Premium
Franz Boas, geographer, and the problem of disciplinary identity
Author(s) -
Koelsch William A.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.216
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1520-6696
pISSN - 0022-5061
DOI - 10.1002/jhbs.10181
Subject(s) - geographer , discipline , sociology , human geography , identity (music) , german , mythology , anthropology , historical geography , cultural geography , social science , geography , archaeology , history , aesthetics , classics , economic geography , philosophy
This paper examines Franz Boas as an aspiring professional geographer during the 1880s: his Baffin Landresearch, his publications, his participation in geography organizations, and his struggle to attain auniversity appointment in geography. Frustrated by a seeming lack of opportunity for advancement in Germany,Boas explored career opportunities as a geographer in America and launched a series of unsuccessful butmeaningful attempts to dominate the intellectual direction of American geography. Finally, the article reviewsthe circumstances surrounding Boas's appointment as an anthropologist at Clark University in 1889. Throughexamining Boas's own words and actions, the paper demonstrates that his professional identification withgeography was lengthier and stronger than earlier accounts have suggested. It also critiques the myth of aBaffin Land “conversion” to anthropology, and delineates the circumstances of his shift from Germanhuman geography to his Americanist recasting of anthropology after 1889. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.