Franz Boas

Beginning in the 1920s, anthropology in America took a separate path away from the foundations of British social anthropology. Franz Boas, known as the father of American Anthropology, created a set of ideas that would revolutionize the field. His ideas included a rejection of unilinear social evolution, as well as historical particularism, or a focus on the history of a culture to find understanding. He believed that in order to fully understand the culture of a society, one must understand the people, taking the time to live with and do one’s own ethnographic research rather than solely use the work of others. He also argues against the use of deduction; he believed that an ethnographer must understand data and culture in order to create …show more content…
While comparing the appearances and use of similar traits found in both Australia and Tierra Del Fuego, Davidson criticizes Koppers’ theory of unilineal descent. Davidson states that Koppers’ examples are too generalized and vague, and that these two groups would have developed comparable traits due to their geography and materials available in their areas (Davidson 1937). Although he didn’t do his own fieldwork, Cannon enlists historical particularism whilst discussing “voodoo” death. In discussing voodoo in northern Australia, he acknowledges the importance of the social group to the “victim.” Since kinship and social standing historically had been important within this society, the collapse of the victim’s social life results in isolation, creating “a situation from which the only escape is by death” (Cannon 1942, 174). The process of losing a key aspect of everyday life places an extreme emotional stress upon the victim, leaving only one result. His comprehension of the historical importance of kinship in this society allows Cannon to search for logical causes of death. In “Melodic Composition and Scale Foundations in Primitive Music,” Roberts compares the musical styles and structures of various “primitive” societies and hypothesizes historical reasons for the differences between groups. For example, those who sing yet do …show more content…
Davidson, to further his argument, constantly brings up flaws in methodology. He makes a point to constantly refer to the lack of data supplied by Koppers and Rivet, thus discrediting their work. He critiques his examples and points out multiple times that they both intentionally leave out critical information that would invalidate their arguments. For example, in discussing path of travel between Australia and South America, Davidson goes into depth on why this is not possible, backing himself up with data. He is able to analyze mean temperatures, leading him to the conclusion that the Arctic was far more polar than today, disproving Rivet’s hypothesis (Davidson 1942, 237). His data-driven mindset embodies the thoughts of Boas, creating a stronger argument and essay as a whole. In “‘Voodoo’ Death,” Cannon takes views from many different cultures’ variations of voodoo ritual in order to create his theory and reasoning behind the mysterious deaths. He takes into account examples from all over the world and draws similar concepts from each (Cannon 1942). These examples and patterns coalesce into his hypothesis of death from shock and emotional stress, as he explains biologically. Under the tutelage of Boas, Roberts incorporated many of his methods into her own writing. Rather than focusing on examples and descriptive aspects of primitive music, Roberts primarily analyses the technical form.