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:Alllanguagesseemtopossessthemachineryforvocabularyexpansioneitherbyputtingtogetherwordsalreadyinexistenceorbyborrowingthemfromotherlanguagesandadaptingthemtotheirownsystem.
Theobjectsandactivitiesrequiringnamesanddistinctionsin“backward”languages,whiledifferentfromours,areoftensurprisinglynumerousandcomplicated.AWesternlanguageisdistinguishesmerelybetweentwodegreesofremoteness(“this”and“that”);somelanguagesoftheAmericanIndiansdistinguishbetweenwhatisclosetothespeaker,ortothepersonaddressed,orremovedfromboth,oroutofsight,orinthepast,orinthefuture.Thisstudyoflanguage,inturn,castsanewlightupontheclaimoftheanthropologiststhatallculturesaretobeviewedindependently,andwithoutideasofrank.
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