Question

Compare the Boasian view to the cultural evolutionists....why are they at odds? How does Boas inductive approach match the method of ethnography and participant observation? How does Margaret Mead's work reflect the Boasian view?

Answer 1

According to Boasian view , a person who know its own culture, standards and values can understand the culture. He considered the non- western societies are not at all inferior to the western ones . He thinks that they have different set of culture.

Cultural evolutionist approach is a social change . The behaviour of an individual changes in accordance with the imitation , teaching from other kind of species, etc. These are a kind of social transmission , where the culture is spread from one person to another.

Boas Inductive Approach : Involvement of reasoning which helps in forming the theories which are general from the study of other cases.

Ethnography is the study of a culture . Ethnography is considered as a field of study , whereas the participant observation is a technique for research .  

Mead began to work under the supervision of Franz - Boas. Mead worked regarding the adolescents whose behaviour was not shaped by the emotional crisis.

The research emphasised on the role of culture which was deemed to be natural .