acculturation

basic personality

Linton's axe

microsociology

speciality

nationality

American

occupation / innovator as

anthropologist

university professor

Columbia University

Yale University

University of Wisconsin at Madison

scientific organization

American Academy of Arts and Sciences

sociologist

American Association for the Advancement of Science

Phi Beta Kappa Society

innovator in the field of

cultural anthropology

National Academy of Sciences

is on our radar. Try again later or consider contributing!

is an axiom used to show the ever-changing relations between form, use, meaning, and function. Following this axiom, the same ax becomes a markedly different object when it is engaged in the act of cutting wood, decapitation, war, or serving as a prop in a ritual.

LINTON'S AXE: USE, MEANING, FUNCTION (1) USED TO CUT WOOD (2) FUNCTIONS TO PROVIDE FUEL (3) MEANING USE + FUNCTION An axe, for example, following Linton's formulation, has to the group employing it form, use, meaning, and, ultimately, function. (the study of man 402-19) Even if form may remain constant, use and meaning, as well as function, may vary. An axe is used to cut wood, it functions to produce fuel, its meaning is associated with its use and function. But when an axe is brandished in a dance, used for decapitation, or in war, its use and function may change. It may, in short, come to be associated with quite different institutions than that of the economic business of woodgetting. (spencer 1965: 3)

is the idea that one can't learn weaving from a soldier. That is, a single culture involves different mastery as well as shared universal traits.

can't learn weaving from a soldier the fact that no one person can master everything in one's culture, but there are some universal traits, some alternative sets of adherence, and some specialities.(jib)

Ralph Linton

Authors(0)

Ralph LintonThinkers

Ralph Linton