George Amos Dorsey (February 6, 1868 – March 29, 1931) was an American ethnographer of

indigenous peoples of the Americas The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. Many Indigenous peoples of the A ...

, with a special focus on the

Caddoan The Caddoan languages are a family of languages native to the Great Plains spoken by tribal groups of the central United States, from present-day North Dakota south to Oklahoma. All Caddoan languages are critically endangered, as the number of ...

and

Siouan Siouan or Siouan–Catawban is a language family of North America that is located primarily in the Great Plains, Ohio and Mississippi valleys and southeastern North America with a few other languages in the east. Name Authors who call the enti ...

tribes of the Great Plains. He is credited with helping develop the anthropology of the Plains Indian tribes while serving as curator at the Field Museum in Chicago from 1898 until 1915. During this period, he also was Professor of Anthropology at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

from 1907 to 1915. In 1897 Dorsey was one of the first anthropologists to appear as an expert forensic witness when examined what he proved were human remains and testified in the murder trial of

Adolph Luetgert Adolph Louis Luetgert (December 27, 1845 – July 7, 1899) was a German-American businessman in Chicago, Illinois, convicted of murdering his second wife Louisa Bicknese in 1897 and dissolving her body in a sausage vat filled with lye at his A.L. ...

in Chicago. In 1925, his cultural study, ''Why We Behave Like Human Beings'', became an unexpected bestseller. This inspired the reissue of his 1917 novel, and enabled him to publish several more books on anthropology and culture. One book in preparation at the time of his death in 1931 was published posthumously.

Early life and education

Dorsey was born in

Hebron, Ohio Hebron is a village in Licking County, Ohio, United States. The population was 2,336 at the 2010 census. Geography Hebron is located at (39.963125, -82.492235). According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of , a ...

, to Edwin Jackson and Mary Emma (''nee'' Grove) Dorsey. He attended local schools before college. He received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree from

Denison University Denison University is a private liberal arts college in Granville, Ohio. One of the earliest colleges established in the former Northwest Territory, Denison University was founded in 1831. The college was first called the Granville Literary and ...

in 1888, then a second bachelor's degree in

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

in 1890 at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. He was awarded his PhD in 1894, based on his dissertation, ''An Archaeological Study Based on a Personal Exploration of Over One Hundred Graves at the Necropolis of Ancon, Peru.'' This was the first PhD in anthropology to be awarded by Harvard, and the second awarded in the United States.

Career

Based on his work in Peru in 1892, Dorsey became head of the archaeological branch of the department of anthropology at Harvard, serving until 1896. In 1897 he joined the staff of the

Field Museum of Natural History The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational ...

in Chicago. as assistant curator. He was promoted to curator in 1898 and served until 1915. From 1907 to 1915 he also was Professor of Anthropology at the

. In the 1890s Dorsey had travelled with Anglo-Canadian botanist and ethnographer Charles Frederick Newcombe and Scottish guide James Deans in Northwest Canada to gather Haida artefacts that might be of ethnographic interest. Their methods varied, but they frequently held little regard for the sensibilities of the

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

, or native Canadians. The local missionary,

John Henry Keen John Henry Keen (1851–1950) was an Anglican missionary in Canada, known for translating scriptures into Haida. While serving as a missionary, he also contributed to Canada's natural history, writing on insects he discovered; he had a specie ...

took them to task after learning that they had raided graves and failed to restore them to their former state. Keen found hair and coffins strewn about from where the men had dug to steal skulls and bones. Keen published a letter in the ''Daily Colonist'' complaining about the desecration and challenged Deans to name his accomplices. He knew that the benefactor of their work was the

Field Columbian Museum The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational ...

in Chicago and that the perpetrators were Americans. George Dorsey was known for his haste to acquire artefacts. When told of Keen's letter to the ''Daily Colonist'', he argued that Keen's anger should be ignored. In the early 1900s he acquired for the museum a large number of objects from curio dealers J. F. G. Umlauff of Hamburg and W. D. Webster, and subsequently expanded the museum's ethnographic holdings with his own trip to

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

, the Bismarck Archipelago, the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...

, and Australia. The trip led to his sending

Albert Buell Lewis Albert Buell Lewis (June 21, 1867 – October 10, 1940) was the first American anthropologist to conduct a systematic, long-term field study in Melanesia, A. B. Lewis is best remembered for the collection and documentation of over 14,000 Melanesia ...

on major expedition to the South Pacific. During the Great War (World War I), Dorsey was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Naval Reserve. In the later part of 1918 he was appointed as assistant naval attache at

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, and in 1919-21 naval attache at

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

. He was an adviser on Spanish problems to the American Commission to Negotiation Peace at Paris. In addition to his formal studies of early societies for anthropology, Dorsey became involved in studying the waves of emigration from "Italy, Austria, Hungary, Rumania, Serbia and Bulgaria, and had studied political conditions in India, China, Japan, Australia and South Africa. He had been a delegate to international congresses of anthropology, and was a member of the Jury of Awards in this field for the St. Louis Exposition in 1904." After his book ''Why We Behave Like Human Beings'' (1925) became a bestseller, Dorsey wrote and published several other general interest books on anthropology and culture. His 1917 novel was reissued in 1927. Dorsey had achieved some early media notoriety in 1897 and 1898 when he was called to aid the investigation of the murder of Louisa Luetgert in Chicago. He was one of the first anthropologists called to testify as an expert forensic witness in a murder case; he had identified four tiny fragments of bone as human and helped gain the arrest and conviction of

for the sensational murder of his wife in 1897. The murder case received national coverage from newspapers.Elizabeth Royte, “Let the Bones Talk is the Watchword for Scientist-Sleuth,” ''Smithsonian Magazine'', May 1996, vol. 27, no. 2.Robert Loerzel, ''Alchemy of Bones: Chicago's Luetgert Murder Case of 1897'', University of Illinois Press, 2007; "Alchemy of Bones" website: Adolph Luetgert, http://www.alchemyofbones.com/who/luetgertfamily/adolph.htm Luetgert was convicted of the murder in his second trial.

Marriage and family

Dorsey married Ida Chadsey on December 8, 1892, while completing his PhD. They had two children together: Dorothy Ann and George Chadsey Dorsey. They separated in April 1914, and were subsequently divorced. Their daughter married and their son became a manager at

Marshall Field & Company Marshall Field & Company (commonly known as Marshall Field's) was an upscale department store in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in the 19th century, it grew to become a large chain before Macy's, Inc acquired it in 2005. Its eponymous founder, Mar ...

in Chicago. Ida Chadsey Dorsey died in 1937. Dorsey married Sue McLellan after his divorce. He died suddenly in 1931 of an embolism at his home in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, shortly before he was to give a radio talk and his book ''On Civilization'' was published.DR GEORGE DORSEY, AUTHOR, DROPS DEAD"
''New York Times'', 30 March 1931; accessed 10 July 2018

Legacy and honors

*Awarded Doctor of Laws in 1909 by Denison University

Works

* * ' (1901) * ' (1903) * ' (1903) * ''Traditions of the Arikara'' (1904) * ' (March 1905) * ' (May 1905) * ''Young Low'', a novel (1917) * ''Why We Behave Like Human Beings'' (1925) * ''The Nature of Man'' (1927) * ''The Evolution of Charles Darwin'' (1927) * ''Race and Civilization'' (1928) * ''Hows and Whys of Human Behavior'' (1929) * ''On Civilization'' (1931, posthumously) Many more of his works are available at th
Internet Archive

References

* Raymond J. DeMallie and Douglas R. Parks, ''George A. Dorsey and the Development of Plains Indian Anthropology'', Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC 2002

External links

page

website based on book, published in 2007 by University of Illinois Press; has biography section of Dorsey with pictures

Today in Science website {{DEFAULTSORT:Dorsey, George Amos 1868 births 1931 deaths Ethnographers American anthropologists Writers from Ohio People from Licking County, Ohio Denison University alumni Harvard College alumni Smithsonian Institution people Presidents of the American Folklore Society