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Culture, Language and Personality: Selected Essays

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Sapir's principal field of study was language. This book contains nine essays from the SELECTED WRITINGS OF EDWARD SAPIR IN LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND PERSONALITY. Edward Sapir was born in Lauenberg, Germany in 1884. His early education was is Richmond, Virginia and in New York City. He graduated from Columbia University in 1904 and with Franz Boas's encouragement he took an M.A. in Germany and a Ph.D. in anthropology. Much of his work concerned American Indian languages and culture.

Every group of human beings has speech and a well-ordered language. Language is a perfect means of expression. Language is primarily a system of phonetic symbols. Phonetic language takes precedence over other kinds of communicative symbolism. All languages are also phonemic. There are a fixed number of phonetic stations. Languages differ widely in their phonemic structure. The fundamental theory of sound symbolism remains the same everywhere.

All grammars have the same degree of fixity. Language is felt to be a perfect symbolic system. Once the form of a language is established it can project potential meanings onto experience. Forms predetermine certain modes of observation. Language interpenetrates actual experience. Language is learned early and piecemeal. It is rarely a purely referential organization.

Language is primarily a vocal actualization of the tendancies to see realities symbolically. Language is a great socializer. There is no correspondence between the form of a language and the form of a culture. The cultural significance of a language form is much more submerged.

Linguistics began it scientific career with the reconstruction of the Indo-European languages. The value of linguistics to cultural studies and anthropology has been recognized. Language is a guide to social reality. Language may be thought of as a symbolic guide to culture. Psychologists concern themselves with linguistic data. A drawback in applying language to unrelated areas is that language to a very great extent is self-contained. Where interest in language has transcended narrow limits, both historical problems and human behavior need to be studied.

Language is primarily a social or cultural product, not a biological product. The culture of the group and the individual are interdependent. The self seeks mastery. What constitutes spiritual serenity must be answered afresh for every culture. Religion does not presuppose a definite belief in God. Cultural anthropology may be useful to psychiatry.

This scholarly work, influential to generations of students of human behavior, contains numerous ideas of great interest to the informed general reader. The writing and the theories are not heavy fare. Enjoyment of the work is not limited to those who have training or experience in sociology or anthropology or linguistics. Apparently the book constitutes a fair representation of the man and the scope of his scholarlarship.