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The mind of primitive man : $b A course of lectures delivered before the Lowell Institute, Boston, Mass., and the National University of Mexico, 1910-1911Boas, Franz

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The mind of primitive man : $b A course of lectures delivered before the Lowell Institute, Boston, Mass., and the National University of Mexico, 1910-1911

Name: The mind of primitive man : $b A course of lectures delivered before the Lowell Institute, Boston, Mass., and the National University of Mexico, 1910-1911
Author: Boas, Franz

Boas, Franz

Ethnopsychology; Race

Method of approach, 95.—Animal and man, 96.—Primitive man
           and civilized man, 97.—Historical notes, 99.—Racial and
           social problem, 101.

         Mental characteristics of primitive man regardless of
           race, 104.—Inhibition, 106.—Improvidence, 109.
           Attention, 110.—Originality of thought,
           111.—Quantitative character of racial differences,
           114.—Differences between closely related groups of
           people, 116.—Effects of malnutrition, 117.—Experimental
           method, 117.

         Influence of continued civilization, 118.—Relapse of
           individuals into primitive life, 120.—Influence of
           early habits, 121.—Summary, 122.


 V.      RACE AND LANGUAGE                                           124

         Is language an expression of the mental development of a
           race? 124.

         Relations between type, language, and culture,
           125.—Classifications from these three points of view
           irreconcilable, 126.—Permanence of type and change of
           language, 127.—Permanence of language and change of
           type, 129.—Permanence of type and language and change
           of culture, 132.—Hypothesis of original correlation
           between type, language, and culture, 134.

         Are there “lower” and “higher” languages? 140.—Phonetics,
           140.—Classification of ideas, 142.—Examples,
           145.—Holophrasis, 147.—Necessity of formal elements,
           147.—Relations between language and thought,
           148.—Abstract terms, 149.—Numeral systems, 152.


 VI.     THE UNIVERSALITY OF CULTURAL TRAITS                         155

         Similarities of cultural traits, 155.—Explained as due to
           the influence of environment, 159.—Cases of lack of
           adjustment to environment, 162.—Influence of former
           environment, 163.—Similarities explained as survivals
           of times antedating dispersion of human species,
           164.—Dissemination, 166.—Areas of dissemination,
           169.—Similarities explained as due to sameness of
           elementary ideas, 171.—Psychological explanation, 173.


 VII.    THE EVOLUTIONARY VIEWPOINT                                  174

         Does human culture represent an evolutionary series?
           174.—Examples: Social organization, 176.—Inventions,
           177.—Agriculture, 178.—Art, 179.—Religion,
           180.—Parallelism of cultural development,
           181.—Dissimilarity of sequence in industrial
           development, 182.

         Convergent development, 184.—Lack of comparability of
           data, 188.—Examples: Life after death, 189.—Totemism,
           190.—Ethics, 191.

         Types of development from simple to complex forms, and
           _vice versâ_, 193.


 VIII.   SOME TRAITS OF PRIMITIVE CULTURE                            197

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The mind of primitive man : $b A course of lectures delivered before the Lowell Institute, Boston, Mass., and the National University of Mexico, 1910-1911

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