Responses to the Boasian School of Anthropology Essay

The Boasian enlighten of anthropology, headed by Franz Boas, was among those that pioneered new(a) concepts in anthropology. The Boasian school was critical of overgeneralizing perspectives or theories in the sciences, including the cultural developmentary school in anthropology, choosing instead to adopt rigorous empiricism in its approach. The Boasian school believed in the world having distinct cultures and that cross-cultural generalizing often make in the natural sciences are not possible in anthropology.The school today uses the four field approach that divides the field into socio-cultural, biological, linguistic and prehistoric anthropology. While Leslie White was educated in the Boasian school of anthropology, he later on began to question the anti- growingary visits of his early fostering. He developed and advocated an anthropological, ethical and political view of the world almost targeted against the Boasian school.Leslie White embraced two contradictory models of c ulture the sut generts conceptions from his Boasian education and the materialist-utilitarian framework developed out of his concern with cultural evolutionism. White neer reconciled the two but he definitely gave stress to the Boasian-based sut generts in case of conflicts. White feared that the Boasian schools concept of cultural determinism delineate an emasculation of anthropology and instead advocated science and evolution, particularly 19th Boasian School 1 century theories.White regarded culture as superorganic made up of the technology, cordial organization and ideology levels. It should be noted, however, that White still held on to the Boasian-based sut generts and that he still tended to downgrade the impact made by the natural surroundings on culture and society. Julian Steward was a fellow evolutionist with Leslie White. Differing close to from White, Julian stewards concepts of evolution and progress was not moderate to 19th century concepts. Steward, who was a pl uralist in terms of openness to opposite views, never sharply broke up with the Boasian school.But he did picture anomalies in the historical particularism paradigm of the Boasian school. Steward viewed evolution as perennial forms, processes, and functions, in opposition to Boasians repudiation of evolution and regularity in culture. He also perceived culture as superorganic, similar to a limited extent to Whites culturology. Stewards multi-linear evolution aspect of his approach to anthropology differed from the extreme particularism of the Boasian school but without adopting the antithetically unilinear evolution concept of White.Boasian School 1 References (December 2006). The Paradoxical Anthropology of Leslie White. Retrieved from the American Anthropological stand Website http//www. aaanet. org/gad/history/088white2. pdf. Leslie White. (2006, July 25). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2216, December 4, 2006, from http//en. wikipedia. org/w/index. php? title= Leslie_White&oldid=65691607. (May 2006). ESP/ANT 133. University of California Davishttp//www. des. ucdavis. edu/ esp133/133-08l. htm.