Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century

The term “anthropology” existed long before Boas entered the field, but in its early years, it was more closely related to archeology. Early anthropologists were concerned with the study of ancient cultures rather than living ones, and their methods centered on excavation rather than observation. Anthropology as it is known today was largely defined by the work of the Boas circle and has further evolved to reflect the modern definition of the field’s broader parameters and ethical obligations.

Cultural relativism was a concept defined by the Boas circle to combat the inevitability that any one person, when observing another culture, will instinctively attach their own opinions and values to what they are perceiving and feeling. By recognizing cultural relativism, researchers and other individuals acknowledged their instinct to make assumptions when encountering other cultures.

Coined by Sir Francis Galton and derived from the Greek words for “well bred” or “well born,” eugenics was a popular field of science. Now considered a pseudoscience, it was based upon the notion that, through selective breeding, positive genetic traits could be perpetuated to improve society and create a superior human race. Eugenics also sought to breed out negative or undesirable traits through preventing individuals they believed carried those traits—primarily, people of color, those with intellectual and physical disabilities, and impoverished white people—from procreating.