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
Science
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
Boas, Franz
Ethnopsychology; Race
Our brief consideration of some of the mental activities of man in
civilized and in primitive society has led us to the conclusion that
these functions of the human mind are common to the whole of humanity.
It may be well to state here, that, according to our present method of
considering biological and psychological phenomena, we must assume that
these have developed from lower conditions existing at a previous time,
and that at one time there certainly must have been races and tribes in
which the properties here described were not at all, or only slightly,
developed; but it is also true that among the present races of man, no
matter how primitive they may be in comparison with ourselves, these
faculties are highly developed.
It is not impossible that the degree of development of these functions
may differ somewhat among different types of man; but I do not believe
that we are able at the present time to form a just valuation of the
hereditary mental powers of the different races. A comparison of their
languages, customs, and activities suggests that their faculties may be
unequally developed; but the differences are not sufficient to justify
us to ascribe materially lower stages to some peoples, and higher stages
to others. The conclusions reached from these considerations are
therefore, on the whole, negative. We are not inclined to consider the
mental organization of different races of man as differing in
fundamental points. Although, therefore, the distribution of faculty
among the races of man is far from being known, we can say this much:
the average faculty of the white race is found to the same degree in a
large proportion of individuals of all other races, and, although it is
probable that some of these races may not produce as large a proportion
of great men as our own race, there is no reason to suppose that they
are unable to reach the level of civilization represented by the bulk of
our own people.
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V. RACE AND LANGUAGE
IN the last chapter I tried to show that the principal characteristics
of the mind of primitive man occur among primitive tribes of all races,
and that therefore the inference must not be drawn that these traits of
the mind are racial characteristics. This negative conclusion, which is
based entirely on the consideration of a few selected points that occur
with great regularity in the description of primitive tribes, does not
give us, however, proof positive of the lack of all correlation between
mental life and racial descent, and we must direct our attention to
those cases in which an immediate relationship between the two may be
and has been claimed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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