ABSTRACT
It should be stated, first of all, that the role concept is not an invention of anthropologists or sociologists but is employed by the very people they study. No society exists which does not in this sense classify its population—into fathers, priests, servants, doctors, rich men, wise men, great men, and so forth, that is, in accordance with the jobs, offices or functions which individuals assume and the entitlements or responsibilities which fall to them; in short, every society gives such linguistic notice of the differential parts individuals are expected (or ‘briefed’) to play. What anthropologists and sociologists have done over and above recognizing the existence of this categorization has been to turn it into a special analytical tool.
