Argonauts of the Western Pacific - Softcover

Bronislaw Malinowski

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0881330841 ISBN 13: 9780881330847

Publisher: Waveland Pr Inc, 1984

Synopsis

The founding document of economic anthropology! Bronislaw Malinowski, one of the all-time great anthropologists of the world, had a talent for bringing together in single comprehension the warm reality of human living with the cool abstractions of science. His pages have become an almost indispensable link between the knowing of exotic and remote people with theoretical knowledge about humankind. This volume--originally published in 1922--can be considered the founding document of economic anthropology, and remains the best one to read. It emphasizes the great significance of primitive economics by singling out the notable exchange system of the Trobriand Islands for special consideration. Although the main theme is economic, constant reference is made in this milestone of anthropological research and interpretation to social organization, life and meaning, the power of magic, and to mythology and folklore.

Title of related interest also available from Waveland Press: Malinowski, Magic, Science and Religion and Other Essays (ISBN 9780881336573.

About this title

About the Author:

Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942), Anglo-Polish anthropologist, was born in what was then Austrian Poland of a long line of Polish nobility and landed gentry. He was educated at the Polish University of Cracow, from which he received his doctorate in 1908 with the highest honors of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He also studied at the University of Leipzig and later went on to London, where from 1910 he was associated with the London School of Economics. From 1914 to 1918 Dr. Malinowski was a member of the Robert Mond Expedition to New Guinea and North Melanesia, and it was the research done on this expedition that was later published in Argonauts of the Western Pacific. In later years Dr. Malinowski taught at the University of London, at Cornell University, and at Yale University.

Review:

"Not only ethnographers and economists will delight in this book. The author's infinitely careful scientific method makes the material he has collected so completely trustworthy ... we commend it to all." --The Spectator

About this edition

• Publisher: Waveland Pr Inc
• Publication date: 1984
• ISBN 10: 0881330841
• ISBN 13: 9780881330847
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 527