George P. MurdockBorn 11 May 1897; died 29 Mar 1985 at age 87.George P(eter) Murdock was an American anthropologist who specialized in comparative ethnology, the ethnography of African and Oceanic peoples, and social theory. He is perhaps most notable as the originator, in 1937, of the Cross-Cultural Survey, a project of the Institute of Human Relations of Yale University. During WW II he enlisted in the Army, and arranged to be sent to Columbia University to produce informational handbooks on Micronesia. He also asked for the reports of the 1910 German expedition and the available Japanese reports to be translated. With these, he was able to create a set of Civil Affairs Handbooks covering not only Micronesia, but also the areas from Bikini to Yap, Okinawa and Taiwan. |
