Editing Michael Rockefeller (section)

==Early life==
Michael Rockefeller was born on May 18, 1938, the fifth and last child of [[Nelson Rockefeller|Nelson]] and [[Mary Todhunter Rockefeller]]. He was the third son of seven children fathered by Nelson, and he had a twin sister named Mary. Rockefeller attended the [[Buckley School (New York City)|Buckley School]] in [[New York City]] and graduated from the [[Phillips Exeter Academy]] in [[New Hampshire]], where he was a student senator and exceptional varsity wrestler. He then graduated ''[[cum laude]]'' from [[Harvard University]] with an A.B. in history and economics.<ref name="SI">{{cite news|last=Hoffmann|first=Carl|title=What Really Happened to Michael Rockefeller|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/What-Really-Happened-to-Michael-Rockefeller-180949813/?all|access-date=February 25, 2014|newspaper=Smithsonian Magazine|date=March 2014}}</ref> He also served for six months in 1960 as a [[Private (rank)|private]] in the [[United States Army]].

Following his military service, Rockefeller went on an expedition for Harvard's [[Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology]] to study the [[Dani people|Dani]] tribe of western [[Dutch New Guinea]]. The expedition filmed ''[[Dead Birds (1965 film)|Dead Birds]]'', an ethnographic documentary film produced by [[Robert Gardner (anthropologist)|Robert Gardner]], for which Rockefeller was the sound recordist.<ref name="SI" /> 

Rockefeller and a friend briefly left the Peabody expedition to study the [[Asmat people|Asmat]] tribe of southern Dutch New Guinea. After the expedition ended, Rockefeller returned to New Guinea to study the Asmat and collect their distinctive woodwork art.<ref name="SI" /><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/celebrity/michael_rockefeller/index.html |title=Michael, You're Mad |access-date=2009-08-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090601182544/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/celebrity/michael_rockefeller/index.html |archive-date=2009-06-01 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

<blockquote>"It's the desire to do something adventurous," he explained, "at a time when frontiers, in the real sense of the word, are disappearing."</blockquote>

Rockefeller spent his time in New Guinea actively engaged with the culture and the art while recording ethnographic data. In one of his letters back home, he wrote:

<blockquote>I am having a thoroughly exhausting but most exciting time here ... The Asmat is like a huge puzzle with the variations in ceremony and art style forming the pieces. My trips are enabling me to comprehend (if only in a superficial, rudimentary manner) the nature of this puzzle ...<ref>Excerpt from a letter from Michael Rockefeller, November 13, 1961 Gerbrands, A. A., Ed. (1967). The Asmat of New Guinea: The Michael C. Rockefeller Expeditions 1961. New York, NY: The New York Graphic Society</ref></blockquote>