Editing Talcott Parsons (section)

===Center of Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences===
Parsons spent 1957 to 1958 at the Center of Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in [[Palo Alto, California]], where he met for the first time [[Kenneth Burke]]; Burke's flamboyant, explosive temperament made a great impression on Parsons, and the two men became close friends.<ref>Keith Doubt, "The Untold Friendship of Kenneth Burke and Talcott Parsons." ''The Social Science Journal'' Vol.34. No.4. 1997. pp. 527–537.</ref> Parsons explained in a letter the impression Burke had left on him: "The big thing to me is that Burke more than anyone else has helped me to fill a major gap in my own theoretical interests, in the field of the analysis of expressive symbolism."

Another scholar whom Parsons met at the Center of Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences at Palo Alto was [[Alfred L. Kroeber]], the "dean of American anthropologists". Kroeber, who had received his PhD at Columbia and who had worked with the [[Arapaho Indians]], was about 81 when Parsons met him. Parsons had the greatest admiration for Kroeber and called him "my favorite elder statesman".

In Palo Alto, Kroeber suggested to Parsons that they write a joint statement to clarify the distinction between cultural and social systems, then the subject of endless debates. In October 1958, Parsons and Kroeber published their joint statement in a short article, "The Concept of Culture and the Social System", which became highly influential.<ref>Alfred L. Kroeber and Talcott Parsons, "The Concept of Culture and the Social System." ''American Sociological Review,'' Vol.23. No.5. 1958. pp. 582–583.</ref> Parsons and Kroeber declared that it is important both to keep a clear distinction between the two concepts and to avoid a methodology by which either would be reduced to the other.