Justin’s Notes
Boas’s influence upon American social scientists in matters of race can hardly be exaggerated. At the same time that racial segregation was being imposed by law in the states of the American South, and eugenics was emerging as a hereditarian solution to social problems. Boas was embarking upon a life-long assault on the idea that race was a primary source of the differences to be found in the mental or social capabilities of human groups. He accomplished his mission largely through his ceaseless, almost relentless articulation of the concept of culture.
— Carl Degler In Search of Human Nature: The Decline and Revival of Darwinism in American Social Thought

Filed under

Culture Over BiologyIndividual Shaping a FieldScience Against PrejudiceThe Biological Reality of Race

Topics

AnthropologyCarl DeglerEugenicsFranz Boas

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