Susanne Kuehling is a scholar of

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

and

ethnology Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural anthropology, cultural, social anthropolo ...

. She currently works at the

University of Regina The University of Regina is a public research university located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Founded in 1911 as a private denominational high school of the Methodist Church of Canada, it began an association with the University of Saskatchew ...

Career

Kuehling is interested in the study of small

matrilinear Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's lineage – and which can involve the inheritance of ...

and

matrilocal In social anthropology, matrilocal residence or matrilocality (also uxorilocal residence or uxorilocality) is the societal system in which a married couple resides with or near the wife's parents. Thus, the female offspring of a mother remain l ...

societies. Her research and teaching includes also the ethnography of New Guinea and Micronesia, anthropology of gender and landscape and the history of anthropology. She did undergraduate studies in

Social anthropology Social anthropology is the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures. It is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and much of Europe, where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In t ...

and development sociology at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

and there received her

Magister degree A magister degree (also magistar, female form: magistra; from la, magister, "teacher") is an academic degree used in various systems of higher education. The magister degree arose in medieval universities in Europe and was originally equal to the ...

in 1989 with a thesis about Chewing

betel The betel (''Piper betle'') is a vine of the family Piperaceae, which includes pepper and kava. The betel plant is native to Southeast Asia. It is an evergreen, dioecious perennial, with glossy heart-shaped leaves and white catkins. Betel plan ...

Melanesia Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from Indonesia's New Guinea in the west to Fiji in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea. The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Va ...

. She got a

stipend A stipend is a regular fixed sum of money paid for services or to defray expenses, such as for scholarship, internship, or apprenticeship. It is often distinct from an income or a salary because it does not necessarily represent payment for work pe ...

of the

Friedrich Ebert Foundation The Friedrich Ebert Foundation (''German: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung e.V.; Abbreviation: FES'') is a German political party foundation associated with, but independent from, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Established in 1925 as the ...

and 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 ...

for her postgraduate studies there from 1994—1998. She conducted 18 months of fieldwork on

Dobu 2,5-Dimethoxy-4-butylamphetamine (DOBU) is a lesser-known psychedelic drug and a substituted Amphetamine. DOBU was first synthesized by Alexander Shulgin. In his book '' PiHKAL (Phenethylamines i Have Known And Loved)'', only low dosages of 2–3 ...

and wrote her

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

thesis about

Kula ring Kula, also known as the Kula exchange or Kula ring, is a ceremonial exchange system conducted in the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. The Kula ring was made famous by the father of modern anthropology, Bronisław Malinowski, who used this ...

s in this society at the in 1999.''“We die for kula”—An object-centred view of motivations and strategies in gift exchange''
The Polynesian Society, Vol 126 No 2, 2017 She taught for five years at

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

before she moved to Canada in 2008. She has published a book (''Dobu: Ethics of Exchange on a Massim Island, University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2005'') and journal articles on kula exchange, value, personhood, morality, gender, emplacement and teaching methods. During various visits to Dobu she started a program to revitalize kula exchange there which is funded by the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. In 2015 she gained an award from the University of Regina for innovation in teaching Her description of the inhabitants of Dobu differs from earlier writings of

Reo Fortune Reo Franklin Fortune (27 March 1903 – 25 November 1979) was a New Zealand-born social anthropologist. Originally trained as a psychologist, Fortune was a student of some of the major theorists of British and American social anthropology i ...

and

Ruth Benedict Ruth Fulton Benedict (June 5, 1887 – September 17, 1948) was an American anthropologist and folklorist. She was born in New York City, attended Vassar College, and graduated in 1909. After studying anthropology at the New School of Social Re ...

in portraying them not only as aggressive and nasty. Fortune wrote: ''"The Dobuans prefer to be infernally nasty or else not nasty at all"'', Benedict describes them as ''″lawless and treacherous. Every man’s hand is against every other man.″''. Kuehling questions their aggressiveness, highlights instead their poverty, marginality in the global economy and their former living as indentured laborers. The island's inhabitants, who did not know their negative portray in older studies, were quite happy about her work.

Work

''The name of the gift : ethics of exchange on Dobu Island''
Australian National University, 1998
Download

''Dobu : ethics of exchange on a Massim Island, Papua New Guinea''
Hawaii University, Honolulu, 2005Review: Holger Jebens: ''Dobu: ethics of exchange on a Massim Island, Papua New Guinea by Susanne Kuehling.'' In '' Zeitschrift für Ethnologie'', Band 134, H. 2, 2009, S. 285–288. .
''A Fat Sow Named Skulfi: ‘Expensive’ Words in Dobu Island Society ''
in: Tide of Innovation in Oceania, S. 193–224
PDF file on anu.edu.au

''The Converted War Canoe: Cannibal Raiders, Missionaries and Pax Britannica on Dobu Island, Papua New Guinea''
in: Anthropologica 56, 2014, S. 269–284
''Standing tall: Posture, ethics and emotions in Dobu''
, in: Expressions of Austronesian Thought and Emotions , Australian National University
online on anu.edu.au

Works of Susanne Kuehling
in the Bibliography o
Trobiand in Depth
March 2018, p. 117—119

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuehling, Susanne Cultural anthropologists Ethnologists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people