THE MIND OF PRIMITIVE MAN
BY
FRANZ BOAS
A Course of Lectures delivered before the Lowell
Institute, Boston, Mass., and the National
University of Mexico, 1910-19ll
PREFACE
The problem discussed in the following pages has occupied my attention for many years, and I have at various times dealt with it in brief essays. Some of these, in revised form and enlarged, are embodied in the present volume: —
Human Faculty as determined by Race (Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, vol. xliii [1894], pp. 301-327).
The Limitations of the Comparative Method of Anthropology (Science, N. S., vol. iv [1896], pp. 901-908).
The Mind of Primitive Man (Journal of American FolkLore, vol. xiv [1901], pp. 1-ll).
Some Traits of Primitive Culture (Ibid., vol. xvii [1904],
Race Problems in America (Science, N. S., vol. xxix
Psychological Problems in Anthropology (American
Journal of Psychology, vol. xxi [1910], pp. 371-384).
I have also utilized a small part of the Introduction to my " Handbook of American Indian Languages "
(Bulletin 40 of the Bureau of American Ethnology), and some of the results of my report on " Changes in
Bodily Form of Descendants of Immigrants " (vol. 39,
Reports of the Immigration Commission, Washington,
Government Printing Office).
FRANZ BOAS.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. Racial Prejudices
Racial achievement and aptitude, I. — The whit…