Report on the academic teaching of anthropology

Abstract

During the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1917, a permanent committee on teaching of anthropology on the United States was formed, chaired by Franz Boas (1858-1942). Boas had been elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1900, and president of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) between 1907-1908, he also became in 1931 the first anthropologist to chair the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which demonstrates that he enjoyed great academic prestige during this period. The present work is the report produced by Boas as president of the committee on teaching anthropology, in which not only a general idea of anthropology is presented, with mainly guidelines for its teaching at a higher education, pointing out the foundations for introductory and advanced courses, in addition to indicating the necessary infrastructure for the teaching of anthropology in its different branches.