Argonauts of the Western Pacific

About this book

In the Trobriand Islands, off the eastern tip of New Guinea, men sail dangerous ocean voyages in carved canoes to exchange two kinds of ornaments, long necklaces of red shell, which travel around a vast ring of islands in one direction, and white shell armbands, which travel in the other. These objects have no practical use, yet the Kula, as this exchange is called, governs friendships, status, magic and trade across the islands. Bronislaw Malinowski describes it in detail, together with canoe building, gardening, myths and spells.

Context and significance

Malinowski (1884–1942), born in Poland, spent years living among the Trobrianders during the First World War, and this book, published in 1922 with a preface by James Frazer, founded modern anthropology's method of fieldwork, trying to see a society from its own people's point of view. Read it with Durkheim's The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life.

About the author