Polly Wiessner, 2011 WINGS Elected Fellow

"Respect opens all doors." — Pauline (Polly) Wiessner

Anthropologist

Born: 1947-12-21

Hometown: Stowe, Vermont

Education: Ph.D., Anthropology

Achievements

Discoveries: Uncovered far ranging social security networks among the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert. Traveled widely to record the oral historical traditions of 110 tribes among the Enga of Papua New Guinea. Built the Enga Tradition and Transition Centre in Papua New Guinea to return the results of research to the people.

Expeditions: For the past 30 years, field trips to the Kalahari Bushmen and Enga of Papua, New Guinea.

Biography

For over 30 years, Wiessner has carried out studies of the !Kung (Ju/’hoansi) Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert, documenting what happens to Bushman populations when inherited social systems of reciprocity become eroded by modernity and must confront participation in a cash economy. She advocates for necessities as wide-ranging as food, water, and educational opportunity. Wiessner’s other area of research has been among the Enga of Highland, New Guinea, where she has studied change in Enga society over 350 years via oral historical traditions as well as researched recent change. She has  struggled to understand and help counter the devastation caused by the use of high-powered automatic weapons in tribal warfare. As an anthropologist, her work has concentrated on hunter/gatherers, reciprocity and social networks for reducing risk, medical anthropology, ethnoarchaeology, ethology, ecology, warfare, ritual, exchange and oral history in populations of Highland Papua New Guinea and Southern Africa. She has worked as a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Human Ethology in Germany for 15 years, and is currently a professor at the University of Utah. She has organized and participated in numerous international conferences with a focus on Hunting Gathering societies, and has lectured extensively. Wiessner worked with the Enga Province to build the Enga Take Anda, a vital education center for Enga culture, history, and continuing social networks. She characterizes Facebook as a modern version of the same, saying “The videos and snapshots that people post echo the exchange gifts of the !Kung.

Fun Facts

Favorite Item to have in the field: Salt, Tang, and a hot water bottle

Heroes: John Marshall

Awards and Recognition

University of Utah Distinguished Scholarly and Creative Research Award, 2009; Enga Provincial Government funding for research on Enga oral history and Max Planck society funding for her work in Enga and among the Bushmen.

Publications

Wiessner, P. and A. Tumu, "Historical Vines: Enga Networks of Exchange, Ritual and Warfare in Papua, New Guinea," Smithsonian Institute Press, Washington, D.C., 1998.

Wiessner, P. and Wulf Schiefenhovel (eds.) Food and the Status Quest. Berghahn Books, Oxford, 1996.

Wiessner, P. From Inside the Women's House: The lives and traditions of Enga women. A. Kyakas and P. Wiessner, Robert Brown, Brisbane. 1992