Franz Uri Boas (1858-1942), German-US anthropologist, in his study in Grantwood, New Jersey, USA. Boas studied in Germany, carrying out early work on the indigenous cultures and languages of the Canadian Arctic and the Pacific Northwest. He emigrated to America in 1886, and made many studies of the indigenous populations of British Columbia. In 1902 he organised and took part in an expedition which first suggested a link between North American and Asian cultures. Boas pioneered scientific anthropology, stressing the need to study a culture in all its aspects, including its religion, art, history and language. Photographed in 1915. |