By uniting the disciplines of archaeology, the study of material culture and history, and physical anthropology, the study of variation in human anatomy, with ethnology, the study of cultural variation of customs, and descriptive linguistics, the study of unwritten indigenous languages, Boas created the four field subdivision of anthropology which became prominent in American anthropology in the 20th century.
32.
This is crucial for research in descriptive linguistics : when studying a new language, how are we to note the pronunciation of different words ? ( in this point, Boas anticipates and lays the groundwork for the distinction between phonemics and phonetics . ) People may pronounce a word in a variety of ways and still recognize that they are using the same word.
