An interpretative framework that characterized American archaeology in the early 1900s, whereby individual cultures were documented without comparative reference to others. This school of anthropological thought is associated with Franz Boas and his students (including Margaret Mead and A.L. Kroeber), whose studies of culture emphasized the integrated way of life distinctive of a people. Boas concentrated on describing the particular characteristics of a given culture with a view toward reconstructing the historical events that led to its present structure. Hypotheses regarding evolutionary development and the influence of one culture on another were considered secondary to the study of particular societies. Boas urged the historical method, based on the description of particular culture traits and elements, and rejected the assumption of a single standard of rationality to which all cultures could be compared.