George Peter Murdock

George Peter Murdock (May 11, 1897 – March 29, 1985) was an American anthropologist who pioneered the cross-cultural analytical method. His work included preparation of cross-cultural data sets, in which he coded hundreds of cultures for a wide variety of variables. His intention was that these would provide the basis for cross-cultural studies by many researchers, as they have. Although his approach appeared somewhat mechanistic, it derived from his view of social science as a whole discipline. He communicated with researchers beyond the strict confines of anthropology, and his data sets were designed to be useful to those investigating many aspects of human society.

Works

• Our Primitive Contemporaries, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1934, IA.

• editor, Studies in the Science of Society, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1937.

• with C.S. Ford, A.E. Hudson, R. Kennedy, L. W. Simmons, and J.W.M. Whiting, Outline of Cultural Materials, New Haven: Institute of Human Relations, 1938; 2n edition, New Haven: Yale Anthropological Studies, 1945.

• Social organization of Truk, Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1947.

• Social structure, New York/ London: The Macmillan Company, Collier-Macmillan Limited, 1949; 1965, OL.

• Africa: Its peoples and their culture history, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959.

• Ethnographic Atlas: A Summary, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1967, PDF, IA, OL.

• Atlas of World Cultures, Pittsburgh: The University of Pittsburgh Press, 1981.

Bibliography

• Selected bibliography, by Ward H. Goodenough, 1994.

Links

• http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/George_Peter_Murdock
• https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL119439A/George_Peter_Murdock
• http://eclectic.ss.uci.edu/~drwhite/worldcul/atlas.htm