Cook, Edwin A

American anthropologist whose research and publications centered around the highlands region of Papua New Guinea; author of MANGA SOCIAL ORGANIZATION and co-editor of BLOOD AND SEMEN, KINSHIP SYSTEMS OF HIGHLAND NEW GUINEA.

Biography

Edwin Aubrey Cook, American anthropologist, was born in 1932. He attended the University of Arizona, where his interest in anthropology was stimulated by the guidance of Professor Edward H. Spicer. After graduating with high distinction and honors in 1959, Cook went on to graduate study at Yale University and was further influenced by Professors Floyd G. Lounsbury, Harold W. Scheffler, and Leopold J. Pospisil. While working with Pospisil, Cook developed an interest in New Guinea. Cook conducted field work in the Jimi River District of the Western Highlands District (now Province) of Papua New Guinea from 1961 through 1963, with support from the National Institutes of Mental Health and the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Cook's dissertation, MANGA SOCIAL ORGANIZATION, was presented in 1967.

Cook made a total of four visits to the Manga tribe, with his final visit being completed in the summer of 1981. His research interests encompassed many aspects of the Manga tribe's transition into the modern world, from first contact in 1956 to the problems of post-independence. He was particularly interested in problems of social structure and kinship. His interest in this area is reflected in the book, BLOOD AND SEMEN: KINSHIP SYSTEMS OF HIGHLAND NEW GUINEA (University of Michigan, 1980), which he coedited with Denise O'Brien.

Cook taught anthropology at the University of Hawaii (1966-68), the University of California at Davis (1968-70), Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (1971-78), and at Florida State University (1978-1984). He was an active member of the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania, as well as serving as the book review and articles editor in Social/Cultural Anthropology for AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST from 1974 through 1978.

Cook died in Tallahassee, Florida, on April 24, 1984. He was married to the anthropologist Susan Pflanz Cook.