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Kaj Birket-Smith

Kaj Birket-Smith (1893-1977) was a Danish philologist and anthropologist known for his studies of the Inuit and Eyak languages and cultures. He participated in Knud Rasmussen's 1921 Thule expedition and later became the director of the Ethnographic Department at the National Museum of Denmark. Throughout his career, he received several awards and published numerous works on anthropology and linguistics.

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43 views2 pages

Kaj Birket-Smith

Kaj Birket-Smith (1893-1977) was a Danish philologist and anthropologist known for his studies of the Inuit and Eyak languages and cultures. He participated in Knud Rasmussen's 1921 Thule expedition and later became the director of the Ethnographic Department at the National Museum of Denmark. Throughout his career, he received several awards and published numerous works on anthropology and linguistics.

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Kaj Birket-Smith

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.[1]

Personal life
Anthropologist Frederica Annis
Kaj Birket-Smith was the son of Danish librarian and literary Lopez de Leo de Laguna (1906–
historian Sophus Birket-Smith and wife, Ludovica (born Nielsen). 2004) [1] (http://archaeology.about.c
om/od/archaeologistsdf/g/delagunaf.
He received his PhD in linguistics at the University of
htm) at a 1937 symposium with Kaj
Pennsylvania in 1937. He was a Knight of the Order of the Birket-Smith (right), where they
Dannebrog. presented a joint paper on Alaskan
ethnology.
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[2]
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 Sophus Birket-Smith
(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
1. Collins, Jr., Henry B. (1946). "Anthropology during the War. II. Scandinavia" (https://doi.org/1
0.1525%2Faa.1946.48.1.02a00340). American Anthropologist. 48 (1). Blackwell Publishing:
141–144. doi:10.1525/aa.1946.48.1.02a00340 (https://doi.org/10.1525%2Faa.1946.48.1.02
a00340). JSTOR 662818 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/662818).
2. Elberling, V.; Hjelmstjerne-Rosencroneske stiftelse (1933). Avis-aarbogen ...: Aarets
begivenheder hjemme og ude i faa orde (https://books.google.com/books?id=-qlHAQAAIAA
J) (in Danish). C. A. Reitzel. p. 161 ff. Retrieved 26 June 2023.

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