PAULINE WIESSNER
Role:
Scientific Advisor
Institution:
Arizona State University
Polly Wiessner is a Professor of Anthropology at the School of Human Evolution and
Social Change, Arizona State University, a Research Professor at the University of Utah
and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. She has conducted fieldwork among
the Kalahari Bushmen foragers for 40 years, focusing social security networks to reduce
risk as the Bushmen move from a forager economy to a mixed economy. Her recent work
has been on the anthropology of the night: how firelight conversations transmit essential
information on kinship connections, social networks, sharing and other social institutions
to promote cooperation. Her second field site is among the Enga of Papua New Guinea
where she has conducted 30 years of ethnohistorical research on exchange, ritual and
warfare. She is currently studying the breakdown of traditional cultural institutions with
the introduction of new technology and rapid economic change and how the Enga are
applying restorative justice based to rebuild communities and maintain harmony through
reciprocity. Wiessner has authored, co-authored or edited four books and
published articles in Current Anthropology, Science, PNAS and other books and
journals.