Roy Wagner

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For the cinematographer, see Roy H. Wagner.

Roy Wagner is an cultural anthropologist who specializes in symbolic anthropology. He received a BA from Harvard University (1961), and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago (1966), where he studied under David M. Schneider. He conducted fieldwork among the Daribi of Karimui, in the Simbu Province of Papua New Guinea, as well as the Usen Barok of New Ireland. Wagner taught at Southern Illinois University and Northwestern University before accepting the chairmanship of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Virginia, where he currently teaches. He resides in Charlottesville, Virginia. Wagner's The Invention of Culture (1975; 1981) is considered a classic of ethnography and theory, and has been translated into Japanese and Portuguese. Anthropologists influenced by Wagner include Marilyn Strathern, Jadran Mimica, and James Weiner.

[edit] Major publications

2001 - An Anthropology of the Subject. University of California Press.
1986 - Asiwinarong: Ethos, Image, and Social Power among the Usen Barok of New Ireland. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
1986 - Symbols That Stand for Themselves. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
1981 - The Invention of Culture. University of Chicago Press.
1978 - Lethal Speech: Daribi Myth as Symbolic Obviation. Symbol, Myth and Ritual Series. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
1972 - Habu: The Innovation of Meaning in Daribi Religion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
1967 - The Curse of Souw: Principles of Daribi Clan Definition and Alliance in New Guinea. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

[edit] Works on Wagner

John M. Ingham Simplicity and complexity in anthropology. On the Horizon 2007 Volume: 15 Issue: 1 Page: 7 - 14
"Reinventing the Invention of Culture" in Social Analysis. The International Journal of Cultural and Social Practice. Vol. 46, No. 1, Spring 2002. Edited by David Murray and Joel Robbins