Puebloan peoples
Hassig began his academic career as an undergraduate at Vanderbilt University, where his studies initially focused on non-Western legal systems. He soon developed an interest in anthropology, later obtaining in 1974 his Master's degree from Vanderbilt in Law and Anthropology, with a thesis on political development among the Puebloan peoples at Acoma Pueblo. He then went on further his graduate studies at Stanford University, obtaining his Ph.D from the Department of Anthropology there in 1980.