Area of Study / Interest

Melanesia, Art, Religions, World Views; Indigenous knowledge, Sustainable Development

Biography

Raised in Milwaukee. Attended Riverside High School. I began college at Radcliffe and finished at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I studied for one year (1955) at the University of Auckland-New Zealand as a Fulbright scholar Began my Ph.D at Columbia in New York, where I passed the PhD comprehensive exams and the exams in two languages (French and German). While studying I worked full time (1959-63) at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, where I taught school children and teachers about the arts and artifacts of “Eskimos,” Pueblo Indians, Northwest Coast, Oceania, Africa and Mexico. I then (1964) went on to the University of Sydney, where I received a tenured position as a Senior Tutor.

Selected Publications

1987 Expressive Style and Culture: Individualism and Group Orientation Contrasted. Language in Society 16:475-497.

2002 Cargo Cult as Theater: Political Performance in the Pacific. Lanham: Lexington Books.

2007 New Ireland Malanggan Art: the Quest for Meaning. Oceania: 77:3, pp. 257-285.