16 Facts About Paul Rivet

Paul Rivet married Mercedes Andrade Chiriboga, who was from Cuenca, Ecuador.

Paul Rivet attended local schools and university, studying to be a physician.

Paul Rivet remained for five years in South America, where he was mentored by Federico Gonzalez Suarez, an Ecuadorian bishop, historian and archaeologist.

Paul Rivet became interested in the indigenous peoples, beginning an ethnographic study of the Huaorani people of the Ecuadorian Amazon, then known as the Jivaro.

Paul Rivet published several papers on his Ecuadorian research, before publishing an extended volume co-authored with Rene Verneau, titled Ancient Ethnography of Ecuador.

In 1926, Paul Rivet participated in founding the Institut d'ethnologie in Paris, together with Marcel Mauss and Lucien Levy-Bruhl.

Paul Rivet continued to develop institutions for the study of mankind.

In 1942, following Nazi occupation of Paris, Paul Rivet was ousted from his position at the museum.

Paul Rivet went to the US where Franz Boas tried to help him along with other academicians displaced by the Nazis.

Paul Rivet became involved in politics, alarmed at the rise of fascism in Europe during the 1930s.

Paul Rivet was a leader in the French Resistance to Nazi occupation.

Paul Rivet narrowly escaped arrest and execution by the Nazis.

Paul Rivet is well known for his classification of South American languages.

Paul Rivet proposed 77 language families and about 1240 languages and dialects.

Paul Rivet's theory asserts that Asia was the origin of the Indigenous people of the Americas.

Paul Rivet is commemorated in the scientific names of the South American snake Leptophis riveti and frog Pristimantis riveti.