The Psychology of Culture

For anyone either studying anthropology or harboring an independent interest in it, the foundational work of Edward Sapir is not to be missed; though his notoriety and influence were gradually obscured by the more copious contributions of Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict, the thoughts and themes he chose to ponder remain eerily relevant and uniquely nuanced to this day. There was someting intellectually vibrant about this text that won me over instantly. If you're fond of conceptually rich, deeply reasoned and fluidly explored experiments of thought, Sapir's lectures are definitely something of a revelation. My only qualm with the book is that the reconstructed portions filled in by the editor are bracketed in a way that I found really distracting. Still, very much worth a look.