Edwin Cook was born in 1932. He was a famous, American Anthropologist. Cook graduated from the University of Arizona with high honors in 1959. He also attended Yale University, where he received his graduate degree in education.Cook devoted his work to anthropology. He was influenced by his past professors such as Floyd G. Lounsbury, Harold W. Scheffler, and Leopold J. Pospisil. Cook taught at the University of Hawaii, the University of California, Davis, Southern Illinois University and also Florida State University.
From 1961-1963, Cook conducted field work in the Jimi River District of Western Highlands District (now Province) of Papua, New Guinea. He made four visits to the Manga Tribe, his final being in 1981. Cook focused on kinship and social structure of the Manga Tribe. His interests were of the tribe’s transition into the modern world beginning in 1956.
Edwin Cook served as Book Review and Articles Editor in Social/Cultural Anthropology four “American Anthropologist” journals. Also with the support from the National Institutes of Mental Health and US Department of Health Education and Welfare, Cook’s journal “Manga Social Organization” was presented in 1967. Cook also co-edited with Denise O’Brien the Kinship Systems of Highland New Guinea (University of Michigan, 1980).
Edwin Aubrey Cook died on April 24, 1984 in Tallahassee, Florida. He is survived by his widow and fellow anthropologist Susan Pflanz-Cook.
References:
Mandeville Special Collections Library University of California, San
Former link, http://DiegoOrpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/find (October 2006)
Former link, http://Orpheus.ecsd.edu/speccoll/test (October 2006)
Written by: Ashleigh Johanneck