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

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.

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.

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

Marriage is simply an economic necessity, and so there are no elaborate courtship displays or marriage celebrations among the Eskimo.

Despite the theories traditionally taught in high-school social studies, the truth is: the more primitive the society, the more leisured its way of life.