The Tree of Culture [VINTAGE 1955] [FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING]

Linton, Dr. Ralph

Published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1955

About this Item

Fine condition red cloth boards with black front cover illustration, gold front cover lettering, and gold spine lettering contained within black border decorations. Includes Preface by Adelin Linton, New Haven Connecticut, June 1954; List of Maps; Conclusion; Bibliography and Index. Also includes a tipped-into-the-volume accompanying vintage two page mimeographed outline/study guide questions entitled "Looking at a Culture." Illustrated with black-and-white drawings, maps, black-and-white plate drawing, and a black-and-white frontispiece plate drawing. A vintage former owner name and address is neatly printed in small letters at the upper section of the blank first free front endpaper. "Dr. Ralph Linton devoted four years of the spare time salvaged from a busy life in the writing of this book. However, the concepts were evolved and the data accumulated during forty years of work in the varied fields of anthropology: archeology, ethnology, and studies in anthropological theory and personality and culture. This book is an attempt to synthesize the experience, the reading and thinking of a lifetime into one volume which traces the evolution of culture from its multiple beginnings at the sub-human level through its divergent lines of development. The purpose of the book was to make a factual presentation of the most significant data now available. This was a project which required not only broad knowledge but considerable temerity. Anthropological data has been accumulating with such amazing speed in recent years that few scientists venture to deal with the material except as specialists in particular areas or periods. However, Dr. Linton felt that the vast body of information which is available should make possible differentation of the main divergent lines of cultural development and the assignment of culture elements to their points of origin. This could be accomplished only by a wide over-all presentation, which precludes definitive treatment of the many eras and areas covered. Dr. Linton felt that it was important to assemble this material in compact and intelligible order . This book is not history in the usual sense. In an agricultural society (and most societies were agricultural until a few hundred years ago, and a large proportion of them still are), the invention of a new type of plow is of much more importance than a victory on the battlefield. To a historian it may seem strange that more space is allotted to the Australian aborigines than to the Roman Empire, but to the anthropologist the Australians represent a laboratory where one can see the operation of many elements of culture which otherwise can be surmised only from archeological findings. However, the religion, the social organization, the focus of interest of culture do affect the lives of all the people in the society, and an attempt has been made to show how such elements and processes grow and what has determined the characteristics of the great civilizations of the world ." - excerpt from the Preface.

Seller Inventory # 008017

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Tree of Culture [VINTAGE 1955] [FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING]
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, New York
• Publication Date: 1955
• Language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: Fine