Anthropology was a young discipline when Franz Boas (1858-1942) began his fieldwork among the American Indians of the Pacific Northwest. The German-educated scholar was convinced that it was necessary to learn the languages and eat the foods of the peoples he studied. He heard the ticking clock that spurred the development of anthropology—the anxiety that native cultures throughout the world were disappearing through violence or assimilation. Boas spoke out against the prevailing presumption of white supremacy even if, as biographer Rosemary Lévy Zumwalt points out, he wasn’t entirely free of the era’s racist theories. Zumwalt makes a strong case that Boas was responsible for significant strides forward in understanding our world.
