Capturing Kahanamoku

Michael Rossi’s Capturing Kahanamoku examines how early 20th-century anthropologists, driven by eugenicist ideas, fixated on Hawaiian surfer Duke Kahanamoku’s “perfect” form while ignoring the birth of surf culture and the richness of Hawaiian life. Through this story, Rossi exposes how scientific bias and cultural blindness can obscure human complexity and argues for a broader, more humane approach to knowledge that embraces art, philosophy, and multiculturalism.