1/ Gods of the Upper Air is brilliant. A taste: "If there is any moral progress at all, it lies in our ability to ...develop an ever more capacious view of humanity itself – a widening web of beings who deserve our ethical conduct, whatever we deem ethical conduct to be.”

2/another: "Cultures are cunning tailors. They cut garments from convenience and then work hard to shape individuals to fit them. ...Real liberation wasn't necessarily about making women more manly or allowing men to be effeminate. ...

3/It was about unleashing human beings' potential from the roles that society had fashioned, seeing each person as a parcel of possibilities that might get expressed in many creative ways...change came about when enough people began to see that the old clothes simply didn't fit."

4/ Boas wrote: "I have always been of the opinion that we have no right to impose our ideals upon other nations, no matter how strange it may seem to us that they enjoy the kind of life they lead, how slow they may be in utilizing the resources of their countries...

5/or how much opposed their ideals may be to our own."
It's a genius book about genius people using science to de-categorize and open minds even as others worked hard to foster and legitimize oppressive - and deadly - social hierarchies. Strongly recommend (obviously).