Myles Gernale

Grade 11 Fitzgerald

1.) Franz Boas

Born on July 9, 1958, Minden, Germany

Died on December 21, 1942, New York City
German-American
Father of American Anthropology
While in Germany was awarded a doctorate in physics in 1881
Specialist in North American Indian cultures and languages
-In 1886 visited Kwakiutl (Now Canada) and other tribes of British Columbia
A big developer of Anthropology in America
At the age of 5 took interest in natural sciences-botany, geography, zoology, geology, and
astronomy
A professor at various schools in America
Boas established the International Journal of American Linguistics
Was one of the founders of the American Anthropological Association
Served as president (1931) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Was involved in WW2 especially the Nazis in the Spanish Civil War
-Using Anthropological ideas about racism into popular journal articles
He had originally assumed as a natural scientist that universal laws must exist that would explain
how different peoples have wound up with their characteristic ways of life, he concluded that
the problem was too complex for any general solution. Laws of cultural causation, he argued,
had to be discovered rather than assumed.
Boas view requires the anthropologist to be capable of understanding all factors that might
influence the histories of peoples.
-That cultural differences are not the result of biological differences, one must know something
of biology; and to see the interrelations of humans and their environment, the anthropologist
must understand such things as migration, nutrition, child-raising customs, and disease, as well
as the movements and interrelations of peoples and their cultures.

2.) Alfred Kroeber (A.L Kroeber)

Born on June 11, 1876, Hoboken, New Jersey, US

Died on Oct 5, 1950, Paris, France
An influential American anthropologist of the first half of the 20th century
Primary concern was to understand the nature of culture and its processes
His interest and competence ranged over the whole of anthropology, and he made valuable
contributions to American Indian ethnology; to the archaeology of New Mexico, Mexico, and
Peru; and to the study of linguistics, folklore, kinship, and social structure
His career nearly coincided with the emergence of academic, professionalized anthropology in
the United States and contributed significantly to its development
While a graduate student at Columbia University, Kroeber came under the influence of Franz
Boas. He received his Ph.D. in 1901 for a study of decorative symbolism of the Arapaho Indians
of Montana
 In that year founded the anthropology department at the University of California at Berkeley
Kroebers first important contributions to archaeology were his studies of sites near Zuni, N.M.
(191520), but his work centered mainly on expeditions to Mexico (1924 and 1930) and Peru
(1925, 1926, and 1942)
Important resulting work was Peruvian Archaeology in 1942 (1944). He also pioneered in dialect
surveys of American Indians
Kroeber was concerned with culture as a universal human characteristic and believed that a
complete understanding of culture must contain explanations not only of specific cultures but
also of cultural elements and patterning that transcend specific cultures

3.) Clifford Geertz

Born on August 23, 1926, San Francisco, California

Died on October 30, 2006, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
American cultural anthropologist, a leading rhetorician and proponent of symbolic anthropology
and interpretive anthropology
Geertz studied at Antioch College, Ohio (B.A., 1950), and Harvard University (Ph.D., 1956)
He taught or held fellowships at a number of schools before joining the anthropology staff of the
University of Chicago (196070)
In 1970 he became professor of social science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton,
N.J.
At Chicago, Geertz became a champion of symbolic Anthropology
Symbols guide action. Culture, according to Geertz, is a system of inherited conceptions
expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop
their knowledge about and attitudes toward life.
The function of culture is to impose meaning on the world and make it understandable
The role of anthropologists is to trythough complete success is not possibleto interpret the
guiding symbols of each culture

4.) Margaret Mead

Born on December 16, 1901, Philadelphia, Pa

Died on November 15, 1978
American anthropologist whose great fame owed as much to the force of her personality and
her outspokenness as it did to the quality of her scientific work
Mead entered DePauw University in 1919 and transferred to Barnard College a year later
She graduated from Barnard in 1923 and entered the graduate school of Columbia University,
where she studied with and was greatly influenced by anthropologists Franz Boas and Ruth
Benedict (a lifelong friend)
Mead received an M.A. in 1924 and a Ph.D. in 1929
During her many years with the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, she
successively served as assistant curator (192642), associate curator (194264), curator of
ethnology (196469), and curator emeritus (196978)
 Her contributions to science received special recognition when, at the age of 72, she was elected
to the presidency of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
In 1979 she was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States
highest civilian honor
As an anthropologist, Mead was best known for her studies of the nonliterate peoples of
Oceania
-Especially with regard to various aspects of psychology and culturethe cultural conditioning of
sexual behaviour, natural character, and culture change
As a celebrity, she was most notable for her forays into such far-ranging topics as womens
rights, child rearing, sexual morality, nuclear proliferation, race relations, drug abuse, population
control, environmental pollution, and world hunger

Sources: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Margaret-Mead
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Franz-Boas
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Clifford-Geertz
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alfred-Kroeber