William A Lessa

William Armand Lessa, born in Newark, NJ in 1908, earned a BA from Harvard in 1928 and subsequently worked as a research associate at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, in the early 1930s. It was this period in which he developed a life-long interest in the cultures of the Pacific Rim.Returning to the US mainland, Lessa enrolled in an MA program in anthropology at the University of Chicago, graduating in 1941. Military service interrupted his studies, but, post WWII, Lessa returned to...See more

William Armand Lessa, born in Newark, NJ in 1908, earned a BA from Harvard in 1928 and subsequently worked as a research associate at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, in the early 1930s. It was this period in which he developed a life-long interest in the cultures of the Pacific Rim.Returning to the US mainland, Lessa enrolled in an MA program in anthropology at the University of Chicago, graduating in 1941. Military service interrupted his studies, but, post WWII, Lessa returned to Chicago to complete a doctorate in 1947. Assuming a lectureship in anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles, the same year, Lessa remained in this position until retirement in 1969, havingin that interim mentored many UCLA anthropology graduate students (including the later-renowned author, Carlos Casteneda).Throughout his career, Dr Lessa engaged in important field research in folklore, magic and religion in various Pacific island locales. His seminal publications on Oceanic folklore remain standard works in this field. See less