Fictional Anthropological Treatises?

[Riothamus]

I was thinking to myself recently about a sort of book idea I had. I was wondering if anyone had ever written an anthropological treatise for an entirely fictional race of aliens or cultural subset thereof independent of any novels prior to it's publication of said fictional study? I doubt it would be a bestseller, but the idea came to me while I was thinking about possible paths of evolution for a species. I was simply wondering if anyone has done something like this before?

As a note I use the term anthropology here because it is the only word we have for the study of sapient beings and their cultures. Some of the principles that apply to the study of human culture might not apply to other alien races no matter how similar they might be.