Papua New Guinea
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Vayda, Andrew Peter (1931)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Andrew P. Vayda papers
label: See more items in
content: Andrew P. Vayda papers / Series 3: Research
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Suberies: "Papua New Guinea" comprises Vayda's research materials from his work among the Maring people of Papua New Guinea. Included are NSF grant proposals, correspondence, and reports for several related research projects, beginning with the first project, "Culture and Environment in the New Guinea Rainforest" which saw Vayda and his student assistants Cherry Lowman Vayda, Ann and Roy Rappaport, and Allison and Marek Jablonko conduct groundbreaking fieldwork among the Maring of the Simbai Valley in the western highlands in 1962-1963. Of note among these files is a notebook kept by Margaret Mead with correspondence, administrative notes, and other material relating to this field research. 

The bulk of this subseries consists of field notes and diaries from both the initial research as well as the Vayda's follow up research in 1966 he and Cherry Lowman worked with the Maring of the Jimi Valley which neighbored Simbai. Additional material in this subseries includes survey and other data, patrol reports, correspondence, and subject files.

Sound recordings and photographs from this research can be found in series 8 and 9, and series 2 series contains extensive communication about the research or with other members of the research team. Draft and published articles from this research is in the Writings series.

Researchers interested in the Papua New Guinea research should also consult the papers of Cherry Lowman held by the National Anthropological Archives as there is much overlap in field notes and other research data, photographs, and correspondence.