Plisetsky Mark (1891–1957) – anthropologist, ethnographer and historian of religion.
Since 1919, he was at the Party work. In 1924, he became Head of the State Central Publishing House of the peoples of the U.S.S.R. at the Presidium of All-Union Central Executive Committee. Since 1927, he worked at the State Central Museum of Ethnography (Moscow). In 1931-1957, he was Director of the research Institute of Anthropology, and at the Museum of Anthropology at the Moscow State University. In 1932-1937, he was Chief Editor of the “Anthropological Magazine’. Candidate in History (1932), Docent.
In 1931, he participated in the publication of the two-volumed work of the Museum of Ethnography: ‘Religious Beliefs of the Peoples of the U.S.S.R.’ (Edit. V. C. Nickolsky).
In 1952, in the magazine ‘Sovetskaya etnografiya’ he criticized the theory of ‘aforethought’ of Neanderthals burials, he denied any possibility of religious ideas among Neanderthals (P. On the So Called Neanderthals Burials // Sovetskaya etnografiya. 1952, No 2; - another version: Okladnikov A. P. On the Significance of the Neanderthals Burials for the History of the Primordial Culture // Sovetskaya etnografiya. 1952, No 3).