Felix M. Keesing (January 5, 1902 – April 1961) was a New Zealand-born anthropologist who specialized in the study of the Philippine Islands and the South Pacific.
[2] During their engagement, setting a pattern they would follow throughout their lives, Marie collaborated with him as he rewrote his Master's thesis for the 1928 publication The Changing Maori (Thomas Avery & Son).
Their 1939 study, The Menomini Indians of Wisconsin, reported that many features of Native American cultures that anthropologists had assumed to be "aboriginal" were in fact produced by interaction with European societies.
At the time, however, the study did not receive the attention it deserved, probably because the field of anthropology did not yet appreciate the role of historical change in peoples they regarded as primitive.
"[6] Keesing put his anthropological knowledge to work as the principal advisor on the South Pacific to the Office of War Information, which gathered intelligence and prepared briefings for the American military.
In addition to carrying out several missions to the South Pacific for the American government, Keesing published prolifically and was especially known for his studies of culture change.