ABSTRACT

This chapter shows that the human sciences require a Boasian anthropology precisely because there is a relationship between the biological and cultural, so that if one ignores this relationship one imperfectly explains the human condition. Boasian anthropology is in decline, even where it began. United States anthropologists were strongly committed to a four-field approach in their discipline by the middle of the twentieth century. Boasian anthropology should continue for precisely the opposite reason for which Boas created it in the first place. The Boasians ignored questions of causation even though their project was based upon causal generalizations. Social anthropologists, for that matter, also eschewed explicit discussions of causation. This meant that the anthropology that had developed by the mid-twentieth century lacked understanding of how humans go about making connections. Social and cultural anthropologists, together with archeologists and linguists, are needed to provide knowledge of how the E-space structures work.