Books like Gods of the Upper Air by Charles King
"Gods of the Upper Air" chronicles the birth of cultural anthropology and the trailblazers who challenged 19th‑century notions of race, sex, and nationality. Charles King traces the intellectual journey from Franz Boas’s rejection of biological determinism to the fieldwork of his students—Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, Ella Deloria, and Zora Neale Hurston. Their investigations, spanning the American South, the South Pacific, Caribbean islands, and New York City, reveal that cultures are products of history and circumstance, not fixed biological categories. Through a blend of rigorous scholarship and engaging narrative, the book shows how these scholars’ discoveries laid the groundwork for contemporary concepts of identity and cultural fluidity.
First publish date: 2019
Genre: History/Modern History
Authors: Charles King
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