In December 1919, Franz Boas, the German-born academic widely recognized
as the father of American anthropology, published a letter in this
magazine accusing four of his American colleagues—whom he did not
identify—of having used their research positions as cover for engaging
in espionage in Central America during the recently concluded war. Ten
days later, the governing council of the American Anthropological
Association voted 20 to 10 to censure Boas, claiming that his highly
public letter was unjustified and in no way represented the AAA’s
position. Boas was a founding member and former president of the
association, so the censure was doubly humiliating; it essentially
forced him to resign from both the AAA’s governing body and the National
Research Council.
