Franz Boas was a cultural anthropologist who promoted a holistic, four-field approach to the discipline. He specialized in the Kwakiutl people of Vancouver Island, where he conducted extensive fieldwork from 1886 to 1900. By meticulously recording their myths, songs, and cultural activities, Boas pioneered the practice of modern ethnographic research.

As the most influential anthropologist of his era, Boas created a new way of doing things in America. Ethnographic research was one of Franz Boas's most important contributions to anthropology. He emphasized carefully recording what he observed and tried to understand cultures from the perspectives of the people living in them. 

After completing his Ph.D. in physics and mathematics, Franz Boas shifted his focus to an expedition in the Canadian Arctic. While living and working with the native Inuit people, he became fascinated by their customs and traditions. This experience sparked a new passion, leading him to return to Germany and begin his pioneering ethnographic and linguistic research among other native groups.

In 1887, Boas came to the United States and established the first antropology department at Clark University in Massachusetts. He then spent most of his career teaching anthropology at Columbia University. Boas also worked as a curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. 

Franz Boas used his ethnographic research data 

to show that cultures do not follow the same path to become more "advanced" or "civilized." He argued that each culture develops in its own unique way, influenced by its specific history, environment, and interactions

with other cultures.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, most scientists in the social sciences were white men. Therefore, most theories involving culture were racist and biased. Franz Boas strongly disagreed with the racist ideas about different cultures.

Franz Boas was horrified at the use of anthropology to justify white supremacy. He argued that biological differences have no bearing on culture, language, or achievement. Boas spoke out against racism throughout his career, as well as debunking racist theories.

In the early 20th century, Franz Boas challenged the racist idea that skull size proved the intellectual superiority of Northern Europeans. By measuring the skulls of thousands of immigrants and their children, he proved that skull size was not fixed. Instead, Boas showed that factors like diet and medical care in a new environment could affect skull size, a finding that undermined the entire basis of race theory. 

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