RALPH LINTON. The Tree of Culture. Pp. xiv, 692, xvi. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1955. $5.75
| Published date | 01 July 1955 |
| Author | Cora Dubois |
| Date | 01 July 1955 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271625530000151 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
157
those
who
undermined
what
the
author
considers
&dquo;Malthusianism&dquo;
numerous
per-
sons
who
considered
themselves
Malthus-
ians
and
were
so
considered
by
their
con-
temporaries ;
in
some
cases
they
are
dubbed
even
by
our
author
as
&dquo;Malthusians
with
a
difference.&dquo;
These
include
such
names
as
Place,
the
Mills,
Ricardo,
Senior,
and
others.
What
Malthus
persisted
in
from
first
to
last
was
his
central
contention
that
poverty
is
inevitable
unless
the
poor
restrict
their
multiplication.
He
did
not
contend
that
all
the
poor
were
hopelessly
imprudent;
he
was
one
of
the
first
to
suggest
that
a
higher
standard
of
living
encouraged
prudence.
To
contend
that
he
held
that
nothing
could
be
done
to
alleviate
poverty
is
to
set
up
something
of
a
bogeyman.
His
central
con-
tention
was
admitted
by
nearly
all
his
op-
ponents.
It
is
clearly
a
truth
of
first-rate
social
significance
as
-the
workers
of
the
West
have
at
long
last
learned,
and
as
the
hungry
generations
of
the
Orient
are
now
beginning
to
understand.
Finally,
it
may
well
be
doubted
whether
or
not
the
often
fierce
contentions
of
the
critics
had
much
to
do
with
the
decline
of
Malthus’
authority.
If
that
were
true,
how
would
one
account
for
his
present
revival?
Far
more
important
were
the
great
tech-
nological
advances,
the
vast
increase
in
trade,
the
abundant
food
from
America,
and
the
obvious
improvement
in
the
con-
ditions
of
the
working
class.
Far
from
&dquo;the
Malthusian
minority&dquo;
dwindling
&dquo;into
its
present
obscurity&dquo;
(p.
174),
it
now
stretches
around
the
globe
and
finds
in
Malthus
one
of
the
major
prophets
of
all
time.
FRANK
H.
HANKINS
Smith
College
RALPH
LINTON.
The
Tree
of
Culture.
Pp.
xiv,
692,
xvi.
New
York:
Alfred
A.
Knopf,
1955.
$5.75.
This
posthumously
published
book
is
based
in
part
on
lectures
delivered
by
Linton
as
Sterling
Professor
at
Yale.
The
final
processing
of
the
volume
was
done
by
Mrs.
Linton
who
states
in
the
Preface
that
the
title
refers,
not
to
familiar
evolutionary
tree,
but
to
the
banyan
&dquo;whose
branches
cross
and
fuse
and
send
down
adventitious
aerial
roots
which
turn
into
supporting
trunks.
Although
the
banyan
tree
spreads
and
grows
until
it
becomes
a
miniature
jungle,
it
remains
a
single
plant
and
its
various
branches
are
traceable
to
the
parent
trunk.
So
cultural
evolution,
in
spite
of
diffusion
and
borrowing
and
divergent
de-
velopment,
can
be
traced
to
prehistoric
origins.&dquo;
This
statement
sets
clearly
the
mood
and
scope
of
the
volume.
It
is
the
mixture
of
geographically
defined
culture
areas,
of
sci-
entific
conceptualization,
and
of
historical
specificity
that
characterizes
much
of
anthropological
thought
in
the
last
fifty
years.
It
is,
in
other
words,
a
mature
anthropologist’s
view
of
world
cultures.
Historical
reconstruction
as
well
as
actual
history,
archaeology,
and
ethnography
are
blended
in
synoptic
sketches
of
six
major
culture
areas:
Southeast
Asia
including
Oceania;
Southwest
Asia
including
the
Semitic
cultural
florescence,
and
Neolithic
Europe;
the
Mediterranean
complex
in-
cluding
Islam;
Africa
in
its
prehistoric,
Egyptian
and
indigenous
contemporary
civilization;
the
Orient
meaning
India,
China
and Japan;
and
finally
the
New
World
of
both
tribal
and
high
cultures.
The
scope
is
frankly
as
pretentious
as
anthropology
and
world
history.
It
belongs
with
Kroeber’s
Anthropology
although
its
presentation
is
less
scholarly,
and
its
topi-
cal
coverage
is
less
complete.
To
the
re-
viewer
the
richest
aspects
of
the
book
are
Part
II:
Evolutionary
Processes
and
Part
III:
Basic
Inventions.
These
150
pages
are
not
only
masterly
in
their
selective
con-
densation,
but
are
by
that
very
fact
crea-
tively
elucidating.
This
is
not
a
thought-provoking
volume
for
the
professional,
but
rather
suggests
it-
self
as
a
text
for
a course
on
world
ethnography.
Also,
the
non-anthropologist
who
wants
a
lucid
survey
of
how
the
pro-
fessional
organizes
cultural
data
in
his-
torico-geographic
terms
will
have
here
an
instructive,
poised,
and
knowledgeable
pres-
entation.
He
will
also find
the
necessary
maps,
illustrations,
and
index
as
well
as
a
carefully
selected
guide
to
further
reading.
This
is
a
good
book,
but
it
does
not
rank
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