Roy Wagner

Roy Wagner (October 2, 1938 – September 10, 2018) was an American cultural anthropologist who made major contributions to symbolic anthropology, kinship theory, and the study of Melanesian societies. He is best known for his theoretical work on cultural invention, myth analysis (particularly "symbolic obviation"), figure-ground reversal, and the concept of "reverse anthropology." His book ''The Invention of Culture'' (1975; expanded 1981) has been widely regarded as a foundational text in late twentieth-century anthropology and is recognized as a precursor to the discipline's ontological turn. Provided by Wikipedia