Human Challenge Sparknotes

The fieldwork of Annette Weiner in 1988 was different than that of Bronislaw Kasper Malinowski 60 years earlier. During that sixty year gap, there were a lot of changes and advances in anthropology. Malinowski was raised in a male dominant culture in Poland which influenced his view of the culture and the Trobriand Islands.

Annette Weiner's initial expectation of the tribes in the Trobriand Islands was to see a male dominated society, but she quickly found that the women of the islands would be her focus. Wiener had read and studied Malinowski's writings regarding the Trobriand Islands and since he was a highly regarded anthropologist she probably thought that the culture of the people would be exactly what Malinowski described. Things changed
Culture is learned, based on symbols, both integrated and dynamic. Weiner was able to show these characteristics in her studies of the Trobriand people. As an example is how culture is learned, Weiner talks about how the father is an active figure in his child's life and in the child's development. The father gives the child many resources that have been passed down through the previous generations of the family. This passing of culture from one generation to the next is how the culture shared. The symbols that are used in the Tolibrand culture are banana leaves and banana fiber skirts which represent wealth. The Trobriand culture is integrated, surviving for generations and holding on to its values of passing knowledge to the next generation, equipping them for survival and understanding everyone's function in their society. The father also enables the child to pass down their knowledge, strengthening the society and preserving its values.

Annette Wiener’s studies of the Trobriand women have changed the way anthropologists view women in a culture. Weiner was able to show the importance that women can hold in a culture's political and economic