FRESH AIR
In 1961, the 23-year-old son of one of America’s wealthiest families disappeared in a remote coastal area off the island of New Guinea in the South Pacific, a region inhabited by the Asmat, a tribe known to engage in headhunting and cannibalism. In an effort to solve the mystery of what happened to Michael Rockefeller, son of then-New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, writer Carl Hoffman dug into long-forgotten archives and spent time among villagers in the region. Hoffman believes the fate of Michael Rockefeller is now clear, and his new book tells the disturbing story of the young man who spent months in the region collecting indigenous art for display in the Museum of Primitive Art in New York. Savage Harvest is both an investigation of the Rockefeller mystery and an exploration of the lives of the Asmat, whose culture in the 1960s was based on Stone Age technology. Hoffman has written for several national publications and is the author of two previous books. He tells Fresh Air’s Dave Davies how Rockefeller died and how the politics of colonialism kept that truth hidden for so long. MORE