A complex society is not necessarily more advanced than a simple one; it has just adapted to conditions in a more complicated way.

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.

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

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

In place of science, the Eskimo has only magic to bridge the gap between what he can understand and what is not known. Without magic, his life would be one long panic.

No child is capable of speech until he has heard other human beings speak, and even two infants reared together cannot develop a language from scratch.

At every moment of his life the Shoshone must be careful to observe the complicated folkways of his group, to do reverence to superhuman powers, to remember the courtesies and obligations of family, to pay homage to certain sacred plants, or to avoid particular places.