Bibliography - MFEA - Malinowski Forum for Ethnography and Anthropology

Young, Michael W

What Did Malinowski Eat in Papua? Journal Article

Anthropology Now, 7 (2), pp. 37–46, 2015, ISSN: 1942-8200.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: work about Malinowski

Kubica, Grażyna

A flâneur and ethnographer in their home city: the Krakow of Bronisław Malinowski and Feliks Gross : remarks of a historian of anthropology Incollection

Rytíř z Komárova : k 70. narozeninám Petra Skalníka = Knight from Komárov : to Petr Skalník for his 70th birthday, pp. 81–92, AntropoWeb, Praha, 2015, ISBN: 978-80-905098-7-0.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: work about Malinowski

Schneider, Arnd

An anthropology of the sea voyage - Prolegomena to an epistemology of transoceanic travel Journal Article

Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal, 1 , pp. 31–52, 2015, ISSN: 2413-9181, 2413-9181.

Abstract | BibTeX | Tags: history, work about Malinowski

Mosko, Mark S

Cards on Kiriwina: Magic, Cosmology, and the ‘Divine Dividual’ in Trobriand Gambling Journal Article

Oceania, 84 (3), pp. 239–255, 2014, ISSN: 1834-4461.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Trobriand Islands

Pickles, Anthony J

Introduction: Gambling as Analytic in Melanesia Journal Article

Oceania, 84 (3), pp. 207–221, 2014, ISSN: 1834-4461.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Melanesia

Street, Alice

Biomedicine in an Unstable Place: Infrastructure and Personhood in a Papua New Guinean Hospital Book

Duke University Press, 2014, ISBN: 978-0-8223-7666-8, (Google-Books-ID: kOnpBQAAQBAJ).

Abstract | BibTeX | Tags: Oceania

Gijswijt-Hofstra, M; Studiecentrum, Afrika

Among the Mende in Sierra Leone: the letters from Sjoerd Hofstra (1934-36) Miscellaneous

2014.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Africa, history of anthropology, work about Malinowski

Kuper, Adam

Anthropology and anthropologists forty years on by Adam Kuper « Anthropology of this Century Miscellaneous

2014.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: history of anthropology

Holdsworth, Chris

Bronislaw Malinowski. In Oxford Bibliographies Book

2014.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: bibliography about Malinowski

Borš, Vanja

Bronisław Malinowski: Deus ex machina of anthropology Journal Article

Holon, 4 (1), pp. 97–113, 2014.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: work about Malinowski

Lipset, David

Savage Memory: How Do We Remember Our Dead? Directed by Zachary Stuart and Kelly Thomson (review) Journal Article

The Contemporary Pacific, 26 (2), pp. 583–585, 2014, ISSN: 1527-9464.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: movie review, work about Malinowski

Mosko, Mark S

Malinowski magical puzzles: Towards a new theory of magic and procreation in Trobriand society Journal Article

HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 4 (1), pp. 1–47, 2014, ISSN: 2049-1115.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: kinship, magic and religion, Trobriands, work about Malinowski

Liep, John

The Trobriandization of the Western World: Bronislaw Malinowski and the sexual revolution Journal Article

2014.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: history, work about Malinowski

Young, Michael W

Writing his Life through the Other: The Anthropology of Malinowski Book

2014.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: biography, work about Malinowski

Stewart, Michael

Mysteries reside in the humblest, everyday things: collaborative anthropology in the digital age Journal Article

Social Anthropology, 21 (3), pp. 305–321, 2013, ISSN: 1469-8676.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: ethnography

Skalník, Peter

Malinowski and Philosophy Book Chapter

Giri, Ananta Kumar; Clammer, John (Ed.): pp. 167-184, Anthem Press, 2013.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: Malinowski, philosophy

Selleck, R J W

Finding home : the Masson family Book

North Melbourne, Vic. Australian Scholarly Publishing Pty Ltd, 2013, ISBN: 978-1-921875-88-5.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: work about Masson

de la Torre, Sergio Jarillo

Carving the spirits of the wood: an enquiry into Trobriand materialisations PhD Thesis

University of Cambridge, 2013.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Trobriands

@phdthesis{torre_carving_2013,
title = {Carving the spirits of the wood: an enquiry into Trobriand materialisations},
author = {Sergio Jarillo de la Torre},
url = {https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/245193},
year = {2013},
date = {2013-01-01},
urldate = {2017-09-05},
school = {University of Cambridge},
abstract = {This thesis is a study of the role of material forms as mediators of cross-cultural encounters in the Trobriand Islands. It is based on eighteen months of ethnographic research in Kiriwina and other parts of the Massim region, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea. The dissertation analyses previously overlooked material expressions in the form of woodcarvings for sale (tokwalu) to outsiders. Throughout the thesis, I demonstrate how Trobrianders conceive tokwalu as symbolic and material tools for the apprehension of what is becoming an increasingly de-territorialised universe. Woodcarvings are deployed as instruments of indigenous analysis and native agency in an attempt to establish and control the local-translocal flows that shape social life in the Massim. Despite early contact and their ongoing engagement with the wider world, the Trobriand Islands are commonly portrayed as a place where cultural resilience and the continuity of traditional models of livelihood prevail over social change. Yet like elsewhere in Melanesia, Trobrianders face the transformations effected by dynamic processes of cultural, social and economic globalisation impinging upon their region. Overpopulation, food security issues and the partial collapse of traditional hierarchical structures have elicited the assemblage of new relational networks to negotiate these transformations. Tokwalu are not fixed signposts in a predefined system of meaning but changing materialisations of contrasting images and intentions within these networks. They bring together traditional symbols and modern elements in an effort to remain commensurate with what outsiders expect from local carvings and what local carvers expect from outsiders. Vehicles of desires and aspirations, woodcarvings project Trobriand personhood and appropriate alterity as an ideal, modern other. Ultimately, towkalu are empowering artefacts for locals. They allow them to buy food, get healthcare, obtain education, increase their social prestige, enhance their mobility and fulfil customary and new obligations. This research places this native view of tokwalu at its centre to posit the necessity of considering material assemblages as processes of indigenous analysis and action in Melanesia, without which our understanding of these processes remains severely curtailed.},
keywords = {Trobriands},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {phdthesis}
}

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This thesis is a study of the role of material forms as mediators of cross-cultural encounters in the Trobriand Islands. It is based on eighteen months of ethnographic research in Kiriwina and other parts of the Massim region, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea. The dissertation analyses previously overlooked material expressions in the form of woodcarvings for sale (tokwalu) to outsiders. Throughout the thesis, I demonstrate how Trobrianders conceive tokwalu as symbolic and material tools for the apprehension of what is becoming an increasingly de-territorialised universe. Woodcarvings are deployed as instruments of indigenous analysis and native agency in an attempt to establish and control the local-translocal flows that shape social life in the Massim. Despite early contact and their ongoing engagement with the wider world, the Trobriand Islands are commonly portrayed as a place where cultural resilience and the continuity of traditional models of livelihood prevail over social change. Yet like elsewhere in Melanesia, Trobrianders face the transformations effected by dynamic processes of cultural, social and economic globalisation impinging upon their region. Overpopulation, food security issues and the partial collapse of traditional hierarchical structures have elicited the assemblage of new relational networks to negotiate these transformations. Tokwalu are not fixed signposts in a predefined system of meaning but changing materialisations of contrasting images and intentions within these networks. They bring together traditional symbols and modern elements in an effort to remain commensurate with what outsiders expect from local carvings and what local carvers expect from outsiders. Vehicles of desires and aspirations, woodcarvings project Trobriand personhood and appropriate alterity as an ideal, modern other. Ultimately, towkalu are empowering artefacts for locals. They allow them to buy food, get healthcare, obtain education, increase their social prestige, enhance their mobility and fulfil customary and new obligations. This research places this native view of tokwalu at its centre to posit the necessity of considering material assemblages as processes of indigenous analysis and action in Melanesia, without which our understanding of these processes remains severely curtailed.

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Bolton, Lissant; Thomas, Nicholas; Adams, Julie; Bonshek, Elizabeth; Burt, Ben

Melanesia: Art and Encounter - Krisostomus Book

British Museum Press, 2013.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: material culture, Melanesia

Alvarez, Oscar Fernández

Malinowski and the New Humanism Journal Article

History of the Human Sciences, 26 (2), pp. 70–87, 2013, ISSN: 0952-6951.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: biography, history of anthropology, work about Malinowski, work about Masson

Engelking, Anna

Kazimierz Moszyński i Józef Obrębski: nauczyciel i uczeń Journal Article

Lud, (96), pp. 139–155, 2012, ISSN: 0076-1435.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: history of anthropology

@article{engelking_kazimierz_2012,
title = {Kazimierz Moszyński i Józef Obrębski: nauczyciel i uczeń},
author = {Anna Engelking},
url = {https://www.infona.pl//resource/bwmeta1.element.cejsh-d9332b85-4106-40a9-abdc-95ece50853cf},
issn = {0076-1435},
year = {2012},
date = {2012-01-01},
urldate = {2018-09-07},
journal = {Lud},
number = {96},
pages = {139--155},
abstract = {The article, based on archival sources, discusses the relations between Józef Obrębski and his first teacher, Kazimierz Moszyński. The author presents facts which describe their contacts in 1926-1936 and shows how Obrębski, who was considered Moszyński’s most able student, learnt study and research methods, the skills and tools of a field ethnographer, the foundations of ethnological thinking and intellectual freedom. Obrębski studied ethnography and ethnology in 1925-1929 at the School of Slavonic Studies of the Jagiellonian University. While a student of Moszyński, he was also his assistant who contributed to editorial work and who helped collect field materials. In 1927-1934 the teacher and his student explored the Balkans. In 1930 Obrębski was awarded his master’s degree on the basis of the thesis entitled Rolnictwo ludowe wschodniej części półwyspu Bałkańskiego [Folk agriculture in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula]. Some of Obrębski’s materials were subsequently included in the first volume of Moszyński’s Kultura ludowa Słowian [Folk culture of Slavs]. In 1930 Obrębski went to London where he was a student of Bronisław Malinowski at the London School of Economics; in January 1934 he was awarded his doctoral degree in social anthropology. He would not have been granted the scholarship to study in London had it not been for the efforts made by Moszyński – records reveal that Moszyński highly valued Obrębski and greatly helped him to pursue his scholarly career. Obrębski, in turn, although with time he became more reserved about Moszyński’s scientific position, never stopped to respect his master. In his later works, mainly in ethnosociological studies of the Polesie region, he drew from the achievements and inspirations of his former teacher. His subsequent scientific career developed and completed what he learnt from Moszyński.},
keywords = {history of anthropology},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

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Lepani, Katherine

Islands of love, islands of risk : culture and HIV in the Trobriands / Katherine Lepani Book

Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville, 2012, ISBN: 978-0-8265-1874-3 978-0-8265-1875-0.

BibTeX | Tags: Trobriands, work about Malinowski

Meger, Zbigniew

What binds Bronisław Malinowski with social networks? Journal Article

EduAction : Electronic Education Magazine, 3 (2), pp. 27–32, 2012, ISSN: 2081-870X.

Abstract | BibTeX | Tags: work about Malinowski

Corriveau, Louis

Game theory and the kula Journal Article

Rationality and Society, 24 (1), pp. 106–128, 2012, ISSN: 1043-4631.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: kula, work about Malinowski

Bartmanski, Dominik

How to become an iconic social thinker: The intellectual pursuits of Malinowski and Foucault Journal Article

European Journal of Social Theory, 15 (4), pp. 427–453, 2012, ISSN: 1368-4310.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: history of anthropology, work about Malinowski

@article{bartmanski_how_2012,
title = {How to become an iconic social thinker: The intellectual pursuits of Malinowski and Foucault},
author = {Dominik Bartmanski},
doi = {10.1177/1368431011423577},
issn = {1368-4310},
year = {2012},
date = {2012-01-01},
journal = {European Journal of Social Theory},
volume = {15},
number = {4},
pages = {427--453},
abstract = {The present article develops a new approach to intellectual history and sociology of knowledge. Its point of departure is to investigate the conditions under which social thinkers assume the iconic reputation. What does it take to become ‘a founding father’ of a humanistic discipline? How do social thinkers achieve the status of a trans-disciplinary star? Why some intellectuals attract tremendous attention and ‘go down in history’ despite personal and professional failures, while others enjoy only limited recognition or simply sink into oblivion, even if they have met all the standards of their day? Quite a few sociologists have tackled this elusive issue. Pierre Bourdieu, Michele Lamont and Randall Collins are among those who fleshed out strong explanatory frameworks. This project adds to this body of knowledge by emphasizing cultural factors that these authors downplayed in their seminal accounts, despite being aware of their significance. By showing why these underdeveloped aspects of their works need to be incorporated into the debate and how this can be achieved, this article introduces a new theorization of the iconic, lasting intellectual reputation substantiated by evidence from the lifeworks of Bronisław Malinowski and Michel Foucault. As such, it aims, minimally, to make sociology of knowledge decisively ‘cultural’. Maximally, it seeks to demonstrate that the iconic success of intellectual intervention in social theory depends on carefully performed and contingently mediated engagement with the binary systems of symbolic classification.},
keywords = {history of anthropology, work about Malinowski},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

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Larson, Frances

“Did He Ever Darn His Stockings?” Beatrice Blackwood and the Ethnographic Authority of Bronislaw Malinowski Journal Article

History and Anthropology, 22 (1), pp. 75–92, 2011, ISSN: 0275-7206.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: work about Malinowski

Pels, Peter

Global 'experts' and 'African' minds: Tanganyika anthropology as public and secret service, 1925-61 Journal Article

The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 17 (4), pp. 788–810, 2011, ISSN: 1359-0987.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: applied anthropology, history of anthropology, work about Malinowski

@article{pels_global_2011,
title = {Global 'experts' and 'African' minds: Tanganyika anthropology as public and secret service, 1925-61},
author = {Peter Pels},
doi = {10.2307/41350755},
issn = {1359-0987},
year = {2011},
date = {2011-01-01},
journal = {The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute},
volume = {17},
number = {4},
pages = {788--810},
abstract = {Whereas many historians of British anthropology worried themselves about the complicity of anthropologists with colonial rule, and have tried to demonstrate a fundamental contradiction and gap between academic anthropologists and colonial administrators, a study of the professionalization of anthropology in Tanganyika Territory between 1930 and i960 can show that the ethnographic tradition of Tanganyika indirect rule slowly attuned itself to classical academic anthropology, just as classical academic anthropology increasingly adopted the agenda of indirect rule. The setting up of a Government Sociology department by the Tanganyika government after 1945 epitomized this rapprochement, but also reveals another, rarely studied, type of tension between academics and administrators: their different attitudes towards publicity and secrecy, both in relation to the international critics of the British colonial empire, and in relation to the African audiences that administrators, more than anthropologists, had to reckon with. Nombreux sont les historiens de l'anthropologie britannique qui se sont inquiété de la complicité des anthropologues avec la domination coloniale et ont tenté de mettre en lumière une contradiction fondamentale entre anthropologues académiques et administrateurs coloniaux. Une étude portant sur la professionnalisation de l'anthropologie dans le Territoire du Tanganyika entre 1930 et i960 montre pourtant que la tradition ethnographique du gouvernement indirect au Tanganyika s'est progressivement alignée sur l'anthropologie académique classique, en même temps que celle-ci se saisissait de plus en plus des thèmes du gouvernement indirect. La mise en place d'un département de Sociologie gouvernementale par le gouvernement du Tanganyika après 1945 marque l'apogée de ce rapprochement mais révèle en même temps un autre type de tension, rarement étudié, entre chercheurs et administrateurs : une attitude différente vis-à-vis de la publicité et du secret, qu'il s'agisse des critiques internationales de l'empire colonial britannique ou des relations avec les cercles d'opinion africains avec lesquels les administrateurs, bien plus que les anthropologues, devaient composer.},
keywords = {applied anthropology, history of anthropology, work about Malinowski},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

Close

Whereas many historians of British anthropology worried themselves about the complicity of anthropologists with colonial rule, and have tried to demonstrate a fundamental contradiction and gap between academic anthropologists and colonial administrators, a study of the professionalization of anthropology in Tanganyika Territory between 1930 and i960 can show that the ethnographic tradition of Tanganyika indirect rule slowly attuned itself to classical academic anthropology, just as classical academic anthropology increasingly adopted the agenda of indirect rule. The setting up of a Government Sociology department by the Tanganyika government after 1945 epitomized this rapprochement, but also reveals another, rarely studied, type of tension between academics and administrators: their different attitudes towards publicity and secrecy, both in relation to the international critics of the British colonial empire, and in relation to the African audiences that administrators, more than anthropologists, had to reckon with. Nombreux sont les historiens de l'anthropologie britannique qui se sont inquiété de la complicité des anthropologues avec la domination coloniale et ont tenté de mettre en lumière une contradiction fondamentale entre anthropologues académiques et administrateurs coloniaux. Une étude portant sur la professionnalisation de l'anthropologie dans le Territoire du Tanganyika entre 1930 et i960 montre pourtant que la tradition ethnographique du gouvernement indirect au Tanganyika s'est progressivement alignée sur l'anthropologie académique classique, en même temps que celle-ci se saisissait de plus en plus des thèmes du gouvernement indirect. La mise en place d'un département de Sociologie gouvernementale par le gouvernement du Tanganyika après 1945 marque l'apogée de ce rapprochement mais révèle en même temps un autre type de tension, rarement étudié, entre chercheurs et administrateurs : une attitude différente vis-à-vis de la publicité et du secret, qu'il s'agisse des critiques internationales de l'empire colonial britannique ou des relations avec les cercles d'opinion africains avec lesquels les administrateurs, bien plus que les anthropologues, devaient composer.

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Schwaiger, Holger

Schenken Entwurf einer sozialen Morphologie aus Perspektive der Kommunikationstheorie Book

UVK-Verl.-Ges., Konstanz, 2011, ISBN: 978-3-86764-327-6.

BibTeX | Tags:

Liebersohn, Harry

The return of the gift : European history of a global idea / Harry Liebersohn Book

Cambridge University Press, New York, 2011, ISBN: 978-1-107-00218-0.

BibTeX | Tags: kula, work about Malinowski

Parisi, Rosa

Lo scheletro, la carne e il sangue: Malinowski e la magia dell'etnografo fra evocazioni, immagini e scrittura Book

Aracne, Roma, 2011, ISBN: 978-88-548-4569-5.

BibTeX | Tags: ethnography, work about Malinowski

Young, Michael W

Malinowski last word on the anthropological approach to language Journal Article

Pragmatics. International Pragmatics Association, 21 (1), pp. 1–22, 2011.

BibTeX | Tags: linguistics, work about Malinowski

Darrah, Allan C; Crain, Jay B

A Trobriand/Massim Bibliography. Seventh Edition Book

2011.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: bibliography, Trobriands

Beran, Harry

Do kula canoes of the Massim region of Papua New Guinea have a bow, a stern, and prowboards? Miscellaneous

2011.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: kula, material culture, New Guinea

Kuklick, Henrika

Personal Equations: Reflections on the History of Fieldwork, with Special Reference to Sociocultural Anthropology Journal Article

Isis, 102 (1), pp. 1–33, 2011, ISSN: 0021-1753.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: ethnography, work about Malinowski

Beran, Harry

The Iconography of the War Shields of the Trobriand Islands of Papua New Guinea: An Interpretation Recorded by Malinowski and Explained by Paramount Chief Pulayasi Journal Article

Pacific Arts. New Series, 11 (2), pp. 33–45, 2011.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: material culture, Trobriands

Barth, Fredrik; Gingrich, Andre; Parkin, Robert; Silverman, Sydel

One discipline, four ways: British, German, French, and American anthropology Book

University of Chicago Press, 2010.

BibTeX | Tags: history of anthropology

Matera, Marc

Colonial Subjects: Black Intellectuals and the Development of Colonial Studies in Britain Journal Article

Journal of British Studies, 49 (2), pp. 388–418, 2010, ISSN: 0021-9371.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: history of anthropology, work about Malinowski

Vonarx, Nicolas

De Bronislaw Malinowski à Virginia Henderson: révélation sur l'origine anthropologique d'un modèle de soins infirmiers Journal Article

Aporia The nursing Journal, 2 (4), pp. 19–28, 2010.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: applied anthropology, work about Malinowski

Martínez, Julia; Lowrie, Claire

Colonial Constructions of Masculinity: Transforming Aboriginal Australian Men into ‘Houseboys’ Journal Article

Gender & History, 21 (2), pp. 305–323, 2009, ISSN: 1468-0424.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: Australia, colonialism, history

Bell, Joshua A; Geismar, Haidy

Materialising Oceania: New ethnographies of things in Melanesia and Polynesia Journal Article

The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 20 (1), pp. 3–27, 2009, ISSN: 1757-6547.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: ethnography, Melanesia, Polynesia, work about Malinowski

Mosko, Mark S

The Fractal Yam: Botanical Imagery and Human Agency in the Trobriands Journal Article

The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 15 (4), pp. 679–700, 2009, ISSN: 1359-0987.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Trobriands, work about Malinowski

@article{mosko_fractal_2009,
title = {The Fractal Yam: Botanical Imagery and Human Agency in the Trobriands},
author = {Mark S Mosko},
doi = {10.2307/40541749},
issn = {1359-0987},
year = {2009},
date = {2009-01-01},
journal = {The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute},
volume = {15},
number = {4},
pages = {679--700},
abstract = {Anthropologists have long appreciated that animals are 'good to think'. In this essay I ponder whether plants might be good to think too, and particularly whether there is any sense in asking if plants (along with animals) might also be 'good to act'. The botanical metaphor of 'base', 'body', and 'tip' animates the origin structures of many if not most societies of the Austronesian world. Less attention has been directed at indigenous elaborations in other socio-cultural domains of the region. Based on recent fieldwork, I outline such ramifications in Trobriand culture, drawing upon the notions of fractal recursion and self-similarity from chaos theory wherein emergent 'tips' yield 'fruit' which become the condition or 'base' for further production and transformation. Accordingly, the base-body-tip-fruit metaphor serves as a cultural template or scenario for social action, shedding new interpretative light on many topics of long-standing anthropological interest (e. g. yam propagation, display, and exchange, kula, mortuary celebration, age categories, fame) as well as more recent theoretical interests. /// Les anthropologues ont compris il y a longtemps déjà que les animaux sont "bons à penser". Dans cet essai, l'auteur se demande si les plantes sont elles aussi bonnes à penser, et en particulier s'il vaut la peine de se demander si les plantes (comme les animaux) pourraient être "bonnes à agir". La métaphore botanique de "base", "corps" et "tête" anime les structures originelles de beaucoup de sociétés du monde austronésien, sinon toutes. On s'est moins intéressé aux élaborations indigènes de la région dans d'autres domaines socioculturels. Sur la base d'un récent travail de terrain, l'auteur retrace ces ramifications dans la culture trobriandaise, utilisant les notions de récursivité fractale et d'autosimilitude de la théorie du chaos, selon lesquelles les "têtes" donnent des "fruits" qui deviennent la condition ou "base" d'une nouvelle production et transformation. En conséquence, la métaphore base-corps-tête-fruit sert de modèle culturel ou de scénario d'action sociale, jetant un nouvel éclairage interprétatif sur de nombreux sujets qui intéressent depuis longtemps les anthropologues (tels que la propagation, la présentation et l'échange des ignames, la kula, les célébrations mortuaires, les classes d'âge, la renommée), mais aussi sur de nouvelles questions théoriques plus récentes.},
keywords = {Trobriands, work about Malinowski},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

Close

Anthropologists have long appreciated that animals are 'good to think'. In this essay I ponder whether plants might be good to think too, and particularly whether there is any sense in asking if plants (along with animals) might also be 'good to act'. The botanical metaphor of 'base', 'body', and 'tip' animates the origin structures of many if not most societies of the Austronesian world. Less attention has been directed at indigenous elaborations in other socio-cultural domains of the region. Based on recent fieldwork, I outline such ramifications in Trobriand culture, drawing upon the notions of fractal recursion and self-similarity from chaos theory wherein emergent 'tips' yield 'fruit' which become the condition or 'base' for further production and transformation. Accordingly, the base-body-tip-fruit metaphor serves as a cultural template or scenario for social action, shedding new interpretative light on many topics of long-standing anthropological interest (e. g. yam propagation, display, and exchange, kula, mortuary celebration, age categories, fame) as well as more recent theoretical interests. /// Les anthropologues ont compris il y a longtemps déjà que les animaux sont "bons à penser". Dans cet essai, l'auteur se demande si les plantes sont elles aussi bonnes à penser, et en particulier s'il vaut la peine de se demander si les plantes (comme les animaux) pourraient être "bonnes à agir". La métaphore botanique de "base", "corps" et "tête" anime les structures originelles de beaucoup de sociétés du monde austronésien, sinon toutes. On s'est moins intéressé aux élaborations indigènes de la région dans d'autres domaines socioculturels. Sur la base d'un récent travail de terrain, l'auteur retrace ces ramifications dans la culture trobriandaise, utilisant les notions de récursivité fractale et d'autosimilitude de la théorie du chaos, selon lesquelles les "têtes" donnent des "fruits" qui deviennent la condition ou "base" d'une nouvelle production et transformation. En conséquence, la métaphore base-corps-tête-fruit sert de modèle culturel ou de scénario d'action sociale, jetant un nouvel éclairage interprétatif sur de nombreux sujets qui intéressent depuis longtemps les anthropologues (tels que la propagation, la présentation et l'échange des ignames, la kula, les célébrations mortuaires, les classes d'âge, la renommée), mais aussi sur de nouvelles questions théoriques plus récentes.

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Mills, David

Difficult folk?: a political history of social anthropology Book

Berghahn Books, 2008.

BibTeX | Tags: history of anthropology