Andrew Strathern

Andrew Strathern (1939 to 2026) was a British anthropologist best known for his long fieldwork among the Melpa people of Mount Hagen in the Papua New Guinea highlands. He earned his doctorate at the University of Cambridge and taught at the University of Pittsburgh, where he held the Andrew Mellon chair of anthropology, and he was a fellow of the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania. His books include The Rope of Moka on big men and ceremonial exchange, One Father, One Blood on descent and group structure among the Melpa, Ongka, a New Guinea big man's own account, and Inequality in New Guinea Highlands Societies. With his wife and fellow anthropologist Pamela Stewart he later wrote on medical anthropology, on history in the highlands, and on kinship, including Kinship in Action and an introduction to the cultures of Pacific Islanders. Collections of their joint work are held at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of California, San Diego.