Sapir, << suh PEER, >> Edward (1884-1939), was an American anthropologist and linguist who explored the relationships between language, culture, and personality. In anthropology, Sapir helped found two new branches of study: (1) linguistic anthropology, which analyzes the role of language in different societies, and (2) psychological anthropology, which examines the relationship between culture and personality. He also formulated methods by which scholars can reconstruct the history of a culture in the absence of written evidence. Sapir greatly influenced the modern anthropological concept of culture. This concept emphasizes patterns of acquired traits and the relationship between personality and culture.
In linguistics, Sapir contributed to the study of the structure and history of languages and to the analysis of the differences and similarities between languages. He pioneered several new fields of linguistics, including ethnolinguistics, which studies the relationship between language and culture, and psycholinguistics, which investigates the mental processes involved in language. Sapir’s writings include many articles and one full-length book, Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech (1921). Most of his descriptive studies of languages and cultures dealt with American Indians. Sapir is also known for his contribution to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis that he developed with his colleague and former student Benjamin Whorf. This hypothesis states that people’s language strongly influences the way in which they view the world around them.
Sapir was born on Jan. 26, 1884, in Lauenberg, Germany (now Lebork, Poland). He came to the United States with his family when he was 5 years old. He taught at several universities, including the University of Chicago and Yale University. He died on Feb. 4, 1939.
