Karl Gustav Heider was born on January 21, 1935 in Northampton, Massachusetts. He began his studies at Williams College, but transferred after two years to Harvard University and earned his bachelor's degree in anthropology in 1956. He spent the next year (1956-1957) in Asia as a Sheldon Traveling Fellow, including participation in an archaeological survey of the Kwae Noi River Valley in Thailand. Heider continued to study anthropology at the University of Vienna in Austria (1957-1958), and returned to Harvard University to earn his master's and Ph.D. degree in 1959 and 1966, respectively. He is currently the Carolina Distinguished Professor at the University of South Carolina.
Heider's interests in anthropology are in visual and psychological anthropology, with specific foci on emotions and sexuality. His fieldwork includes a continuing interest in the Dugum Dani, a Papuan society in the Central Highlands of West New Guinea. Heider spent 26 months in the Dugum Neighborhood in the Dani area: 18 months from April 1961 to October 1962, and 8 months from April until early December 1963.
Publications from his fieldwork among the Dugum Dani tribe include: Attributes and Categories in the Study of Material Culture: New Guinea Dani Attire (1969), The Dug um Dani: A Papuan Culture in the Highlands of West New Guinea (1970), The Grand Valley Dani Pig Feast: A Ritual of Passage and Intensification (1972), The Dani of West Irian: An Ethnographic Companion to the Film “Dead Birds," (1972).
In line with his focus on visual anthropology and its didactic purposes (or as teaching tools), Heider edited-- among other film projects-- a series of films for use in teaching anthropology called Films for Anthropological Teaching (7th edition, 1983). In collaboration with Robert Gardner, Heider filmed Dead Birds(1964 [2004]), during the first five months of the expedition. Heider also filmed two short films published in 1974 titled Dani Sweet Potatoes and Dani Houses.
Gardner, Robert and Karl Heider
1969 Gardens of War: Life and Death in the New Guinea Stone Age. New York: Random House.
Heider, Karl
1970 The Dugum Dani: A Papuan Culture in the Highlands of West New Guinea.Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company.
1976 Ethnographic Film. Austin: University of Texas Press.
2007 Karl Heider. Electronic document, http://www.cas.sc.edu/ANTH/Faculty/HeiderK/Heider.html, accessed November 1, 2007.
Written by: Jill Borth
Edited by: Emily Hildebrant, 2007