My research is in sociocultural anthropology, with a major ethnographic focus on Polynesian "outliers" in the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea.  In addition, I have worked with Native Americans and on problems related to American culture.  Areas of theoretical interest include: symbolic anthropology, kinship and social organization, indigenous seafaring and navigation, oral traditions, cultural politics and economic and political development.

Link to Professional CV
 

 Professional Associations

I am currently President of the Central States Anthropological Society and chair-elect of the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania. In addition, I am a member of the American Anthropological Association, the Society for Cultural Anthropology, and the Polynesian Society.
 

Major Publications

Anuta: Social Structure of a Polynesian Island.  La'ie and Copenhagen: Institute for Polynesian Studies and the National Museum of Denmark.  1981. 

Polynesian Seafaring and Navigation: Ocean Travel in Anutan Culture and Society.  Kent,  Ohio: Kent State University Press. 1988.

Politics of Culture in the Pacific Islands (edited by R. Feinberg and L. Zimmer-Tamakoshi). Ethnology
34(2-3):89-209.  Special Issue. 1995.

Seafaring in the Contemporary Pacific Islands, edited by R. Feinberg.  DeKalb, Illinois.  Northern Illinois University Press.  1995.

Leadership and Change in the Western Pacific: Essays in Honor of Sir Raymond Firth, edited by R. Feinberg and K. A. Watson-Gegeo.  London School of Economics Monographs on Social Anthropology, Number 66.  London: Athlone Press.  1996.

Oral Traditions of Anuta: A Polynesian Outlier in the Solomon Islands.  Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics, Volume 15.  New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.  1998.

 The Cultural Analysis of Kinship: The Legacy of David M. Schneider, edited by R. Feinberg and M. Ottenheimer.  Urbana: University of Illinois Press.   2001. 

Oceania: An Introduction to the Cultures and Identities of Pacific Islanders, by Andrew J. Strathern, Pamela Stewart, Laurence M. Carucci, Lin Poyer, Richard Feinberg, and Cluny Macpherson. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press. 2002

Anuta: Polynesian Lifeways for the 21st Century. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press. 2004
 

Course Syllabi

Problems in Cultural Anthropology 68230