Articles tagged with: Franz Boas
The Vexatious History of Indo-European Studies, Part II

(Note to readers: this is the second portion of a chapter of our forthcoming book on the Indo-European controversy; more will follow. This chapter outlines the main ideological ramifications of the debates concerning Indo-European origins and dispersion. It is not an account of the development of Indo-European linguistics. It is rather concerned with the use, and especially the misuse, of …
Environmental Determinism, Ellsworth Huntington, and the Decline of Geography
Geography is defined as “the study of the earth and its features.” Derived from the Greek for “earth writings,” geography traditionally focused on the world as a whole; investigations of smaller regions were a distinct if related branch of learning. For centuries, the main focus of geographical research was filling in the unknown portions of