Franz Boas and Native American biological variability.

The contributions to physical anthropology with which Franz Boas is usually credited are in the areas of growth, plasticity of head and body form, and biometric genetics. Such a listing of Boas's contributions overlooks the tremendous amount of research he did with biological variability of Native American populations. The rediscovery of his anthropometric data documents the tremendous investment in time, money, and effort Boas devoted to the topic and provides the opportunity to rediscover his insights into a subject that is of continuing interest. The design of his massive anthropometric survey of native North Americans reveals a concern for population analyses and a rejection of the typological framework of the time. If Boas's ideas had been adopted at the turn of the century, the development of physical anthropology in America might have been much different.