Editing Franz Boas (section)

== Early life and education ==

Franz Boas was born on July 9, 1858,<ref name=Grave>Norman F. Boas, 2004, p. 291 (photo of the graveyard marker of Franz and Marie Boas, Dale Cemetery, Ossining, N.Y.)</ref> in [[Minden]], [[Province of Westphalia|Westphalia]], the son of Sophie Meyer and Meier Boas. Although his grandparents were observant [[Jew]]s, his parents embraced [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] values, including their assimilation into modern [[Germany|German]] society. Boas's parents were liberal; they did not like [[dogma]] of any kind. An important early influence was the avuncular [[Abraham Jacobi]], his mother's brother-in-law and a friend of [[Karl Marx]], who was to advise him throughout Boas's career. Early in life, he displayed a penchant for both nature and natural sciences. Boas vocally opposed and refused to convert to [[Christianity]], but he did not identify himself as a religious Jew.<ref>{{cite journal |last1 = Glick |first1 = L. B. |year = 1982 |title = Types Distinct from Our Own: Franz Boas on Jewish Identity and Assimilation |journal = American Anthropologist |volume = 84 |issue = 3|pages = 545–565 |doi=10.1525/aa.1982.84.3.02a00020|doi-access = free }}</ref> This is disputed however by [[Ruth Bunzel]], a protégée of Boas, who called him "the essential protestant; he valued autonomy above all things."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/anthropologymode00boas|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|orig-date=1928|first=Franz|last=Boas|oclc=490354|isbn=978-0-486-25245-2|title=Anthropology & Modern Life, with an Introduction by Ruth Bunzel|date=1962|page=[https://archive.org/details/anthropologymode00boas/page/6 6]|access-date=2019-07-19}}</ref> According to his biographer, "He was a jewish German, preserving and promoting German culture and values in America."<ref>Douglas Cole 1999 ''Franz Boas: The Early Years, 1858–1906'' p. 280. Washington: Douglas and MacIntyre.</ref> In an autobiographical sketch, Boas wrote:

<blockquote>The background of my early thinking was a German home in which the ideals of the [[revolutions of 1848|revolution of 1848]] were a living force. My father, liberal, but not active in public affairs; my mother, idealistic, with a lively interest in public matters; the founder about 1854 of the kindergarten in my hometown, devoted to science. My parents had broken through the shackles of dogma. My father had retained an emotional affection for the ceremonial of his parental home, without allowing it to influence his intellectual freedom.<ref>Boas, Franz. 1938. An Anthropologist's Credo. ''The Nation'' 147:201–204. [http://instruct.uwo.ca/anthro/222/bocredo.htm part 1], [http://groups.chass.utoronto.ca/kalmar/426/boas%20nation%20credo.pdf part 2] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140727115359/http://groups.chass.utoronto.ca/kalmar/426/boas%20nation%20credo.pdf |date=2014-07-27 }} (PDF).</ref></blockquote>

From [[kindergarten]] on, Boas was educated in [[natural history]], a subject he enjoyed.<ref>Koelsch, William A. 2004. "Franz Boas, Geographer, and the Problem of Disciplinary Identity." ''Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences'' 40(1):1–22</ref> In [[Gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]], he was most proud of his research on the geographic distribution of plants.

[[File:Boas1881.jpg|thumb|Boas's dissertation: ''Beiträge zur Erkenntniss der Farbe des Wassers'']]
When he started his university studies, Boas first attended [[Heidelberg University]] for a semester followed by four terms at [[Bonn University]], studying physics, geography, and mathematics at these schools.<ref>{{cite journal |last1 = Lowie |first1 = Robert H |year = 1947 |title = Franz Boas, 1858–1942 |journal = National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs |volume = 24 |issue = 303–322| page = 303 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.89650/page/n357/mode/2up }}</ref><ref>Harris, 1968, p. 253.</ref><ref>Koelsch, 2004, p. 1.</ref> In 1879, he hoped to transfer to [[Berlin University]] to study physics under [[Hermann von Helmholtz]], but ended up transferring to the [[University of Kiel]] instead due to family reasons.<ref>Koelsch, 2004, p. 1</ref> At Kiel, Boas had wanted to focus on the mathematical topic of [[Carl Friedrich Gauss|C.F. Gauss]]'s law of the normal distribution of errors for his dissertation, but he ultimately had to settle for a topic chosen for him by his doctoral advisor, physicist [[Gustav Karsten]], on the optical properties of water.<ref>Cole, 1999, pp. 52 and 55.</ref> Boas completed his dissertation entitled ''Contributions to the Perception of the Color of Water,''<ref>Cole, 1999, p. 298.</ref> which examined the absorption, reflection, and polarization of light in water, and was awarded a PhD in physics in 1881.<ref>{{cite journal |last1 = Kroeber |first1 = A.&nbsp;L. |year = 1943 |title = Franz Boas: The Man. American Anthropological Association |journal = Memoirs |volume = 61 |issue = 5–26 |page = 5 }}</ref><ref>Bohannan and Glazer, 1988, p. 81</ref><ref>Murray, Stephen O. 1993. ''Theory Groups and the Study of Language in North America: A Social History''. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 47</ref><ref>Williams, Vernon J. Jr. 1998. Franz Boas Paradox and the African American Intelligentsia. In V.P. Franklin (ed.) ''African Americans and Jews in the Twentieth Century: Studies in Convergence and Conflict''. Columbia: [[University of Missouri Press]]. 54–86. p. 57.</ref><ref>Cole, 1999, p. 53.</ref>

While at Bonn, Boas had attended geography classes taught by the geographer [[Theobald Fischer]] and the two established a friendship, with the coursework and friendship continuing after both relocated to Kiel at the same time.<ref>Lowie, 1947, p. 303.</ref><ref>Harris, 1968, p. 265.</ref><ref>Bohannan, Paul, and Mark Glazer (eds.). 1988. ''High Points in Anthropology'' (2nd Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. p. 81</ref><ref>Cole, 1999, pp. 49, 51, 55, 56.</ref><ref name="Koelsch, 2004, p. 4">Koelsch, 2004, p. 4</ref> Fischer, a student of [[Carl Ritter]], rekindled Boas's interest in geography and ultimately had more influence on him than did Karsten, and thus some biographers view Boas as more of a geographer than a physicist at this stage.<ref>Harris, 1968, p. 265</ref><ref>Bohannan and Glaser, 1988, p. 81.</ref><ref name="Koelsch, 2004, p. 4"/><ref>Adams, William Y. 2016. ''The Boasians: Founding Fathers and Mothers of American Anthropology''. Falls Village: Hamilton Books.</ref> In addition to the major in physics, Adams, citing Kroeber, states that "[i]n accordance with German tradition at the time{{nbsp}}... he also had to defend six minor theses",<ref>Adams, 2016, p. 39</ref> and Boas likely completed a minor in geography,<ref name="Williams, 1998, p. 57">Williams, 1998, p. 57</ref> which would explain why Fischer was one of Boas's degree examiners.<ref>Koelsch, 2004, p. 5</ref> Because of this close relationship between Fischer and Boas, some biographers have gone so far as to incorrectly state that Boas "followed" Fischer to Kiel, and that Boas received a PhD in geography with Fischer as his doctoral advisor.<ref>Speth, William W. 1999. ''How It Came to Be: Carl O. Sauer, Franz Boas and the Meanings of Anthropogography''Ellensburg: Ephemera Press. p. 128.</ref><ref>Adams, 2016, pp. 3, 39</ref> For his part, Boas self-identified as a geographer by the time he completed his doctorate,<ref>Koelsch, 2004, pp. 1, 4</ref> prompting his sister, Toni, to write in 1883, "After long years of infidelity, my brother was re-conquered by geography, the first love of his boyhood."<ref>quoted in Cole, 1999, p. 57.</ref>

In his dissertation research, Boas's methodology included investigating how different intensities of light created different colors when interacting with different types of water;<ref name="Williams, 1998, p. 57"/> however, he encountered difficulty in being able to objectively perceive slight differences in the color of water, and as a result became intrigued by this problem of perception and its influence on quantitative measurements.<ref name="Williams, 1998, p. 57"/><ref>Murray, 1993, p. 47.</ref> Boas, due to [[tone deafness]], would later encounter difficulties also in studying [[tonal language]]s such as [[Laguna language|Laguna]].<ref>[[Leslie Marmon Silko|Marmon Silko, Leslie]] (1981). ''[[Storyteller (Silko book)|Storyteller]]'', p. 254. Arcade. {{ISBN|978-1-55970-005-4}}. His student Parsons stayed behind and documented Laguna language and stories.</ref> Boas had already been interested in [[Immanuel Kant|Kantian]] philosophy since taking a course on [[aesthetics]] with [[Kuno Fischer]] at Heidelberg. These factors led Boas to consider pursuing research in [[psychophysics]], which explores the relationship between the psychological and the physical, after completing his doctorate, but he had no training in [[psychology]].<ref>Liss, Julia E. 1995 Patterns of Strangeness: Franz Boas, Modernism, and the Origins of Anthropology. In Prehistories of the Future: The Primitivist Project and the Culture of Modernism. E. Barkan and R. Bush, eds. pp. 114–130. Stanford. CA: [[Stanford University Press]].</ref><ref>Liss, Julia E. 1996. "German Culture and German Science in the Bildung of Franz Boas". ''In History of Anthropology'', vol. 8. Volksgeist as Method and Ethic. G. W. Stocking Jr., ed. pp. 155–184. Madison: [[University of Wisconsin Press]].</ref> Boas did publish six articles on psychophysics during his year of military service (1882–1883), but ultimately he decided to focus on geography, primarily so he could receive sponsorship for his planned Baffin Island expedition.<ref>Harris, 1968, p. 264.</ref>