Donald F. Tuzin (June 14, 1945 – April 15, 2007) was an American social anthropologist best known for his ethnographic work on the Ilahita Arapesh, a horticultural people living in northeast lowland New Guinea, and for comparative studies of gender and sexuality within Melanesia.
from Western Reserve University in Ohio (shortly before its merger with Case Institute of Technology), where he became interested in anthropology and participated in the excavation of Native American archaeological sites left by the Mound Builders.
The following summary is taken from the book jacket: In addition to teaching and mentoring students in anthropology, he co-founded (with Fitz Poole) and directed UCSD's Melanesian Archive, the world's largest depository of unpublished materials on the societies and cultures of Melanesia.
To augment his lectures, he wrote the book, Social Complexity in the Making: A Case Study Among the Arapesh of New Guinea.
[4] In his later years, Tuzin was working on a biography of Derek Freeman in collaboration with Peter Hempenstall, a professor of history at the University of Canterbury, in New Zealand.