The study of geography? Franz Boas and his canonical returns
Amongst historians of geography, very little attention has been paid to Franz Boas’s ambitious vision for ‘The Study of Geography’ published in Science in 1887. Historians of anthropology have, on the contrary, understood Boas’s paper on geography as the cornerstone of his developing anthropological...
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2015.04.018 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:39fd5e7e-aa58-497a-86bd-c858eec06555 |
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ftuloxford:oai:ora.ox.ac.uk:uuid:39fd5e7e-aa58-497a-86bd-c858eec06555 2024-09-30T14:31:19+00:00 The study of geography? Franz Boas and his canonical returns Powell, R 2015-05-13 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2015.04.018 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:39fd5e7e-aa58-497a-86bd-c858eec06555 eng eng Elsevier doi:10.1016/j.jhg.2015.04.018 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:39fd5e7e-aa58-497a-86bd-c858eec06555 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2015.04.018 info:eu-repo/semantics/embargoedAccess Journal article 2015 ftuloxford https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2015.04.018 2024-09-06T07:47:31Z Amongst historians of geography, very little attention has been paid to Franz Boas’s ambitious vision for ‘The Study of Geography’ published in Science in 1887. Historians of anthropology have, on the contrary, understood Boas’s paper on geography as the cornerstone of his developing anthropological interest. This paper argues that the reason for this revolves around competing understandings of canonicity between geography and anthropology. ‘The Study of Geography’, alone among Boas’s early geographical writings, is placed centrally within the anthropological canon. The paper shows how such interpretations locate a Boasian conversion to an ostensibly more mature disciplinary practice to his Arctic fieldwork on Baffin Island, 1883-84. In doing so, Boas was canonized, as were some of his texts and practices. The effect was that post-1945 North American anthropology was acutely Boasian. This paper disputes aspects of this conventional narrative, using aspects of Boas’s corpus and education to argue that there was a more complex relationship between discussions in German human geography in the 1880s and the development of American cultural anthropology into the twentieth century. In doing so, the paper examines the relationship of Boas, his texts and practices, to the geographical canon and notes his recent recovery in French scholarship. In consequence, the implications of these canonical turns and returns for conceptions of canonicity in geography are discussed. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Baffin Island Baffin ORA - Oxford University Research Archive Arctic Baffin Island Journal of Historical Geography 49 21 30 |
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Open Polar |
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ORA - Oxford University Research Archive |
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ftuloxford |
language |
English |
description |
Amongst historians of geography, very little attention has been paid to Franz Boas’s ambitious vision for ‘The Study of Geography’ published in Science in 1887. Historians of anthropology have, on the contrary, understood Boas’s paper on geography as the cornerstone of his developing anthropological interest. This paper argues that the reason for this revolves around competing understandings of canonicity between geography and anthropology. ‘The Study of Geography’, alone among Boas’s early geographical writings, is placed centrally within the anthropological canon. The paper shows how such interpretations locate a Boasian conversion to an ostensibly more mature disciplinary practice to his Arctic fieldwork on Baffin Island, 1883-84. In doing so, Boas was canonized, as were some of his texts and practices. The effect was that post-1945 North American anthropology was acutely Boasian. This paper disputes aspects of this conventional narrative, using aspects of Boas’s corpus and education to argue that there was a more complex relationship between discussions in German human geography in the 1880s and the development of American cultural anthropology into the twentieth century. In doing so, the paper examines the relationship of Boas, his texts and practices, to the geographical canon and notes his recent recovery in French scholarship. In consequence, the implications of these canonical turns and returns for conceptions of canonicity in geography are discussed. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Powell, R |
spellingShingle |
Powell, R The study of geography? Franz Boas and his canonical returns |
author_facet |
Powell, R |
author_sort |
Powell, R |
title |
The study of geography? Franz Boas and his canonical returns |
title_short |
The study of geography? Franz Boas and his canonical returns |
title_full |
The study of geography? Franz Boas and his canonical returns |
title_fullStr |
The study of geography? Franz Boas and his canonical returns |
title_full_unstemmed |
The study of geography? Franz Boas and his canonical returns |
title_sort |
study of geography? franz boas and his canonical returns |
publisher |
Elsevier |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2015.04.018 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:39fd5e7e-aa58-497a-86bd-c858eec06555 |
geographic |
Arctic Baffin Island |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Baffin Island |
genre |
Arctic Baffin Island Baffin |
genre_facet |
Arctic Baffin Island Baffin |
op_relation |
doi:10.1016/j.jhg.2015.04.018 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:39fd5e7e-aa58-497a-86bd-c858eec06555 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2015.04.018 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/embargoedAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2015.04.018 |
container_title |
Journal of Historical Geography |
container_volume |
49 |
container_start_page |
21 |
op_container_end_page |
30 |
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1811635930525597696 |