Shema Fel D.

Garay
2019-09016
ANTH 193 – Midterm Paper

Write about how Boas’ school of thought (especially that of Mead) is significant in the
debates between nature and nurture. What are the contributions of Boas and his students to
this debate?

Nature vs. Nurture

Nature vs. Nurture is still one of the oldest debatable issue where the debate center is the relative
contribution of genetic factors or the environmental factors that affects a human culture, behavior
and personality. Nature in the sense where a human culture, behavior or personality is genetically
embedded to a person. Nurture in the sense where the environmental factor greatly influences the
human culture, behavior and personality.

Franz Boas and American Anthropology

Franz Boas is the “Father of Modern Anthropology” as well as the “Father of American
Anthropology”. He is one of the most influential social scientist of the early twentieth century. He
was the most innovative, active and a prodigy of the first generation of anthropologist in the US.
(Lewis, 2020)
Boas was the one of the founder of academic anthropology and he is also credited with the
Historical Particularism Theory. Before, many anthropologists believed that societies develop
universally or they call it Unilineal Evolution and Boas criticized this so-called Unilineal Evolution
saying it has an insufficient evidence. He argued that there is no historical evidence for this belief
and it is only a merely assumption. For Boas, cultural theories should base and derived from a
concrete ethnographic data not an assumption. He argued that we should use a detailed
ethnographic data and studies and he argued that society is understandable only it its own cultural
context. He strongly advocates fieldwork that’s why de develop the method of participant
observation as a research strategy of ethnographic fieldwork.
He was referred as the “Father of American Anthropology” as he trained the first generation of US
anthropologist; Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict, both of them are now a well-known
anthropologist (Lewis,2020). Boas was interested in salvage ethnography since he recognizes the
impacts of colonization towards other culture, he believed than we should preserve cultural
traditions of the “dying” cultures such as those traditional societies than experience a rapid change
due to modernization, dislocation, colonization and contact with the outside groups. Also, some
cultural artifacts are taken from the communities and place it in some museums and also in private
collections (“Traditional Ethnographic Approaches”, 2021)

The Role of Margaret Mead

Boas was so opposed to the idea of unilineal approach. He was opposed to the idea that
there was such thing where the cultural evolution has a fixed formula and that formulas is
applicable to all societies. Boas also said that the culture is not biological but it depends on the
complex history of the people in the society.
Boas emphasize that defining culture is on the nurture side and not in nature`s side. He was
criticized by that thought saying that he was disregarding the biological effect or impact or
influence of the genetic makeup of the people in a society. Several scientists believed that human
behavior is an acquired biological trait. Meaning humans are biologically and genetically violent.
This is where Margaret Mead intervene. Margaret Mead is an American anthropologist, one of the
student of Franz Boas, she is famous for her approach called “Culture and Personality”. She stated
that an individual is a product of culture and environment. The culture and the environmental
factors shape an individual and create a unique manners and personality. These cultural traits are
learned as in infant, reinterpreted and then the individual reinforced it as the individual goes
through the stages of life. For example, the debatable topic on what makes a serial killer a serial
killer, it is nature vs nurture. One`s upbringing and social environmental factors can directly
contribute to an individual’s traits and that traits can lead to criminal behavior. Also the
experiences while growing up can be a big factor on creating a serial killer and even criminals
(Hegger, 2015).
According to Margaret Mead work titled, Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive
societies (1935), she argued that he human behavior is learned through the influences of an
individual’s surrounding culture and even peer pressure for example, a person is an alcoholic and
violent because that person grew up in an environment where being an alcoholic is okay and
violence as normal action within the household and if that person was placed and grew up in an
environment where violence and alcoholic behavior is not a norm, that person will not grew up as
an alcoholic and violent person .

Nature vs. Nurture

This topic is still debatable even in the field of Psychology. Today, most of the academics-
including anthropologist- recognize that both nature and nurture has a big impact or influence to
one`s behavior, attitude, and culture. It is clear that there is no black and white answer for this
complex question but the important thing is we recognize the relative influence of both nature and
nurture to an individual and society.
REFERENCE:
Lewis, E. (2020) Franz Boas, Father of American Anthropology. ThoughtCo.
https://www.thoughtco.com/franz-boas-4582034

Traditional Ethnographic Anthroplogy (2021). Retrieved from

https://wikieducator.org/images/1/16/Theories.pdf

Hegger, J. (2015). Nature vs. Nurture: Which cause crime?. Community Corrections Insights.
https://www.corrections1.com/probation-and-parole/articles/nature-vs-nurture-which-causes-
crime-u7qC7V8v1F69l0Y7/