Why did Franz Boas and other anthropologists reject the idea that race determines culture?

Franz Boas and other anthropologists rejected the idea that race determines culture because they concluded that cultural differences are the result of historically particular events and environmental circumstances rather than biological or physiological destiny.1

Boas, a foundational figure in American anthropology, argued that there is no scientific basis for the assumption that different races possess unequal capacities for cultural development. Instead of viewing cultures through a hierarchical lens—which he considered ethnocentric—Boas advocated for cultural relativism. This perspective holds that all human groups have evolved equally but in different ways, and that each culture must be understood based on its own unique history and internal logic.12

By demonstrating that cultural traits are not biologically fixed, Boas and his students, such as Ruth Benedict and Margaret Mead, shifted the discipline toward the view that race is a cultural construct. This rejection of biological determinism was essential to establishing anthropology as a holistic science that examines the complex, multifaceted factors—including migration, social customs, and history—that truly shape human societies.12