FRANZ BOAS WAS ONE OF THE FIRST
SCHOLARS WHO REALLY STARTED
TO QUESTION WHAT WAS THE RISING
TIDE OF BIOLOGICAL THINKING,
ABOUT INTELLIGENCE,
ABOUT SOCIAL BEARING,
ABOUT POLITICAL CAPACITY.
HE WAS A JEWISH IMMIGRANT
HIMSELF.
HE WAS A PROFESSOR OF
ANTHROPOLOGY AT COLUMBIA,
AND FROM THE 1890'S ON
THROUGH THE EARLY PART
OF THE CENTURY-WELL, ACTUALLY
TO THE MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY WAS
BUSILY CONDUCTING EXPERIMENTS
AND TRYING TO PROVE
THE IMPORTANCE
OF ENVIRONMENT OVER HEREDITY.
SO, FOR EXAMPLE, HE
WAS ABLE TO SHOW,
WHILE EUGENICISTS WERE ALWAYS
DOING THINGS THAT SEEMED SO ODD
FROM A LATE TWENTIETH
CENTURY PERSPECTIVE,
LIKE MEASURING PEOPLE'S
SKULLS, AND MEASURING BODY TYPE
AS A MARKER OF RACE
AND THEN ULTIMATELY
AS A MARKER OF CAPACITY.
BOAS DID THE SAME
KIND OF MEASUREMENTS,
BUT SHOWED A VAST DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN THE MIGRATING GENERATION
AND THE FIRST AMERICAN
BORN GENERATION.
AND, REALLY SHOWED THAT AT LEAST
THE EUGENICISTS OUGHT TO CONCEDE
THAT HEREDITY HAD ITS LIMITS,
THAT ENVIRONMENT WAS
A POWERFUL THING.
THAT WAS AN ARGUMENT THAT
ULTIMATELY CARRIED THE DAY.
LATER IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.
BUT AT THE TIME, HE WAS REALLY
TRYING TO PUSH THIS LINE
IN THE NINETEEN HUNDREDS
AND NINETEEN TEENS.
IT WAS A LOSING ARGUMENT,
AND IT WAS THE ARGUMENT
THAT LOST IN AMERICAN POLITICS.
IT WAS THE H.H. GODDARD STYLE OF
THINKING THAT REALLY WAS WRITTEN
INTO THE IMMIGRATION
FORMULAS OF THE 1920'S.
IT WASN'T BOAS' VISION AT ALL.
AND IT REALLY WASN'T UNTIL
NAZI GERMANY SERVED AS KIND
OF A WAKEUP CALL TO PEOPLE
ABOUT WHAT-WHERE THIS KIND
OF THINKING WAS HEADED.
AND IT WERE-IT REALLY
WAS HITLER AND THE NAZIS
WHO DISCREDITED EUGENIC
THOUGHT AND GAVE IT A BAD NAME.
BUT UNTIL THE THIRTIES, IT
WAS REALLY IN ASCENDANCE
IN AMERICAN SCIENCE
AND AMERICAN POLITICS.
