Born: 1938 Died: 1961 Gender: Male Active: New Guinea
He was a member of the Harvard's Peabody expedition team that went to New Guinea in 1961. He took over 5,000 black and white photographs of the Dani - warrior farmers who lived in the highlands of West Papua. The archive is held by the Peabody Musem of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University.
He is presumed to have drowned on November 17th or 18th 1961 when his catamaran foundered and he attempted to swim ashore at the mouth of the Eilanden River where it flows into the Arafoera Sea on the south (Asmat) coast of Irian Jaya. The details are uncertain as his body was never found and there were no witnesses.
(Information provided by Robert Gardner, Jan 4, 2008)
Genealogy of Michael Rockefeller
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