Ralph Linton was born on February 27, 1893 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Isaiah Waterman Linton and Mary Elizabeth Gillingham. His father owned a chain of restaurants and both his parents were Quakers. He gained his secondary education at Friends High School and went on to attend Swarthmore College in 1911 where he received his BA degree in 1915 where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa. He spent the next few years alternating between his studies and archeological trips to Guatemala and to the Southwest. He earned his Masters degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1916 and earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1925.
He taught in Hawaii, at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, the University of Wisconsin, and at Columbia University. While at Columbia, he enlisted in the 42 Division and served in France during WWI. He left the Army as a liaison corporal. After the war, Linton returned to the US and married Margaret McIntosh. They had one child. He then spent the next two and a half years in Madagascar and in East Africa. He published his accounts in the Atlantic Monthly. A book also resulted from his studies in Madagascar entitled The Tanala: a Hill Tribe of Madagascar.
Linton started his teaching career at the University of Wisconsin in 1928. in 1934 Linton's marriage failed and in 1935, he married Adelin Sumner Briggs. In 1936, he wrote a book called The Study of Mans which he regards as his "magnum opus." In 1937 he taught at Columbia University and stayed there until 1946. While at Columbia he became interested in the study of personality and culture.
During WWll Linton taught at Columbia's School of Military Government and Administration. The purpose of the school was to provide future military administrators with some education about culture. While there, he published The Cultural Background of Personality. He disagreed with one of his colleagues Dri Abram Kardiner, and decided to leave Columbia.
In 1946, Linton took an opportunity to become Sterling Professor of Anthropology at Yale University. In the same year, he was also the President of the American Anthropological Association. While at Yale, Linton became a serious collector of African art. Yale was going to display his art collection, but he missed this event by about three months. Ralph Linton succumbed to a heart attack on Christmas Eve of l953.
Ralph Linton was working on a book of great anthropological scope at the time of his death. The lectures he gave while at Yale were the basis for this book. Several year's worth of lectures were transcribed. He was nearly two thirds finished at the time of his death in 1953 and he made sure his wife would be able to finish his book in case of his death. His wife, Adelin Linton, did finish his book, The Tree of Culture (1955).
Ralph Linton was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and in 19391944 was the editor of the American Anthropologist.
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Written by Ryan Peck
Edited by: David Gardner 2007