Anthropology and modern life / by Franz Boas.

  • Franz Boas
Date:
[1929]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Anthropology and modern life / by Franz Boas. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    90/256 page 86
    tributed to the intermingling of the European population. In every single nationality of Europe the various elements of the continental population are repre- sented. Nationality has only the slightest relation to racial descent. The so-called “racial” antipa- thies are feelings that have grown up on another basis and have been given a fictitious racial inter- pretation. This claim may seem to be contradicted by the readiness with which we recognize individuals, according to their outer appearance, as members of certain nationalities. These identifications, which are far from certain, are based only in part on the essential elements of the form of' the body, such as hair and eye color, face form and stature. We are led much more by the mannerisms of wearing hair and beard, and by the characteristic expressions and motions of the body, which are determined not so much by hereditary causes as by habit. The latter are more impressive than the former; and among the nations of Europe no fundamental traits of the body occur that belong to one to the exclusion of the others. It is a common experience that Americans of European descent, French, Italian or German, are recognized as Americans, notwithstanding their pure descent and solely on account of their appearance and habits. It is clear that the term race, as commonly used,
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