Edward Sapir was a linguist dedicated to the investigation of the languages of native North America. Sapir played a major role in the formulation of the "culture and personality" field, and was recognized for his work in linguistics and its formal application to culture. Edward Sapir was born in 1884 in Lauenburg, Germany to Eva Seagal and Jacob David Sapir. The family moved to the United States when Sapir was five, and he grew up in New York City. Sapir received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from Columbia University, where he studied with Franz Boas. His studies led to a fascination with the Amerindian languages and their grammars, and he helped Boas to record these languages before they became extinct. His fieldwork included an analysis of the languages of the Chinook, Takelma, Yana, Ute and Southern Paiute. In 1910, Sapir was made the director of the anthropological...