Joseph-François Lafitau

Joseph-François Lafitau (French: [lafito]; May 31, 1681 – July 3, 1746) was a French Jesuit missionary, ethnologist, and naturalist who worked in Canada. He is best known for his use of the comparative method in the field of scientific anthropology, the discovery of American ginseng, and his writings on the Iroquois. Lafitau was the first of the Jesuit missionaries in Canada to have a scientific point of view. Francis Parkman praises Lafitau, stating, “none of the old writers are so satisfactory as Lafitau.”
He is best known as the author of Customs of the American Indians Compared with the Customs of Primitive Times (1724).