Christoph von-Fuhrer Haimendorf was responsible for many tribal studies. Initially, he began his work in the Naga hills. He accompanied J. P. Mills on his tours in the region. At the time Mills was a Political Agent. He wrote a travelogue in 1938 entitled The Naked Nagas as a result of his tour. In this work, a very subjective account was written about the Konyak Nagas, about which the world knew very little at the time.
Later, he went on to study the Chenchus of Andhra Pradesh, a huntinggathering community. He also went on to make a detailed study of the Gonds of Adilabad. He described the social life of both these tribal communities and paid special attention to their problems. He suggested separate development programmes for them.
He then went on to study the Apatanis of Arunachal Pradesh. He made an extensive study and was favourably impressed by their stage of development. The Apatanis were well-educated and were able to compete for posts in the bureaucracy.
Using this comparative background study of the tribes of India, he proposed a developmental future for these communities based on their isolation from other communities. This has been called isolationism. In 1984, in a D. N. Majumdar lecture, he argued that the Gonds were being deprived of their lands and were becoming poorer due to their contact with outsiders. The Apatanis were isolated because of their houses being in difficult terrain. This has resulted in their faster development. Development in this area reached the grass root level and was not taken over by outsiders. The Indian governmental policy of not allowing people into this region has also contributed to this state. In fact, by 1985, his book on the Tribes of India clearly states the Indian government policy of state terrorism against the tribals protesting for their own land to be left to them instead of being repeatedly usurped by outsiders and taken over. This was based on a postscript in the book on the planned shooting down of unarmed Gond tribals on 20 April 1981 at Indravelli, Adilabad. A quote from the magazine Olympus that he quotes is very clear in its denouncement: “Tribals are fighting a grim battle for survival. The depredation of forest contractors has upset their economic life. And now their lands are sought to be snatched away by the new ‘voortrekkers.’ The plainsmen with the power of the modern state behind them are moving in.” (Furer-Haimendorf; 1985: 326)
He has also written on the morals and merits in South Asian societies. Haimendorf has also worked on communities in Nepal. He retired as a Professor from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London. In 1976, he retired from the Chair of Asian Anthropology at the University of London. He is well-known for his many meticulously detailed ethnographies but is not so well remembered for the few theoretical approaches that he used.