Peoples and Cultures of the Pacific: An Anthropological Reader.

by Andrew Vayda

The islands of the Pacific Ocean provide the anthropologist with a unique laboratory for studying man and his culture. Not only does their isolation remove the problem of defining communities or social systems, but, in addition, culture traits and institutions rarely found another areas of the world have developed and survived in the islands where external contacts have been limited. The kinds of studies undertaken in the Pacific have been numerous. For this volume, Dr. Vayda has collected articles that not only exemplify the main research interests of anthropologists working in the area, but which also serve as introductions to more specialized areas such as physical anthropology and linguistic classification. Dr. Vayda received his doctorate in anthropology from Columbia University in 1956. He has done field work in the Cook Islands, and New Guinea and has traveled widely in the rest of the South Pacific. Dr. Vayda is currently Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University.

Paperback

Published January 1, 1968