Rappaport, Roy A.
Roy A. Rappaport (1926-1997), an American anthropologist famous for his explanation of cultural phenomenons in terms of energy and material factors among people and the surrounding natural environment. In Pigs for the Ancestors (1968) he describes the role of the religious ceremony kaiko among the Tsembaga, a community of horticulturalists in New Guinea. The Tsembaga planted ritual trees on the border of new territory and slaughtered a large number of pigs for pork. Rappaport calculated energy exchanges among the community, the natural environment, and neighboring populations. These calculations revealed his findings that the kaiko ritual was based on the ecological relationship among people, pigs, local food supplies, and warfare. The ritual kept the number of pigs from exceeding the carrying capacity of the natural environment and prevented land degradation. At the same time, the kaiko ceremony distributed surplus wealth in the form of pork—energy—and facilitated trade among people.
