Anthropology — Story, Setting & Ideas

Defining the Object of Anthropology

Boas carefully distinguishes anthropology from other sciences. He states that the field does not discuss the anatomical, physiological, and mental characteristics of man considered as an individual; instead, it focuses on the diversity of these traits in groups defined by geography and social class. The task is to inquire into the causes of observed differentiation and the sequence of events that produced multifarious forms of human life. This includes the effects of climate, food supply, isolation, migration, and population density. Boas emphasizes that understanding group characteristics requires knowledge of individual anatomy, physiology, and psychology because a social group's establishment depends on parallel development in all individuals exposed to similar influences.

Theoretical Tensions: Evolutionism vs. Psychology

Boas contrasts two major theoretical positions in ethnology. The evolutionists, he says, represent a historical point of view, while Adolf Bastian represents a psychological one, emphasizing the fundamental sameness of human thought across all cultures. Boas notes a certain mysticism in Bastian's concept of elementary ideas, which are seen as intangible entities whose origin cannot be unraveled because we are compelled to think in their forms. More recent discussions, Boas observes, have taken up both threads, and both views are undergoing radical changes. With increasing data, the forms of society, religion, art, and invention no longer seem as simple as earlier investigators believed. Attempts to fit hypothetical evolutionary schemes to actual historical developments revealed that the theory was hardly ever applicable to specific cases.

Evidence of Worldwide Cultural Transmission

Boas presents concrete examples to argue that cultural transmission has been almost unlimited in prehistoric times. He cites the rapid spread of tobacco into Africa after the discovery of America, the banana's spread through South America, and the dissemination of Indian-corn. Similarly, the history of the horse, cattle, and European grains illustrates that similar conditions prevailed in the Old World. The use of milk, he notes, was probably disseminated early, so that by historic times it was used across Europe, Africa, and western Asia. Perhaps the strongest proof of transmission comes from folklore: complex tales that could not have been invented twice are found among Berbers, Italians, Irish, Russians, in India, Tibet, Siberia, and North America, with only South Africa, Australia, Polynesia, and South America apparently untouched. Boas concludes that the early interrelation of human races was almost worldwide, and that any tribe's culture can be fully explained only by considering both its inner growth and its relations with neighbors.

This lecture offers a compact view of Boas's early thinking, emphasizing historical reconstruction and the diffusion of cultural elements. Readers should note that the excerpts are incomplete; the full text may develop additional arguments about race, language, or methodology. The lecture's value lies in its clear articulation of anthropology's scope at a formative moment, and in the specific evidence Boas marshals—from plant distributions to folk-tale transmission—to support his case for worldwide cultural contact.

Years at this desk, and still I recall that little 1907 lecture, Boas tracing how a story travels and changes in the telling. It made me think of another quiet volume, a younger neighbor on the shelf — On Limitations to the Use of Some Anthropologic Data — Inside the Classic. They share a certain humility, a gentle warning about what we think we know from a single tale. A fond kinship, indeed.