SOURCE: "Franz Boas," in Totems and Teachers: Perspectives on the History of Anthropology, edited by Sydel Silverman, Columbia University Press, 1981, pp. 1-33.

Lesser was a distinguished American anthropologist who, like Boas, specialized in the study of Native American cultures. In the following excerpt, he summarizes Boas's achievements.

In retrospect, Franz Boas was the builder and architect of modern anthropology. This has come to be a general consensus, despite certain controversies. I propose to focus on four themes in his life and work:

1. The way in which Boas filled the role of architect of modern anthropology.
2. What Boas brought with him into anthropology that was the effective factor of factors in modernizing it.
3. How Boas, anthropologist and scientist, was a citizen-scientist all his life, whose ethics and ideals for the study of man were far-reaching, humane, and still hold true in our own day.
4. How Boas, far from being...