Pauline Wiessner

Polly Wiessner is a Professor of Anthropology at Arizona State University and a Research Professor at the University of Utah. She has conducted fieldwork among the Kalahari Bushmen for 44 years, focusing social security networks to reduce risk in the hunter-gatherer way of life. Her recent Kalahari work has been on the anthropology of the night to understand what is accomplished socially in the hours around the hearth at the close of the day. Her second field site is among the Enga of Papua New Guinea where she has conducted 35 years of research on exchange, ritual and warfare. Currently she is studying restorative justice in customary courts among the Enga and how it is being used to update norms and practices to address problems introduced by new technology, a rapidly growing population, and entrance into the global economy.