The AAPA was first formed following a proposal by Czech-American anthropologist Aleš Hrdlička at the December 1928 New York meeting of Section H (Anthropology) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
[1] Twenty anthropologists and anatomists voted in favor of the creation of an American Association of Physical Anthropologists, and an organizational committee of eight was formed (Fay Cooper Cole, Charles H. Danforth, George A. Dorsey, William K. Gregory, Earnest A. Hooton, Aleš Hrdlička, and Robert J. Terry).
Instead, the Western concept of race must be understood as a classification system that emerged from, and in support of, European colonialism, oppression, and discrimination.
This position was first drafted as a revision of the 1964 UNESCO statement on race, which itself was first created in 1950 in response to World War II and Nazism.
As written in 1982, in agreement with the AAAS, the AAPA condemns the teaching of scientific creationism at public expense.
[9] The AABA has an official code of ethics emphasizing the importance of the well-being of the people and animals with which members work; informed consent; conservation of fossil, archaeological, and historical records; making data accessible and disseminating findings; teaching in a non-discriminatory fashion, and giving appropriate credit to all collaborators including students and trainees.