Malinowski response paper ANTV 315 Essay, review, summary

Response Paper 1 

In Argonauts of the Western Pacific, Bronislaw Malinowski specifies that success within the field of ethnography can be found through practicing three principles: 1. having a scientific aim, 2. practicing within good conditions of work, and 3. applying several methods of collecting and interpreting scientific evidence. In each of these goals and the ethnography written through them, Malinowski's voice and style are revealed to his audience. Through the practice of these principles Malinowski was able to understand the functionalism of the Troboriand in a way that truly preceded the ethnography of his time.  

It is through Malinowski's stated scientific aim that the narrative conventions to be used in his study are revealed.  Summarily, the goal was "to grasp the native's point of view, his relation to life, and to realize his vision of his world." (25).  More specifically, this meant that the scientific aim as described by Malinowski was to 1. record the organization of the tribe and anatomy of its culture through clear, statistical documentation, 2. observe the "imponderabilia of actual life" through active participation and journaling, and 3. create a "corpus insciplionum" as a collection of narratives, utterences, folk-lore and magical formulare in order to document native mentality. Through the mixture of observation, documentation, and interpretation, Molinowski seeks to mix a neutral, concrete, and objectively scientific tone with a participatory, subjective, and more emotional tone.  

Through taking part in daily village life, Malinowski sought to create good conditions to work in. This example of participant observation allowed for him to experience his fieldwork in a different way, allowing him to alter his representational style. In respect to scientific field-work, Malinowski believed that survey work provides "an excellent skeleton, so to speak, of the tribal constitution, but it lacks flesh and blood." (17) and that the remedy to this is to "adopt the conditions" of the native people. By doing so phenomena unable to be recorded through interviews or documentation, which he called the "inporderabilia of actual life," was able to be observed. I think this approach most helped him in the understanding of foreign concepts such as magic and the Kula. 

Most important in taking part in village life was learning the local language; Malinowski felt that without free communication with the natives, concrete data would remain "dead material" which was unable to lead to further understanding of native mentality and behavior. According to Malinowski, the best ethnological writers have used verbatim statements in order to correlate institutions with culture of thought within a community, which is most effective when one knows the native language. He was able to make use of this in the learning of terms that related to all facets of life—whether it be about magic or sexual practices. 

In making certain to define and specify the various methods of collecting and interpreting scientific evidence, Malinowski was ensuring both himself and his audience that what he was practicing was "real science." By taking what may have been ideographic or metaphorical approaches to foreign topics and turning them into lists, tables, and diagrams, he was ensuring that his style wasn't seen as overly romantic when venturing into topics that were more sacred, private, and emotional. It almost seems as though he is defending himself while acknowledging that culture is not strictly scientific, but created when assuring the audience that his methods and data are "presented in a manner that is absolutely candid and above board" (Malinowski, 3). In these definitions, Malinowski creates an audience in both the scientific community and the common person, as he is both defending his scientific methods and explaining them. 

An example of this are found within chapters I through III of his book. Chapters I and II, through the use of maps and highly geographical language, seems to cater to the scientific side of his ethnography. As soon as he is finished with this chapter, chapter III begins with him asking you to imagine the landscape through descriptives and personal narrative.  

One method of collecting scientific evidence that he mentioned was the collection of concrete facts in order to transform the data into a chart, diagram, or table. Malinowski called this "The method of statistic documentation by concrete evidence". Examples include tables or lists of kinship terms, genealogical tables, economic transactions in synoptic charts, a table of customary gifts, genealogical census, maps, plans and diagrams of ownership of land, etc. 

 Malinowski also urged the ethnographer to keep a journal, and furthermore to write things down as soon as they were noticed so that the novel occurrence does not become familiar and unnoticed. He described how writing down results could further lead to deficiencies and revelations about the material at hand, "Such cross-fertilization of constructive work and observation, I found most valuable, and I do not think I could have made real headway without it" (13). Malinowski's third commandment of field-work dictates that one must formulate results of a community's opinions, morals, and typical ways of thinking and feeling in the most convincing manner, which he believes is best done through verbatim quotes from the community. These come together to form a "corpus inscripionum," which documents the native mentality.