Franz Boas

Franz Boas (born July 9, 1858, Minden, Germany; died December 21, 1942, New York City, United States of America) was a jewish born German-American cultural anthropologist. He is said to have established ethnology as a serious social science in the United States of America during his time at Columbia University. Among his famous anthropologists trained by Boas there were A. L. Kroeber. R. H. Lowie, Paul Radin, A. Goldenweiser, E. Sapir, M. J. Herskovits, Ruth Bendict, Margaret Mead.

Boas training in Germany at Berlin Universit was in geography. He went on expeditions in Northamerica since 1886. He is famous for his work on Baffin Island and in British Columbia, with the Tsimshian and Kwakiutl.