Alan Parkhurst Merriam (1 November 1923 – 14 March 1980) was an American
cultural anthropologist and
ethnomusicologist. He is known for his studies of music in Native America and Africa. In his book
The Anthropology of Music (1964), he outlined and develops a theory and method for studying
study of music from an
anthropological perspective with anthropological methods. Although he taught at
Northwestern University and
University of Wisconsin, the majority of his academic career was spent at
Indiana University where he was named a professor in 1962 and then chairman of the anthropology department from 1966 to 1969, which became a leading center of research ethnomusicology under his guidance. He was a co-founder of the
Society for Ethnomusicology in 1952 and held the elected post of president of that society from 1963 to 1965. He edited the
Newsletter of the Society for Ethnomusicology from 1952 to 1957, and he edited the journal
Ethnomusicology from 1957 to 1958.