Systems Theory in Anthropology - Closed Systems - Cultural Relativism

Cultural Relativism

Franz Boas was the first anthropologist to problematize the notion of culture. Challenging the modern hegemony of culture, Boas introduced the idea of cultural relativism (understanding culture in its context). Drawing on his extensive fieldwork in the northwestern United States and British Columbia, Boas discusses culture separate from physical environment, biology, and most importantly discarded evolutionary models that represent civilization as a progressive entity following chronological development. Moreover, cultural boundaries, according to Boas, are not barriers to intermixing and should not be seen as obstacle to multiculturalism. In fact, boundaries must be seen as “porous and permeable,” and “pluralized.” His critique on the concept of modern race and culture had political implications in the racial politics of the United States in the 1920s. In his chapter, “The Race Problem in Modern Society,” one can feel Boas’ intellectual effort toward separating the natural from the social sciences and setting up the space for genuine political solutions for race relations.