Born May 7, 1876, in Wassigny, Ardennes; died Mar. 21, 1958, in Paris. French ethnologist, anthropologist, and linguist.
In 1928, Rivet became a professor at the University of Paris and director of the Musée de l’Homme. In 1940 he joined the Resistance Movement in France. He emigrated to South America in 1941 and returned to France in 1944. He studied the Indians of North and South America. Rivet put forth the hypothesis, not shared by most specialists, that the Indians of South America were related to the Australians, Melanesians, and Polynesians and that some groups of American Indians came from Oceania.
WORKSEthnographie ancienne de l’Equateur, fascs. 1–2. Paris, 1922. (With R. Verneau.)
“Les Langues de l’Amérique.” In Les langues du monde, 2nd ed. Paris, 1952. (With G. Stresser-Péan and Č. Loukotka.)
Les Origines de l’homme américain, 7th ed. Paris, 1957.
La Métallurgie en Amérique précolombienne. Paris, 1946. (With H. Arsandaux.)