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German Contexts and Legacies in Anthropological Theory and Practice George W. Jr.. Stocking, ed.. Volksgeist as Method and Ethic: Essays on Boasian Ethnography and the German Anthropological Tradition. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1996. 358 pp. $24.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-299-14554-5. Reviewed by Deborah J. Cahalen Published on H-SAE (February, 2000) The subtitle of this edited volume suggests thropology, and other felds of study articulated that Franz Boas is the central fgure of concern during that time. here. This is rather misleading, as the focus of this The collection opens with a brief introduction (nevertheless excellent) book is more on the Ger‐ by George W. Stocking Jr., in which he outlines the man anthropological tradition than on Boas. Most debates surrounding the intellectual contribution of the essays involve him tangentially at best, with of Franz Boas to American anthropology -- did only the chapters by Liss, Jacknis and Berman Boas play a formative role in anthropological the‐ treating Boas directly. The rest of the text investi‐ ory, or was he merely a late arrival on the scene gates German perspectives on culture and science and an ahistorical particularist to boot? Exploring in the late nineteenth and early twentieth cen‐ Boas's formative role, Stocking offers this collec‐ turies. tion as a kind of genealogical approach to under‐ This is really no setback to the merit of the standing Boas and the shaping of American an‐ book if you are interested in knowing more about thropology in relation to German traditions. the anthropological tradition in Germany at the Though Boas is not a major focus of every essay, turn of the last century, as the book considerably each author contributes to an understanding of advances our understanding of how German the practices of the time, the dominant and mi‐ thinkers from the nineteenth century interacted nority intellectual debates, histories of personali‐ with one another, and what currents of thought ties and institutions, methodologies, and political, on culture and science influenced Boas as well. By ideological, moral and ethical currents of German extension, we can understand the contribution of anthropology and science. The collection also in‐ German thought to American anthropology. Many cludes a reprinting of an article which appeared of the authors also devote thoughtful attention to in Science in 1887 on "The Study of Geography" by discussing the way ethnology/ethnography, ar‐ Boas (1887), in which Boas outlines his approach chaeology, linguistic anthropology, biological an‐ to knowledge production in science. He differenti‐ H-Net Reviews ates here between one object of science -- the de‐ Nevertheless it is usually possible to gather mean‐ duction of generalized laws -- and another, which ing from the context. he wishes to defend, the investigation of phenom‐ In Benoit Massin's "From Virchow to Fischer: ena in and of themselves. Though an early piece Physical Anthropology and 'Modern Race Theo‐ of his work, Boas himself maintained that he had ries' in Wilhelmine Germany," Massin outlines the set out foundational ideas there, and since many changes that led from late nineteenth century rel‐ of the authors in this volume refer to the article, it atively liberal, anti-racist views within the acade‐ is a useful addition to the text. my through a seachange to early twentieth centu‐ In the frst chapter of the book, "Franz Boas ry racist stances. The essay stands against, or com‐ and the Humboldtian Tradition: From Volksgeist plicates, a number of themes in literatures on the and Nationalcharakter to an Anthropological Con‐ development and role of "race hygiene" and "sci‐ cept of Culture," Matti Bunzl sets out to explore entific racism" within biological sciences in Ger‐ the dichotomy between the law-generating sci‐ many prior to the rise of Nazism: that racism had ences and the historicizing, particularizing sci‐ always existed in German intellectual thought, ences discussed by Boas in "The Study of Geogra‐ that racism entered German biological sciences phy." Bunzl's essay is certainly one of the essays through nineteenth century craniology, and that that ties the book together into a thematic whole, Nazism brought racism into German physical an‐ explicitly bringing together Boas' method and the‐ thropology. In contrast, Massin particularly high‐ ory, the context of German anthropology, and the lights debates between neo-Lamarkians and neo- further implications for American anthropologi‐ Darwinians after 1900 as the critical period in cal practice. He focuses on the influence of the which the link between politics and biological sci‐ work of the brothers von Humboldt, Wilhelm and ence took a turn for the worse. A particular Alexander, on Boas. Bunzl documents their re‐ strength of this essay is its exploration of the sta‐ search in linguistic, ethnographic, and "naturalist" tus of Darwinian evolutionary theory in Germany sciences at the turn of the century, as well as their in this period. Massin thoroughly chronicles the influence on institutions, showing their, together, widespread resistance in German biological sci‐ quite stunning effect on intellectual and political ences to attempts by a few scholars to promote currents of the time. He then traces a detailed ge‐ "Darwinian" approaches that linked non-Euro‐ nealogy of the Humboldts' students through to peans to apes. Debates developed between Neo- Boas, highlighting the ways that Humboldtian tra‐ Lamarkians and neo-Darwinists, in which, Massin ditions shaped his research and theoretical agen‐ says, "'good politics' became linked with 'bad sci‐ das. Bunzl deals with the development of Boas' ence' (and vice versa) - two fatal alliances which views on museology, evolutionary theory, linguis‐ were to have far-reaching influence on the consol‐ tics and shows how questions across these felds idation of a racial political line within the German contributed to his theoretical views on culture. bio-medical community (80)." Massin does treat This essay is particularly useful in highlighting the relationship of German physical anthropology how themes and debates within German tradi‐ to other subjects such as linguistics, prehistory tions were carried through Boas into American and archaeology in race theorizing, though it anthropology across the subdisciplines. For the would be useful in a volume on the history of an‐ non-German speaker, it would be a bit hindered, thropology to have discussed these connections in as would many of the essays, by the fact that Ger‐ greater depth and to have included ethnology. The man words and phrases are rarely translated. essay also has very loose links to Boas (he having received some early training by liberal theorists), and the subject matter clearly has implications 2 H-Net Reviews for the way Boas went about investigating the re‐ cal context rather than simply compared with oth‐ lationship between culture and biology, but er texts cross-culturally. Massin stops short of concretely outlining the ef‐ Likewise, Judith Berman discusses Boas' treat‐ fects of these debates on Boasian anthropology. ment of texts as entry points into the native mind, Julia Liss' chapter, "German Culture and Ger‐ and the importance Boas placed on contextualiza‐ man Science in the Bildung of Franz Boas," ex‐ tion of knowledge and practices. Ironically, she plores the family background and education of also shows that Boas failed to fully contextualize Franz Boas from his childhood until he left for the much of the information gathered by his transla‐ Baffin Island expedition, his growing aspirations tor, informant and data collector George Hunt, by as a young man, and his tensions in the feld of neglecting to state that Hunt was not a member of American anthropology. Liss is especially insight‐ the tribe among whom he was living and about ful as she considers Boas' view of his own Bildung whom he was writing. Though Hunt co-authored (education, formation of character), the goals of "The Kwakiutl" with Boas, he was not given credit his education and research, which she illuminates for much of the work he did on Boas's behalf. This through his papers and his letters to family mem‐ chapter, together with the one that follows bers, especially to his sister Antoinette. The chap‐ (Thomas Buckley's "'The Little History of Pitiful ter also considers his reception by the German Events': The Epistemological and Moral Contexts emigre community in New York, and the role of of Kroeber's Californian Ethnology"), takes on the his wife Marie in inspiring his drive to establish ways that ethnographies are created, and the rela‐ himself in the feld of American academics. It tionship between ethnographers and informants, places "The Study of Geography" as written in his issues at the heart of anthropology today as well. early, optimistic phase of arrival on the American Buckley focuses primarily on Boas's student scene, before his conflicts within the field began. Kroeber, touching on Kroeber's alterations and The next two chapters, "The Ethnographic Ob‐ explications of Boas's vision of anthropology, as ject and the Object of Ethnology in the Early Ca‐ well as Kroeber's relations with Native Ameri‐ reer of Franz Boas" by Ira Jacknis, and Judith cans, including the famous informant Ishi. A prin‐ Berman's "'The Culture as It Appears to the Indian ciple difference between Boas and Kroeber, of Himself': Boas, George Hunt, and the Methods of course, is that Kroeber believed that culture and Ethnography," both deal with Boas' approach to experience could be separated out in order to ab‐ texts and contextualization. Jacknis investigates stract the patterns of cultures - similar to the law- Boas' ideas about how material culture should be generating object of science described (but es‐ handled, and his contentious relations with other chewed) by Boas. Nevertheless, argues Buckley, museum curators in the United States. He discuss‐ Kroeber's vision of anthropology, and especially es how Boas's insistence on contextualizing ob‐ of culture as Volksgeist, was frmly rooted in Ger‐ jects within cultures conflicted with the approach man thought and much of Boasian tradition.
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