Franz Boas. Portrait of Franz Boas (1858-1942), the German-American anthropologist who was amongst the first to suggest a link between North American Indians and Asia. Boas was born and studied in Germany but emigrated to America in 1886. Boas made many studies of the indigenous populations of British Columbia. In 1902 he organised and took part in an expedition which first suggested a link between North American and Asian cultures. Boas pioneered the scientific approach to anthropology, stressing the need to study a culture in all its aspects, including its religion, art, history and language. He concluded that no truly 'pure race' exists.