Study Guide for Week 2

Prepare written answers to the following questions:

1. Briefly explain each of these terms or phrases:

a. adhesions (as used by Tylor, as discussed by Stocking)

b. alternating sounds

c. the comparative method

d. eugenics

e. nomethetic (as used on p. 205)

f.  psychic unity of mankind

2a.  Before Boas’s "On Alternating Sounds," what interpretation had been made of “alternating sounds” from a social evolutionary perspective?

2b.  Following Boas, what can we say about all of the sounds we (American English speakers of now and here) hear as “f” in, say, all the utterances of the word “fan” that we hear around us?  We hear all these utterances as one and the same sound, but what does Boas say about whether they are or are not one and the same sound?  That is, what does he say about whether the “f”s  are or are not a singular phenomena?

2c.  Why do we hear them as one sound?

2d. Following Boas, what can we say about all of the persons we (American English culture-bearers of now and here) see as “white”?  We see these persons as belonging to one “race” or “color group,” but what does Boas say (or approach saying) about whether they are or are not one and the same “race” or “color group”?  That is, what does he say about whether the persons are or are not of “one race” or “one color”?

2e. Why do we register them as one kind of people?

3a.  In Boas’s time, were the “races” that were identified and debated by “race scientists” (including many anthropologists) the same or different than the “races” that are commonly recognized today?  Briefly explain your answer, being specific and concrete.

3b.  Based on Stocking’s essay, what arguments did Boas develop that support the conclusion that accepting the reality of distinct human races endows our received categories with a realness the categories do not have?

4. What “inflectional indicator” does Stocking identify for the particular concept of culture that Boas develops (and that is retrospectively extracted from his work)?

Be prepared to discuss the following questions:

1.  On page 230, Stocking writes: “Summarizing all of the various strands of this rather discursive argument, we might say that a number of the central elements in the modern anthropological culture concept—historicity, plurality, behavioral determinism, integration, and relativism—can be…seen as emerging…in the work of Franz Boas.”  What does Stocking mean by each of these five terms?

2.  From other courses you have taken, are you aware of any recent critiques of the Boasian culture concept?