Roger Martin Keesing (16 May 1935 – 7 May 1993) was an American

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

and

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

, most notable for his

fieldwork Field research, field studies, or fieldwork is the collection of raw data outside a laboratory, library, or workplace setting. The approaches and methods used in field research vary across disciplines. For example, biologists who conduct fie ...

on the

Kwaio Kwaio is an ethnic group found in central Malaita, in the Solomon Islands. According to Ethnologue, they numbered 13,249 in 1999. Much of what is known about the Kwaio is due to the work of the anthropologist Roger M. Keesing, who lived among t ...

people of

Malaita Malaita is the primary island of Malaita Province in Solomon Islands. Malaita is the most populous island of the Solomon Islands, with a population of 161,832 as of 2021, or more than a third of the entire national population. It is also the se ...

in the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...

, and his writings on a wide range of topics including

kinship In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

cognitive Cognition refers to "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...

anthropology and

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...

. Keesing was a major contributor to anthropology.Lewis, Herbert S. (1998)
The Misrepresentation of Anthropology and its Consequences
' ''

American Anthropologist ''American Anthropologist'' is the flagship journal of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), published quarterly by Wiley. The "New Series" began in 1899 under an editorial board that included Franz Boas, Daniel G. Brinton, and John W ...

'' 100:" 716-731 He was the son of anthropologists,

Felix M. Keesing Felix M. Keesing (January 5, 1902 – April 1961) was a New Zealand-born anthropologist who specialized in the study of the Philippine Islands and the South Pacific. He came to the United States in the 1940s and taught at Stanford University, Calif ...

, another distinguished anthropologist with an interest in the South

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

and Marie Margaret Martin Keesing, also an anthropologist of the Pacific. Keesing studied at

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

and

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and began work in 1965 at the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California syste ...

. In 1974 he became a professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

, heading the Department of Anthropology from 1976. In 1990 he moved to

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

. In 1974 he wrote a famous article, one of around a hundred published over the course of his career, defining and specifying a view of

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...

inspired by linguistics and Marxian thinking. He also wrote several books, and is perhaps best known among students of anthropology as the author of ''Cultural Anthropology: A Contemporary Perspective'', regarded as one of the most authoritative general introductory works on the subject.Maranda, Pierre (1993)
In Memoriam Roger M, Keesing (1935-1993) Journal de la Société des océanistes. Année 1993. Volume 97. Numéro 2. pp. 223-224
'

' Je signale, enre autres, son Cultural Anthropology : A Contemporary Perspective (1976, 2e édition 1981) qui a non seulement servi à former nombre d'étudiants de façon magistrale mais a aussi orienté une nouvelle réflexion sur l'anthropologie culturelle. This was based on a book originally authored by his father, and was extensively revised by Keesing over the course of many years, beginning with an updated edition of the original in 1971, and continuing with a full rewrite in 1976, revised further in 1981. Since Keesing's death this task was taken up by

Andrew Strathern Andrew Jamieson Strathern (born 19 January 1939) is a British anthropologist. Strathern earned a doctorate at the University of Cambridge, and teaches at the University of Pittsburgh, where he serves as Andrew Mellon Professor of Anthropology. He ...

, and the book remains popular. In 1989, Keesing worked closely with the author to translate

Jonathan Fifi'i Jonathan Fiifii'i MBE (1921 – October 1989) was a Kwaio from Ane'emae near Oloburi, Malaita, Solomon Islands. His father was Buumae and mother Dafua. Biography Fiifii'i was a founding member of Maasina Ruru, the independence movement that he s ...

's autobiography, ''From Pig-Theft to Parliament: My Life between Two Worlds'', which chronicled his life from his poor Kwaio origins through to the

Maasina Ruru Maasina Ruru was an emancipation movement for self-government and self-determination in the British Solomon Islands during and after World War II, 1945–1950, credited with creating the movement towards independence for the Solomon Islands. The ...

movement and onto his career as a politician. Keesing died suddenly of a heart attack at the Canadian Anthropology Society dance and reception in 1993, and his ashes were transferred to the Solomon Islands, where the families of his Kwaio associates accord him the status of an ''andalo'' or ancestral spirit.

Partial bibliography

* ''Kwaio descent groups''. University of California, 1966. * ''New Perspectives in Cultural Anthropology''. Holt, Rineheart and Winston, 1971 (co-authored with Felix M. Keesing). . * ''Paradigms lost: The new ethnography and the new linguistics''. Bobbs-Merrill, 1972. * ''Kin Groups and Social Structure''. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975. Rpt. Thomson Learning, 1985. . * ''Kwaio dictionary''. Australian National University, 1975. . * ''Explorations in role analysis''. P. De Ridder, 1975. * ''Cultural Anthropology: A Contemporary Perspective''. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976. 2nd ed. CBS College Publishing, 1981. . 3rd ed. Wadsworth, 1997 (edited by Andrew Strathern). . * ''Elota's Story: The Life and Times of a Solomon Islands Big Man''. St. Martin's Press; University of Queensland Press, 1978. Rpt. Thomson Learning, 1983. . * ''Lightning Meets the West Wind: Malaita Massacre''. OUP Australia and New Zealand, 1980 (co-authored with Peter Corris). . * ''Kwaio Religion''. Columbia University Press, 1982. . * ''Melanesian Pidgin and the Oceanic Substrate''. Stanford University Press, 1988. . * ''Custom and Confrontation: Kwaio Struggle for Cultural Autonomy''. University of Chicago Press, 1992. (hardcover). (paperback).

References and notes

"Keesing, Roger Martin (1935–1993)"
''Anthrobase Online Dictionary of Anthropology''. Retrieved 10 March 2005. * Otto, Ton (1993)

''Oceania Newsletter''.

External links

MSS 427
Special Collections & Archives
UC San Diego Library.
Roger M. Keesing Photographs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keesing, Roger 1935 births 1993 deaths Harvard University alumni Stanford University alumni University of California, Santa Cruz faculty Kwaio McGill University faculty 20th-century American anthropologists