| Daniel Ellis Moerman | |
| Birth Date: | 21 July 1941 |
| Birth Place: | Paterson, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Fields: | Medical anthropology |
| Alma Mater: | University of Michigan |
| Thesis Title: | Extended family and popular medicine on St. Helena Island, S.C.: adaptations to marginality |
| Thesis Url: | https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/2184273 |
| Thesis Year: | 1974 |
| Doctoral Advisors: | )--> |
| Known For: | Work in ethnobotany and the placebo effect |
| Awards: | University of Michigan Distinguished Faculty Governance Award (1991)[1] |
| Spouses: | )--> |
| Partners: | )--> |
Daniel Ellis Moerman (July 21, 1941 – January 9, 2026) was an American medical anthropologist and ethnobotanist, and an emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.[2] He is known for his work relating to Native American ethnobotany and the placebo effect.
Moerman was born in Paterson, New Jersey.[3] He received his AB, MA and PhD degrees in anthropology from the University of Michigan in 1963, 1965, and 1974, respectively.[1] He became a professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan-Dearborn in 1984, and was appointed the William E. Stirton Professor of Anthropology at the university in 1994.[1]
Moerman spent over 25 years developing a catalogue of over 4,000 plants used by Native Americans for medicinal purposes.[4] [5] He has also published studies on the placebo effect, one of which found that more people with stomach ulcers were healed when taking four placebos per day than when taking two.[6]
Moerman died on January 9, 2026, at the age of 84.[7]
In 1991, Moerman became the first faculty member at the University of Michigan's Dearborn campus to receive the university's Distinguished Faculty Governance Award.[8]
