Born in Livermore, California, in 1890, Aitken was raised and educated with his sister and two brothers atop
Mt. Hamilton, where his father,
Robert Grant Aitken, was an astronomer at the
Lick Observatory. He married Gladys Page Baker in 1915, and had two sons,
Robert Baker Aitken (Zen Buddhist teacher and author) and Malcolm Darroch Aitken. His life work included
anthropology,
ethnology, and
archeology. He did graduate work at
Columbia University, and started his professional career as an instructor of
anthropology at the
University of Pennsylvania, and then as anthropologist at the
Milwaukee Public Museum. Under the guidance of
Franz Boas, Aitken and
John Alden Mason excavated
Cerro Hueco (Antonio's Cueva), a cave in Puerto Rico, in 1915. While human skeletal remains were unearthed, nothing else of significance was found. Documentation of the work done has, however, provided a basis for the critical analysis of early archeological methodology. In 1920, he assumed the position of visiting anthropologist at the Bishop Museum in Hawaiʻi. There, he and his assistant
Kenneth Emory took passage aboard the interisland steamer Claudine to Maui for an archaeological survey of ruins in the
Haleakalā Crater. Later that same year, he left Emory to continue the dig on Maui in order to join the
Austral Islands team of the
Bayard Dominick Expedition. On this trip, while collecting data on the Island of
Tubuai, he had ongoing health issues. He and nurse/neighbor Tetunohoariiaraiaimoiti Tehahe developed a fond friendship, establishing a robust line in Tahiti through his third child, Tehinaotarehu Teinauri (née Tehahe). Though unbeknownst to his family back home, the secret collapsed shortly after his death some 58 years later, and his two descendant lines celebrated a joyous unification in 1980. He returned to Hawaiʻi with a serious case of tuberculosis and was confined to
Leahi Hospital in Honolulu. The next month, his wife and sons left California to join him in Hawaiʻi. He managed to complete a master's degree at the
University of Hawaiʻi in 1923 with his thesis “Mythology of Tubuai.” His magnum opus, the
Ethnology of Tubuai, was published in 1930. His work continued at the Bishop Museum, including roles in leadership, before retiring around 1932. He served in the Army in WWI and WWII, and retired a Major. He spent his active retirement years with wife Gladys in Los Gatos, California. He died in Placerville, California, in 1977, and shares a grave with family at the
National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Puowaina in Honolulu, Hawai’i. == References ==