Language:
English
Year of publication:
2006
Titel der Quelle:
Jewish Social Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
13,1 (2006) 136-169
Keywords:
Boas, Franz,
;
Günther, Hans F. K.,
;
Antisemitism Philosophy
;
Jewish philosophy, Modern
Abstract:
Boas (1858-1942), an acculturated German Jew and the founder of American cultural anthropology, basically reduced the racial to the cultural. He rejected biological determinism and discussed Jews in his works mainly to refute racist and antisemitic theories. For him, Jews were a subcategory of humanity. Günther (1891-1968) also derived from the German anthropological tradition, but was influenced as well by such antisemites as Gobineau and Chamberlain. He insisted on a fundamental Jewish difference, viewing Jews not as a race but as a people composed of several racial types. His racial views became more radical in the 1930s-40s, as he shifted from a view that the Jews were inferior to the view that they were less than human. He supported eugenics even when the Nazis' policy became homicidal during the Holocaust. Günther was a racial advisor to Himmler and received awards from Nazi leaders. His support for Zionism was a result of his belief in the necessity of separation between Germans and Jews. While the two anthropologists were both concerned with race, their ideals were very different; Günther's antisemitism was programmatic and beyond doubt.
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