Food to a large extent is what holds a society together, and eating is closely linked to deep spiritual experiences.

Gestures and facial expressions do indeed communicate, as anyone can prove by turning off the sound on a television set and asking watchers to characterize the speakers from the picture alone.

People who speak the same language can hate one another as easily as can people who speak unrelated languages.

Speakers who have grown up in the American community unconsciously know its rules about taking turns in conversations-in the same way that they know the rules of grammar and the rules about appropriate speech in various situations.

The dictionary is a closed system in which someone interested in the meaning of a word can go around and around and end up exactly where he started, simply because words are defined in terms of other words, and these, in turn, are defined in terms of still other words.

An invention or new combination can be successful only if all if the elements necessary for the recombination are present in the culture.

The environment does not determine man's culture; it merely sets the outer limits and at the same time offers opportunities.