: www.franz-boas.com
Image: FranzBoas.jpg

Show 13 more facts

Commons category: Franz Boas
date of birth: 1858-07-09
date of death: 1942-12-21
member of: American Philosophical Society
birth name: Franz Uri Boas
student: Frederica de Laguna
cause of death: myocardial infarction
manner of death: natural causes
writing language: English language
contributed to creative work: Popular Science
P8168: Peyton Randolph
name in native language: Franz Boas
Commons Creator page: Franz Boas

Sources (4)

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Encyclopedic overview

Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and ethnomusicologist. He was a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the movements known as historical particularism and cultural relativism.

Studying in Germany, Boas was awarded a doctorate in 1881 in physics while also studying geography. He then participated in a geographical expedition to northern Canada, where he became fascinated with the culture and language of the Baffin Island Inuit. He went on to do field work with the indigenous cultures and languages of the Pacific Northwest. In 1887 he emigrated to the United States, where he first worked as a museum curator at the Smithsonian, and in 1899 became a professor of anthropology at Columbia University, where he remained for the rest of his career. Through his students, many of whom went on to found anthropology departments and research programmes inspired by their mentor, Boas profoundly influenced the development of American anthropology. Among his many significant students were A. L. Kroeber, Alexander Goldenweiser, Ruth Benedict, Edward Sapir, Margaret Mead, Zora Neale Hurston, and Gilberto Freyre.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Franz Boas” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.