Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea, Enhanced Edition - Softcover

Bronislaw Malinowski

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1478602090 ISBN 13: 9781478602095

Publisher: Waveland Press, Inc., 2013

Synopsis

Bronislaw Malinowski, one of the all-time great anthropologists, 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 and theoretical knowledge about humankind.

This classic volume first 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 to social organization, life and meaning, the power of magic, and mythology and folklore.

Following Malinowski, we are soon "paddling on the lagoon, watching the natives under the blazing sun at their garden work, following them through the patches of jungle. And on the winding beaches and reefs, we shall learn about their life." The life we learn about is both Trobriand life in New Guinea as well as life of common humanity.

For the last three decades, Waveland Press has proudly made Malinowski's most famous ethnography available for modern-day students and readers at a reasonable price. The handsome 2013 Enhanced Edition of this milestone of anthropological research and interpretation has been visually enriched by the digital enhancement of 80 historic photographs and maps.

Titles of related interest from Waveland Press: Bohannan-van der Elst, Asking and Listening: Ethnography as Personal Adaptation (ISBN 9780881339871) and 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:

"Thank you for this. The new digital reproductions are indeed important and affective because the photo plates are so integral to Malinowski's ethnographic analysis. I teach this book every year and know that next fall's students will appreciate the improvement." --William W. Kelly, Yale University

"This is a classic piece and one of the most important ethnographies ever written. Your paperback edition was well crafted and particularly fine for students that are being first exposed to the discipline." --Juan J. Gutierrez, California State University, Monterey Bay

About this edition

• Publisher: Waveland Press, Inc.
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1478602090
• ISBN 13: 9781478602095
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 527