The Roy A. Rappaport papers provide a glimpse into the active life of an internationally renown and intellectually rigorous anthropologist. Organized into seven series, Biographical Files, Correspondence, Writings, Speeches and Lectures, Classes and Teaching, Consulting, and Topical Files, the papers span the years 1959 to 1997. The strength of the collection is in its documentation of Rappaport's professional and teaching activities. Rappaport's interests in environmental issues, religion, and the application of his knowledge and interests to societal issues are also evident in this collection. The researcher should note that certain aspects of Rappaport's professional career (such as his field work in New Guinea and his time as president of the American Anthropological Association) have a very limited coverage within the collection, in part because field notes and material related to the American Anthropological Association were given to other institutions. Rappaport's field notes are located at the University of California San Diego and his correspondence relating to the American Anthropological Association is at the Smithsonian.
Born on March 25, 1926 in New York, New York, Roy Abraham Rappaport obtained a B.S. in Hotel Administration from Cornell University in 1949. He owned and operated Avaloch Inn in Lenox, Massachusetts from 1951 to 1959. Returning to school, he obtained a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Columbia University in 1966, performing field work in Mo'orea, Society Islands and New Guinea. Rappaport joined the University of Michigan faculty in 1965, where he stayed until his death in 1997. Rappaport was chairman of the Department of Anthropology from 1975 to 1980 and president of the American Anthropological Association from 1987 to 1989.
Rappaport's first book, Pigs for the Ancestors, was published in 1968. Based on his ethnographic field work in New Guinea, it established his reputation as an internationally respected scholar. Throughout his career, much of Rappaport's work focused on the study of religion, and more specifically the relationships among religion, society, and ecology. He wrote four books and more than 60 articles, reviews, and book chapters. Rappaport also worked to direct anthropology toward policy issues and he himself consulted on issues related to the social impact of outer continental oil drilling and nuclear waste disposal. His last years were spent working on a book titled Holiness and Humanity, which was published posthumously in 1999.
Known to his friends as "Skip," Rappaport had a generous spirit and was supportive and encouraging to his students and his colleagues. Many of those who knew him considered him brilliant; "the top of your head is better than the inside of most" a colleague once wrote him. At the time of his death from lung cancer in 1997, he was survived by his wife Ann and two daughters, Amelia and Gina.
