Paper short abstract:

Franz Boas was a pioneer ethnographer who began his fieldwork in the Arctic and then on the Northwest Coast of North America in the 1880s, three decades before Malinowski. This paper will consider recent criticisms of Boas's relationships with collaborators on Vancouver Island.

Paper long abstract:

Franz Boas (1858-1942) was an ethnographer before Malinowski, having begun his fieldwork in Baffin Island in 1883 and his work on the Northwest Coast of North America in 1886. The quality of his ethnography was criticized (after his death) by Leslie White and others, but more recently new criticisms have arisen about his relationship to his associates in the field. Wendy Wickwire (2019) celebrates James Teit ("prolific ethnographer and tireless Indian rights activist") to the distinct disadvantage of Franz Boas and Judith Berman is concerned about Boas's appreciation and acknowledgement of the contributions of George Hunt (2019). A more elaborate story has been put forth by Isaiah Wilner (2018; n.d.) who envisions a transformation of Franz Boas, under the tutelage of Hunt and the Kwakwaka'wakw, from a typical rigid and somewhat testy European (colonial) male to that of a peace-loving, native-appreciating vessel appropriate to carry the message of diversity and universalism to the world. This paper will interrogate Boas's early fieldwork relationships as revealed in his diary, letters home, and professional correspondence as well as in the writings by Wendy Wickwire, Judith Berman, and Isaiah Wilner.