William E. Mitchell

William E. Mitchell (1927–2022) conducted fieldwork among the Wape and Lujere peoples of Papua New Guinea in the 1970s, a pivotal time of transition from colonial rule. He taught anthropology at the University of Vermont from 1965 to 1996 and published Kinship, Ethnicity and Voluntary Associations: Jewish Family Life in New York City, based on his first fieldwork, and The Bamboo Fire: Fieldwork with the New Guinea Wape. After retiring, he heeded a colleague’s urging to write up his Lujere fieldnotes, amplifying them with extensive archival, historical, and comparative data. This project culminated in A Witch’s Hand, which he completed only weeks before his death at 95.