Boas, Franz

US (German-born) anthropologist and ethnologist

1858 - Franz Boas was born on the 9th of July in Minden, Westphalia.

1881 - Boas received his doctorate in physics from the university at Kiel.

1883 - He went to Baffin Island to conduct geographic research on the impact of the physical environment on native Inuit migrations.

1885 - He went to work with physical anthropologist Rudolf Virchow and ethnologist Adolf Bastian at the Royal Ethnological Museum in Berlin.

1886 - Returned to Berlin to finish his studies.

1888 - Wrote his first monograph titled The Central Eskimo.

1902 - Elected vice-president of American Anthropological Association, along with Putnam, Powell, and Holmes.

1907 - He identified in his essay, "Anthropology," two basic questions for anthropologists: "Why are the tribes and nations of the world different, and how have the present differences developed?"

1942 - Franz Boas died on 21st of December.