Heider was born in Northampton, Massachusetts.[1] Heider is the son of psychologists Fritz and Grace (née Moore) Heider. He had two brothers; John and Stephan.
After spending two years at Williams College, Heider transferred to Harvard College where he earned his B.A. in anthropology. Heider then spent a year touring Asia on a Sheldon Traveling Fellowship provided by Harvard.[2] Returning to Harvard in 1958, Heider went on to earn an M.A. in 1959 and Ph.D. in 1966.[3]
He was married to the psychologist Eleanor Rosch with whom he studied the Dani people.[4][5] The couple divorced in the late 1970s.[6]
It has included going into the West Papua region in the 1960s and 1990s,[8] as well as producing works on ethnographic film making[9] and writing on Indonesian cinema.[10]
^The Dugum Dani: A Papuan Culture in the Highlands of West New Guinea. Aldine Publishing. Grand Valley Dani: Peaceful Warriors (Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology). Wadsworth Publishing (3rd ed.).
^Heider, Karl G (November 2006), Ethnographic film (Rev. ed.), University of Texas Press (published 2006), ISBN978-0-292-71458-8