Franz Boas’s trip to Puerto Rico (1915) and the Contemporary Boriken Nation

Abstract

Abstract:This paper highlights key elements of Franz Boas’s field trip to Puerto Rico in 1915 as part of the Scientific Survey of Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands. An outstanding, multi-disciplinary scientific field expedition organized by the New York Academy of Sciences and hosted by the Puerto Rican government, the Scientific Survey of Porto Rico provided Boas with the means to perform groundbreaking anthropological research on the island. Anthropometric documentation allowed him to explore Taíno indigenous physical traits, which he referred to as “Indian blood.” Boas followed in the footsteps of an earlier U.S. American anthropologist, Jessie Fewkes, who performed anthropological and ethnocultural fieldwork in Puerto Rico immediately after the Spanish American War of 1898. Today Boas’s anthropological field research data is essentially regarded as an afterthought mainly connected to his mapping of an indigenous area that he called “the ancient village of Capá.” Known today as Centro Ceremonial Indígena de Caguana, it is the largest surviving Taíno ceremonial and ballpark center in the Caribbean. As I conclude, although Boas seemingly ignored the socio-cultural importance of “Indian blood,” contemporary Puerto Ricans who self-identify as Taínos recall the Boasian concept of Amerindian ancestry as the basis for a rather popular and highly politicized Taíno aboriginal nation movement.Do you know what people mean when they speak of “Our New Possessions”? What are they? Where are they? Why are men, in the streets, in the shops, everywhere, talking about them? Why are the newspapers full of articles in regard to them? Why are lawmakers at the capital devoting so much time and attention to them? (George 5)