Richard Feinberg

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Richard Feinberg
Occupation(s)Anthropologist, writer, and educator
EmployerKent State University
Known forSociocultural Polynesian (Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea) anthropology
Board member ofAssociation of Senior Anthropologists
Honours2019 Fulbright Distinguished Chair of Anthropology at Palacký University Olomouc in the Czech Republic

Richard "Rick" Feinberg (born November 4, 1947) is an American anthropologist, writer, educator, and Emeritus Professor focusing on sociocultural anthropology, specifically on Polynesian societies in the Pacific Islands and Native North America. [1] Feinberg completed his Bachelor of Arts at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1969, going on to obtain his Master of Arts in 1971 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1974, both from the University of Chicago. [2] [3]

Contents

He has authored several significant works in cultural anthropology, [4] including "Polynesian Oral Traditions: Indigenous Texts and English Translations from Anuta, Solomon Islands", [5] [6] "Anuta: Polynesian Lifeways for the Twenty-First Century", [7] and "Polynesian Seafaring and Navigation Ocean Travel in Anutan Culture and Society". [5] [8] [9] He has edited numerous publications, such as "Seafaring in the Contemporary Pacific Islands: Studies in Continuity and Change" (1995) and "The Cultural Analysis of Kinship: The Legacy of David M. Schneider" (2001). [3] He has conducted research in several locations, including Anuta and Taumako (Solomon Islands), Nukumanu (Papua New Guinea), Atafu (Tokelau), Navajo (New Mexico), and Brady Lake (Ohio, USA). [1]

He has been actively involved in various professional associations, including the American Anthropological Association, the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania, and the Central States Anthropological Society. [2] [3] Feinberg has been a dedicated educator, teaching at Kent State University since 1974 and contributing significantly to the field of anthropology through his teaching and research. He retired in May 2018. [10]

Biography

Personal life

Richard Feinberg was born in 1947 in Norfolk, Virginia. [2]

Professional background

Feinberg began teaching at Kent State University (KSU) in 1974 [2] where he served as a professor from 1986 until his retirement in May 2018. [10] Feinberg's anthropological focus is on the indigenous Polynesian outlier communities of Anuta and Taumako in Solomon Islands, Nukumanu in Papua New Guinea, as well as Atafu in Tokelau, Navajo in New Mexico, and Brady Lake in Ohio. [1]

Feinberg has authored several significant works in cultural anthropology, [11] including "The Anutan Language Reconsidered: Lexicon and Grammar of a Polynesian Outlier" (1977), "Social Change in a Navajo Community" (1979), "Anuta: Social Structure of a Polynesian Island" (1981), and "Oral Traditions of Anuta: A Polynesian Outlier in the Solomon Islands" (1998, reissued electronically in 2011). [3] He has edited numerous publications, such as "Seafaring in the Contemporary Pacific Islands: Studies in Continuity and Change" (1995) and "The Cultural Analysis of Kinship: The Legacy of David M. Schneider" (2001). [3]

Feinberg has served in various editorial and leadership roles. He has been a Central Status Anthropological Society (CSAS) member for 40 years. [10] He has also been a reviewer for several publishers and contributed to many conferences, meetings, symposia, and workshops, such as a talk on “Anthropology and the Study of Navigation” at Harvard University’s annual Radcliffe Institute Science Symposium. [12] He served as the American Anthropological Association’s Section Assembly convener (2016-2019) [13] and as a Fulbright distinguished chair of anthropology at Palacký University, Olomouc, in the Czech Republic. [14] Most recently, he has been the president of the Kent State University Retirees’ Association [13] and serves on the executive boards of the Association of Senior Anthropologists. [15]

Published works

Recognition

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polynesian languages</span> Language family

The Polynesian languages form a genealogical group of languages, itself part of the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian family.

Polynesians are an ethnolinguistic group of closely related ethnic groups who are native to Polynesia, an expansive region of Oceania in the Pacific Ocean. They trace their early prehistoric origins to Island Southeast Asia and form part of the larger Austronesian ethnolinguistic group with an Urheimat in Taiwan. They speak the Polynesian languages, a branch of the Oceanic subfamily of the Austronesian language family. The Indigenous Māori people constitute the largest Polynesian population, followed by Samoans, Native Hawaiians, Tahitians, Tongans and Cook Islands Māori

The Samoic–Outlier languages, also known as Samoic languages, are a purported group of Polynesian languages, encompassing the Polynesian languages of Samoa, Tuvalu, American Samoa, Tokelau, Wallis and Futuna, and Polynesian outlier languages in New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, and the Federated States of Micronesia. The name "Samoic-Outlier" recognizes Samoan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polynesian outlier</span> Polynesian societies outside the main region

Polynesian outliers are a number of culturally Polynesian societies that geographically lie outside the main region of Polynesian influence, known as the Polynesian Triangle; instead, Polynesian outliers are scattered in the two other Pacific subregions: Melanesia and Micronesia. Based on archaeological and linguistic analysis, these islands are considered to have been colonized by seafaring Polynesians, mostly from the area of Tonga, Samoa and Tuvalu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fatutaka</span>

Fatutaka, Fatu Taka or Patu Taka is a small volcanic island in the Solomon Islands province of Temotu in the south-west Pacific Ocean. The easternmost of the Solomon Islands, Fatutaka is located c. 32 km (20 mi) southeast of Anuta and can be seen from there in clear weather. Fatutaka and Anuta were discovered for Europeans by Admiral Edward Edwards in 1791.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taumako</span> Island in Temotu Province, Solomon Islands

Taumako is the largest of the Duff Islands, in the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean. This 5.7-kilometre-long (3.5-mile) island has steep sides and rises to a height of 400 metres above sea level. It is composed of basaltic lavas and pyroclastics like the other islands in the Duffs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anuta</span>

Anuta is a small volcanic island in the southeastern part of the Solomon Islands province of Temotu, one of the smallest permanently inhabited Polynesian islands. It is one of the Polynesian Outlier communities in Melanesia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tikopia</span> Island in the far southern Solomon Islands

Tikopia is a volcanic island in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It forms a part of the Melanesian nation state of Solomon Islands but is culturally Polynesian. The first Europeans arrived on 22 April 1606 as part of the Spanish expedition of Pedro Fernandes de Queirós.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Culture of the Solomon Islands</span>

The culture of the Solomon Islands reflects the extent of the differentiation and diversity among the groups living within the Solomon Islands archipelago, which lies within Melanesia in the Pacific Ocean, with the peoples distinguished by island, language, topography, and geography. The cultural area includes the nation state of Solomon Islands and the Bougainville Island, which is a part of Papua New Guinea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ontong Java Atoll</span> Group of islands in Solomon Islands

Ontong Java Atoll or Luangiua is one of the largest atolls on earth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sikaiana</span> Small atoll in the eastern Solomon Islands

Sikaiana is a small atoll 212 kilometres NE of Malaita in Solomon Islands in the south Pacific Ocean. It is almost 14 kilometres in length and its lagoon, known as Te Moana, is totally enclosed by the coral reef. Its total land surface is only 2 square kilometres. There is no safe anchorage close to this atoll, which makes it often inaccessible to outsiders.

Patrick Vinton Kirch is an American archaeologist and Professor Emeritus of Integrative Biology and the Class of 1954 Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also the former Curator of Oceanic Archaeology in the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, and director of that museum from 1999 to 2002. Currently, he is professor in the department of anthropology at the University of Hawai'i Manoa, and a member of the board of directors of the Bishop Museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polynesian navigation</span> Methods to navigate the Pacific Ocean

Polynesian navigation or Polynesian wayfinding was used for thousands of years to enable long voyages across thousands of kilometers of the open Pacific Ocean. Polynesians made contact with nearly every island within the vast Polynesian Triangle, using outrigger canoes or double-hulled canoes. The double-hulled canoes were two large hulls, equal in length, and lashed side by side. The space between the paralleled canoes allowed for storage of food, hunting materials, and nets when embarking on long voyages. Polynesian navigators used wayfinding techniques such as the navigation by the stars, and observations of birds, ocean swells, and wind patterns, and relied on a large body of knowledge from oral tradition.

Ben Rudolph Finney was an American anthropologist known for his expertise in the history and the social and cultural anthropology of surfing, Polynesian navigation, and canoe sailing, as well as in the cultural and social anthropology of human space colonization. As "surfing's premier historian and leading expert on Hawaiian surfing going back to the 17th century" and "the intellectual mentor, driving force, and international public face" of the Hokulea project, he played a key role in the Hawaiian Renaissance following his construction of the Hokulea precursor Nalehia in the 1960s and his co-founding of the Polynesian Voyaging Society in the 1970s.

The Anuta language is a Polynesian Outlier language from the island of Anuta in the Solomon Islands. It is closely related to the Tikopia language of the neighboring island of Tikopia, and it bears significant cultural influence from the island. The two languages have a high degree of mutual intelligibility, although Anutans can understand Tikopians better than the reverse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polynesia</span> Subregion of Oceania

Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are called Polynesians. They have many things in common, including language relatedness, cultural practices, and traditional beliefs. In centuries past, they had a strong shared tradition of sailing and using stars to navigate at night.

Nuguria (Nukuria) was a Polynesian language, spoken by approximately 550 people on Nuguria in the eastern islands of Papua New Guinea. The language was taught in primary schools in Nuguria and was used for daily communications between adults and children. Nuguria is one of the eighteen small islands to the east of Papua New Guinea, which are known as the Polynesian Outliers. The Nukuria language has been concluded to be closely related to other nearby languages such as Nukumanu, Takuu, Nukuoro, and Luangiua. Research on the Nuguria Atoll and the language itself is scarce; past research demonstrated that this language was at risk of potential endangerment. The language was only then classified as at risk of endangerment because it was still used between generations and was passed on to the children. However, recent research indicates that Nukuria is now most likely an extinct language.

Sikaiana is a Polynesian language, spoken by about 730 people on Sikaiana in the Solomon Islands.

Katharine Luomala was an American anthropologist known for her studies of comparative mythology in Oceania.

Te lapa is a Polynesian term for an unexplained and scientifically unproven light phenomenon underneath, or on the surface of, the ocean. Te lapa has been loosely translated as "flashing light", "underwater lightning", "the flashing", or "something that flashes". It was used by historic and modern Polynesians as a navigation aid to find islands in the Pacific Ocean. In some instances, it has been theorized to be bioluminescence or electromagnetic in nature. Other hypotheses include the interference patterns of intersecting waves creating a raised curve acting as a lens, but would not explain the source of light. David Lewis speculated that te lapa may originate from luminescence of organisms, or related to deep swell, ground swell, or backwash waves from reefs or islands.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Richard (Rick) Feinberg". The American Anthropological Association. Retrieved November 14, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Collection: Richard Feinberg Papers | UH-Mānoa Catalog for Archival Materials". archivesspace.library.manoa.hawaii.edu. Retrieved November 14, 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Dr. Richard Feinberg | Kent State University". www.kent.edu. Retrieved November 14, 2023.
  4. ↑ Barker, John (2002). "Review of Oral Traditions of Anuta: A Polynesian Outlier in the Solomon Islands". The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 8 (2): 391–392. ISSN   1359-0987.
  5. 1 2 "Polynesian Oral Traditions - The Kent State University Press" . Retrieved November 14, 2023.
  6. ↑ Keller, Janet Dixon (2001). "Review of Oral Traditions of Anuta: A Polynesian Outlier in the Solomon Islands". Anthropological Linguistics. 43 (1): 119–121. ISSN   0003-5483.
  7. ↑ "Anuta - The Kent State University Press" . Retrieved November 14, 2023.
  8. ↑ Severance, Craig J. (1988). "Review of Polynesian Seafaring and Navigation: Ocean Travel in Anutan Culture and Society". American Anthropologist. 90 (4): 1021–1022. ISSN   0002-7294.
  9. ↑ Alkire, William H. (1990). "Review of Polynesian Seafaring and Navigation: Ocean Travel in Anutan Culture and Society". American Ethnologist. 17 (3): 588–589. ISSN   0094-0496.
  10. 1 2 3 Hough, Carrie (April 26, 2019). "There Is Life After Retirement". Anthropology News. Retrieved November 14, 2023.
  11. ↑ "The Kent State University Press » Richard Feinberg" . Retrieved November 14, 2023.
  12. ↑ "Dr. Richard Feinberg Gives Presentation on Anthropology and the Study of Navigation at Harvard | Kent State University". www.kent.edu. Retrieved November 14, 2023.
  13. 1 2 "Richard Feinberg". Intellect Books. Retrieved November 14, 2023.
  14. 1 2 "Fulbright Spirit in the Czech Republic – Rick Feinberg – Czech Republic 2019". Fulbright.org. Retrieved November 14, 2023.
  15. ↑ "Officers of the Association of Senior Anthropologists | Association of Senior Anthropologists" . Retrieved November 14, 2023.
  16. ↑ "Dr. Richard Feinberg awarded Fulbright Scholar Award! | Kent State University". www.kent.edu. Retrieved November 14, 2023.
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