什麼是鮑亞士

Boas, Franz

德裔美籍人類學家，其重大貢獻是在美國把人類學建立為一學術科目。原本攻讀物理和地理（1881年獲博士學位），1883～1884年參加到巴芬島的科學探險活動，開始轉而研究愛斯基摩人文化。後來對不列顛哥倫比亞的原住民（包括誇扣特爾人）進行研究。1896～1905年指導耶蘇普北太平洋探險隊，調查西伯利亞和北美洲的原住民之間的關係。他在人類學方面的成就是無人能超越的。在他之前，大部分的人類學家固守社會文化演化這種相當粗淺的理論，主張有些民族在遺傳上就比其他民族更為文明或較為發達。鮑亞士認為持這種觀點的人是種族優越感在作祟，他主張所有的人類都同樣地經過演化，只是演化的方式不同。現在的人類學家主要受他的觀點影響，相信種族之間的差異是歷史文化因素而非遺傳因素造成的。1896年起在哥倫比亞大學任教，一直到去世，在美國他是這門專業學問的主要組織者，也是潘乃德、克羅伯、米德和薩丕爾等人的良師益友。主要著作有《原始人的心靈》（1911）、《原始藝術》（1927）和《人種、語言和文化》（1940）。

1858～1942年

Boas, Franz

German-U.S. anthropologist, largely credited with establishing anthropology as an academic discipline in the U.S. Trained in physics and geography (Ph.D., 1881), Boas was part of an early scientific expedition to Baffin Island (1883-84), where he turned to studying Eskimo culture. He later studied native peoples of British Columbia, including the Kwakiutl. From 1896 to 1905 he directed the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, which investigated the relationships between the aboriginal peoples of Siberia and North America. His achievements in anthropology are virtually unrivaled. Before Boas, most anthropologists adhered to a relatively crude theory of sociocultural evolution, arguing that some peoples were inherently more civilized or developed than others. Boas argued that such views were ethnocentric, and that all human groups have actually evolved equally but in different ways. It is largely due to Boas that human differences are now attributed by anthropologists to historic “cultural” rather than genetic factors. Teaching at Columbia University from 1896 until his death, he was a leading organizer of the profession in the U.S. and the mentor of Ruth Benedict, Alfred L. Kroeber, Margaret Mead, and Edward Sapir. His books include The Mind of Primitive Man (1911), Primitive Art (1927), and Race, Language and Culture (1940).