by King, Charles - undifferentiated
First published 2019
Franz Boas arrives in America as a wild-haired German immigrant with radical ideas about human culture. At Columbia University, he builds a new discipline called cultural anthropology and attracts brilliant women students who will reshape American thinking. Margaret Mead travels to Samoa and writes the bestselling Coming of Age in Samoa. Ruth Benedict studies cultures across the Pacific and later influences occupied Japan. Ella Deloria documents Dakota Sioux traditions on the Great Plains. Zora Neale Hurston applies anthropological methods to her fiction writing. Together, this circle challenges the prevailing belief that biology determines human behavior and intelligence. They argue that every society creates its own solutions to universal problems through unique customs and beliefs. Their fieldwork spans from Arctic communities to South Pacific islands, mapping diverse ways of life before they disappear. The book traces how these researchers overturned assumptions about gender roles, sexual norms, and racial hierarchies during the 1920s and 1930s, creating the foundation for modern understanding of cultural diversity.
Genres: biography, 20th-century, american, anthropology, cultural, academia, academic, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: America, Columbia University, Samoa, Pacific, Great Plains
Period: 1920s, 1930s
448 pages · Hardcover · Doubleday