Bronislaw Malinowski

Self proclaimed founder of functionalism

MALINOWSKI: THE MAN

Bronislaw Kaspar Malinowski: 7 April 1884-1942
Cracow, Poland
Father was a professor of Slavonic languages
1908: Ph. D in physics and mathematics
Down with TB; read James Frazers Golden Bough
Went to Leipzig and studied under K Bucher and
William Wundt evolutionists
To Britain in 1910 to study anthropology with
Edward Westermarck and C. G. Seligman at the
London School of Economics

MALINOWSKI: THE MAN

Received his D. Sc in 1916
he first lectured in 1913
became reader in social anthropology in 1923
professor in 1927
In 1939 he secured an appointment at Yale
University, determined to remain outside Europe for
the duration of World War II;
He died in New Haven

Malinowski: the man

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Very good field worker, scholar, theorist
Moreover a brilliant and controversial teacher
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Principal field work at Melanesia Papua of

Trobriand island; near New Guinea

Social Anthropologys founder in Britain

Central aim
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3 central themes
Aspects of culture cannot be studied in isolation

they must be understood in the context of their use;

One can never rely on the rules or an informants

description for the social reality; people always

say one thing and do another;

Central contribution

If one understands what is really being done,

and puts it in proper context, one will be forced
to recognise that the savage is also rational,
just like us, if not more; he is at least as
reasonable, manipulating the possibilities to his
advantage

Functionalist
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Scientific Theory of Culture gazg; function JA

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PAi JA jP: P jwAi PAiiVz;
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Culture
Culture is the assemblage of artefacts and

organised traditions through which the individual

is moulded and the organised social group
maintains its integration and achieves its
continuity
He also treated culture as an instrumental reality

and emphasised its deviation from human needs,

from the basic universal needs of the individual
organism to the highly elaborated and often
specialised needs of a complex society

Culture
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Culture
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I wanted to show that only a synthesis of facts

concerning sex can give a correct idea of what

sexual life means to a people - Malinowski

Functionalism
For Malinowski, functionalism was a research

tool; the prerequisite for field work and for the

comparative analysis of phenomena in various
cultures
The functional view of culture lays down the

principle that in every type of civilisation, every

customs, material object, idea and belief fulfils
some vital function, has some task to accomplish,
represents an indispensable part within working
whole

Example

Boat building
Magic
Economics
Beliefs: AidPvz
Rest: Psychological
functions

Religion and Magic

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jUtzg

Religion comes in to play when emotional

stresses threaten social solidarity

Anxiety and tension tend to disrupt social life;
crises of life such as birth, puberty, marriage and
death
Funeral ceremony expresses the belief in
immortality, which denies the fact of death and so
comforts the bereaved
At a funeral ceremony the social group unites to
support the bereaved. This expression of social
solidarity re-integrates society

Example - continued

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Example
But, cooperation was not an end in itself

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Whenever the native can evade his obligations without the

loss of prestige, or without the prospective loss of gain, he
does so, exactly as a civilised business man would do

Image of man
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AiU jAiP vAzg GAl iqzg,

d UjP gAv AiU
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His image of man

Down to earth, reasonable, rather unimaginative

perhaps, but able to discern his true long-term

interests
Primitive man recognises both the natural and the
supernatural forces and agencies, and he tries to
use them both for his benefit
He describes the horizontal integration of beliefs
and activities

Image of man
Malinowskis stand was simply that apparently

irrational beliefs and rites made sense when their

use was appreciated
Thus in his relation to nature and destiny,
whether he tries to exploit the first or dodge the
second, primitive man recognises both the natural
and the supernatural forces and agencies, and he
tries to use them both for his benefit
ifP, zszAv, svP MvqU
z n, PAiz.
PAi - ? to ritualise mans optimism, to enhance

his faith in the victory of hope over fear

Function
The family was to Malinowski, also basically a

means it domesticated sex and coped with care

and training of children
Family moulds the personality; it is the locus of
mans primary emotional attachments and the
nexus within which his primary social emotions
were formed
Familial emotions and loyalties were the
mainspring of self-interest, while the demands of
broader society were often in conflict with these
more natural claims

Culture
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(matrilineal)
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qAiwz U v zgAi
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q DwAi Azs PAq gwv
Ez, sAii Cg Fr PAP aAvU vgz
In the Trobriand islands boys resented not their

father for his sexual enjoyment of their mother,

but their mothers brother for his authority

Criticisms
Malinowskis emphasis was all on the individual

and his goals

Failure to treat beliefs, or kinship as systems in
themselves
Kinship and family: child grew up in an initial
situation: the child growing up in the supposedly
universal nuclear family, and gradually
generalising the sentiments for his parents on to
their kin until he had created afresh a whole
system of kin and clan. There was no allowance
for the system as a pre-existing structure which
the child learnt rather than created
Did not take outside influences, like influence of