Kaj Birket-Smith
Introduction Anthropologist Frederica Annis Lopez de Leo de Laguna (1906–2004)  at a 1937 symposium with Kaj Birket-Smith (right), where they presented a joint paper on Alaskan ethnology. '''Kaj Birket-Smith''' (20 January 1893 – 28 October 1977) was a Danish philologist and anthropologist. He specialized in studying the habits and language of the Inuit and Eyak. He was a member of Knud Rasmussen's 1921 Thule expedition. In 1940, he became director of the Ethnographic Department of the National Museum of Denmark.
Personal life Sophus Birket-SmithKaj Birket-Smith was the son of Danish librarian and literary historian Sophus Birket-Smith and wife, Ludovica (born Nielsen). He received his PhD in linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania in 1937.He was a Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog.In 1920, Kaj and Minna Birket-Smith wed. Kaj Birket-Smith died in 1977, aged 84.
Awards * 1933 Hans Egede Medal by the Royal Danish Geographical Society* 1938 Loubat Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy* 1952 Huxley Memorial Medal by the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
Partial works * (1916). ''The Greenland bow''. København: Bianco Lunos bogtr. * (1918). ''A geographic study of the early history of the Algonquian Indians''* (1920). ''Ancient artefacts from the Eastern United States''* (1924). ''Ethnography of the Egedesminde District with Aspects of the General Culture of West Greenland''* (1925). ''Preliminary report of the Fifth Thule Expedition Physical anthropology, linguistics, and material culture''* (1928). ''On the origin of Eskimo culture''* (1928). ''Five hundred Eskimo words: A comparative vocabulary from Greenland and Central Eskimo dialects''* (1928). ''The Greenlanders of the present day''* (1928). ''Physiography of West Greenland''* (1929). ''The Caribou Eskimos. Material and social life and their cultural position''* (1929). ''Drinking-tube and tobacco pipe in North America''* (1930). ''Contributions to Chipewyan ethnology''* (1933). ''Geographical notes on the Barren''* (1938). ''The Eyak Indians of the Copper River Delta, Alaska''* (1940). ''Anthropological observations of the Central Eskimos''* (1943). ''The origin of maize cultivation''
References