Complete digitally restored reprint (facsimile handmade reproduction) of the original edition of 1938 (revised edition) with excellent resolution and outstanding readability. Written by Franz Boas with three figures and some tables. Franz Boas has had an enduring influence on anthropology. Virtually all anthropologists today accept Boas's commitment to empiricism and his methodological cultural relativism. Moreover, virtually all cultural anthropologists today share Boas's commitment to field research involving extended residence, learning the local language, and developing social...

As Michael Silverstein discusses in his introduction to this new edition, the two foundational essays presented here are culminating moments in the scholarly history of North American Indigenous peoples' languages and cultures.