Review: Argonauts of the Western Pacific by Bronislaw Malinowski
Sept. 9th, 2011
ANTV315
Review: Argonauts of the Western Pacific by Bronislaw Malinowski Beginning an introduction with a plan concerning how the ethnographer will go about presenting his findings, conveys much validity, strength and conviction, especially doing so in a fashion similar to the scientific method so that there is opportunity to repeat the same exact procedure and more room to test or falsify one’s convictions, to say the least. Bronislaw Malinowski does this in such a way that devotes a detailed account of his experience and psychological insight including behavior, observations, surveys, sources, and statements from the natives he studied, to name a few. Malinowski does a good job in helping to understand his experience while speaking of his first assignment in Omarakana (Trobriand Islands) on the south coast of New Guinea by asking you to imagine yourself as an amateur ethnographer who just set foot on your own journey to learning about an exotic culture completely unfamiliar to you. He demonstrates that his introduction, communication and collection of data with a foreign culture are very difficult and definitely not meant for those who are shy or introverted (Page 4 of 65). Without the distraction and opinions of other ‘white men’ like himself, Malinowski grows more comfortable with the tribes-people and his surroundings in order to be able to better learn about them. It’s easy for me to agree with the statement that “an Ethnographer who sets out to study only religion, or only technology, or only social organization cuts out an artificial field for inquiry, and he will be seriously handicapped in his work” (page 10) because not just with the help of the author’s reasoning behind this, it seems common sense to me that one cannot truly comprehend or formulate answers to all of the questions concerning one area of a culture without studying the culture all together and being close with the natives for a long period of time so there is a
ANTV315
Review: Argonauts of the Western Pacific by Bronislaw Malinowski Beginning an introduction with a plan concerning how the ethnographer will go about presenting his findings, conveys much validity, strength and conviction, especially doing so in a fashion similar to the scientific method so that there is opportunity to repeat the same exact procedure and more room to test or falsify one’s convictions, to say the least. Bronislaw Malinowski does this in such a way that devotes a detailed account of his experience and psychological insight including behavior, observations, surveys, sources, and statements from the natives he studied, to name a few. Malinowski does a good job in helping to understand his experience while speaking of his first assignment in Omarakana (Trobriand Islands) on the south coast of New Guinea by asking you to imagine yourself as an amateur ethnographer who just set foot on your own journey to learning about an exotic culture completely unfamiliar to you. He demonstrates that his introduction, communication and collection of data with a foreign culture are very difficult and definitely not meant for those who are shy or introverted (Page 4 of 65). Without the distraction and opinions of other ‘white men’ like himself, Malinowski grows more comfortable with the tribes-people and his surroundings in order to be able to better learn about them. It’s easy for me to agree with the statement that “an Ethnographer who sets out to study only religion, or only technology, or only social organization cuts out an artificial field for inquiry, and he will be seriously handicapped in his work” (page 10) because not just with the help of the author’s reasoning behind this, it seems common sense to me that one cannot truly comprehend or formulate answers to all of the questions concerning one area of a culture without studying the culture all together and being close with the natives for a long period of time so there is a