Historical particularism, also known as historical relativism is an anthropological approach developed by German-American anthropologist Franz Boas. Boas is recognized as the “father of American anthropology” because at Columbia University he trained many students who become famous anthropologists in their own right and because he helped turn anthropology into a well-rounded four-field discipline, and that division – linguistic anthropology, archaeology, biological anthropology, and cultural anthropology – is still widely used.

Boas built his approach to anthropology known as historical particularism or historical relativism (both are names given to his approach by others). He stressed that researchers should have a good command of the native languages so they can directly understand what people were saying and that they should collect and collate all types of data. He was also skeptical about classifications, and hypotheses based on generalizations in anthropology. He preferred using classifications that people who were studied used themselves. Data collected in the field should speak for itself and it shouldn’t be pushed into pre-conceived classifications and theories. His “historical particularism” method was based on the rejection of deductive logic and the adoption of the inductive method.

Boas rejected theories of socio-cultural evolutionism like those of Henry Morgan or Herbert Spencer. These theories ranked cultures on different stages of evolutionary progress and presupposed the coincidence of language, culture, and biological heritage. Boas, in turn, in his research showed that language, culture, and biological heritage varied independently of each other. The evolutionary and comparative methods were flawed because, per Boas because similar cultural characteristics (customs, beliefs) could have different origins in different cultures. For Boas, every culture could be understood only with respect to its own historical development, and that development is accidental and doesn’t follow any predetermined evolutionary path of development. That’s why his approach is called “historical particularism” or “Boasian nominalism”. His cultural relativism and particularism also stated that explanations of individual rationality should be done in relation to cultural goals and strategies and environmental conditions of societies where those individuals lived.

Boas conducted several field research on native communities of the Pacific Northwest, especially with Kwakiutl people, where he studied their language, kinship, and the practice of “Potlach”. Potlach was a group redistributive ceremony in which wealth war exchanged for credit and obligations, but also served as a source of prestige. Boas compared this form of wealth exchange to the modern banking system and found it not too dissimilar.  

Boas studied the concept of race and found that racism, specific history, and environment could explain all differences and diversity between different populations and that biological differences play an insignificant part in it. Boas, as a part of a major project for the U.S.  Immigration Commission, published the book Changes in Bodily Form of Descendants of Immigrants (1912). In that study he compared bodily measurements of 18 000 immigrants and concluded that environment and nutrition played determining roles in the physical attributes of individuals, and that conclusion was very important because racial theories of that time used physical features of people, such as head size, to demarcate racial differences.

In the book, The Mind of Primitive Men Boas rejected the racist doctrines of  Gobineau and Chamberlain. In 1940 he published a selection of his essays in the book Race, Language and Culture. Boas rejected all forms of racial prejudice and was critical of the official policies of the US and Canadian governments toward black and native people. He also condemned anti-Semitism and wrote about it in the German press before WW II.

Other well-known anthropologists that followed his approach are: Clark Wissler, Elsie Clews Parsons, Alfred Louis Kroeber,  Alexander Alexandrovich Goldenweiser, Robert Harry Lowie, Paul Radin, Leslie Spier, Benjamin Lee Whorf, and Theodora Kroeber-Quinn. 

Books: 

Boas, Franz. The Mind of Primitive Man (1911);

   -     Changes in Bodily Form of Descendants of  Immigrants (1912);

   -     Tsimshian Mythology (1916);

   -     Anthropology and Modern Life (1928);

   -     General Anthropology (1938);

   -     Race, Language and Culture (1940).

Goldenweiser, Alexander Alexandrovich. Totemism: An Analytical Study (1910);

Kroeber, Alfred L. Anthropology (1923); 

   -     A Sourcebook in Anthropology (1925);
   -     Handbook of the Indians of California (1925);

Lowie, H. Robert. Primitive Society (1920);

     -     Social Organization (1948);

Webster, Hutton. Primitive Secret Societies (1908),

Wissler, Clark. The American Indian: An Introduction to the Anthropology of the New World (1917); 

     -     Man and Culture (1923);

     -     An Introduction to Social Anthropology (1929).