Wolfe offers a history not so much of anthropology itself as of its ideological entanglements. He charts historically shifting ways in which an evolving tradition of metropolitan anthropology was turned to local ends at different stages in the development of Australian settler colonialism. He emphasizes that unlike many other places, Australia was colonized not to exploit the native population but to displace them from the land. His topics include virgin birth in anthropology and Australian settler discourse, sex and property in Victorian anthropology, and repressive authenticity.