author
Ralph Linton
1893–1953
A leading American anthropologist of the mid-20th century, he helped make big ideas about culture and society easier to grasp. He is especially remembered for influential books like The Study of Man and for shaping how scholars talk about status and role.
1 Audiobook
Use of tobacco among North American Indians
by Ralph Linton
About the author
Born in Philadelphia in 1893, Ralph Linton became one of the best-known American anthropologists of his era. He studied at Swarthmore College, earned a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and later completed a Ph.D. at Harvard. Early in his career, he took part in archaeological work in the American Southwest and Guatemala, experiences that helped launch his lifelong interest in human cultures.
Linton taught at the University of Wisconsin, Columbia University, and later Yale, where he served as Sterling Professor of Anthropology. His writing reached both scholars and general readers, and he became especially known for explaining culture in clear, memorable terms.
Among his most influential ideas was the distinction between status and role, a pair of concepts that became central well beyond anthropology. His best-known books include The Study of Man (1936), and he is also remembered for The Tree of Culture, published after his death in 1955. He died in 1953, leaving a lasting mark on cultural anthropology.