Cultureisthesumtotalofallthetraditions,customs,beliefs,andwaysoflifeofagivengroupofhumanbeings.Inthissense,everygrouphasaculture,howeversavage,underdeveloped,oruncivilizeditmayseemtous.Totheprofessionalanthropologist,thereisnointrinsicsuperiorityofonecultureoveranother,justastotheprofessionallinguistthereisnointrinsicrankamonglanguages.Peopleoncethoughtofthelanguagesofbackwardgroupsassavage,underdevelopedformsofspeech,consistinglargelyofgruntsandgroans.
Whileitispossiblethatlanguageingeneralbeganasaseriesofgruntsandgroans,itisafactestablished,bythestudyof“backward”languagesthatnospokentongueanswersthatdescriptiontoday.Mostlanguagesofuncivilizedgroupsare,byourmostseverestandards,extremelycomplex,delicate,andingeniouspiecesofmachineryforthetransferofideas.
TheyfallbehindourWesternlanguagesnotintheirsoundpatternsorgrammaticalstructures,whichusuallyarefullyadequateforalllanguageneeds,butonlyintheirvocabularies,whichreflecttheobjectsandactivitiesknowntotheirspeakers.
Eveninthisdepartment,however,twothingsaretobenoted:
1.Alllanguagesseemtopossessthemachineryforvocabularyexpansioneitherbyputtingtogetherwordsalreadyinexistenceorbyborrowingthemfromotherlanguagesandadaptingthemtotheirownsystem.
2.Theobjectsandactivitiesrequiringnamesanddistinctionsin“backward”languages,whiledifferentfromours,areoftensurprisinglynumerousandcomplicated.AWesternlanguageisdistinguishesmerelybetweentwodegreesofremoteness(“this”and“that”);somelanguagesoftheAmericanIndiansdistinguishbetweenwhatisclosetothespeaker,ortothepersonaddressed,orremovedfromboth,oroutofsight,orinthepast,orinthefuture.Thisstudyoflanguage,inturn,castsanewlightupontheclaimoftheanthropologiststhatallculturesaretobeviewedindependently,andwithoutideasofrank.
