Who popularized the concept of salvage ethnography?

The concept of salvage ethnography was popularized by Franz Boas, who is often considered the father of American anthropology. Boas developed this approach in response to the rapid changes that certain Native American cultures were experiencing due to colonialism and modernization. He believed it was essential to document and preserve the cultural practices, languages, and traditions of these groups before they disappeared.

Salvage ethnography involves collecting data on cultures that are perceived to be in danger of vanishing, thus emphasizing the urgent need to record their knowledge and practices. Boas’s work laid the foundation for modern anthropology by highlighting the importance of fieldwork, cultural relativism, and the meticulous documentation of cultural expression, rather than merely studying cultures from a distance or through the lens of Western perspectives. His emphasis on firsthand observation and data collection helped solidify the importance of ethnographic methods in the discipline.

Other figures mentioned, such as Margaret Mead and Claude Lévi-Strauss, made significant contributions to anthropology as well, but their work did not focus specifically on the concept of salvage ethnography in the same way Boas's did. Mead is known for her studies on gender and adolescence, while Lévi-Strauss is recognized for structuralism in anthropology, which looks at the underlying