STANNER, W. E. H. William Edward Hanley Stanner (1905–1981) was born in Sydney, Australia, and spent much of his childhood playing on the shores of Sydney Harbor and the surrounding bushland. On leaving school Stanner worked as a bank clerk, a job he tired of quickly, before training as a journalist. In 1926 a life-changing encounter with A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, the newly appointed foundation chair of anthropology at Sydney University, saw Stanner return to school to matriculate, eventually enrolling in a degree program with a major in anthropology and economics.

After completing his degree with first class honors, Stanner was encouraged by Radcliffe-Brown to consider a career in anthropology. He undertook his first fieldwork in the Daly River region of north Australia in 1932, and he returned to this area from 1934 to 1935 to undertake more lengthy research for his Ph.D. He would return to...