X/736v6 ARGONAUTS OF THE WESTERN PACIFIC pelage 8边<4 tinea BRONISLAW MALINOWSKI PH. D,(Cracow), D Sc(London) 巴za WITH A PREFACE SIR JAMES GEORGE FRAZER, F B.A., F.R.S. WITH 5 MAPS, 65 ILLUSTRATIONS, AND 2 FIGURES LONDON routledge KEGAN PAUL ltd NEW YORK: E, P. dutton COMPANY, INC N1门NeNA2
MY FRIEND AND TEACHER PROFESSOR C.G. SELIGMAN, F.R.S. 226526 GEORGETOW UNIVERSTY LIBRARIES JUL17168 LONDON N w.Io
INTRODUCTION THE SUBJECT, METHOD AND SCOPE OF THIS CHE coastal populations of the South Sea Islands, with very few exceptions, are, or were before their extinction, expert gators and traders. Several of them had evolved excellent types of large sea-going canoes, and used to embark in them n distant trade expeditions or raids of war and conquest The Papuo-Melanesians, who inhabit the coast and the out lying islands of New Guinea, are no exception to this rule. In aring sailors, industrious man and keen traders. The manufacturing centres of important Eart erek miadwvineaol ast valued ornaments, are localised in several places, according to the skill of the inhabitants, their inherited tribal tradition und special facilities offered by the district; thence they are traded over wide areas, sometimes travelling more than hundreds of miles Definite forms of exchange along definite trade to be found established between the various tribes. A most tradition The native names and t heu nP on ghn this and the follow maps iil-v show tb remarkable form of intertribal trade is that obtaining between native names as ascertained by myself and phonetically spelled the Motu of Port Moresby and the tribes of the Papuan Gulf The Motu sail for hundreds of miles in heavy, unwieldy canoes, called lakatoi, hich are provided with the characteristic b-claw sails. They bring pottery and shell ornaments, in Iden days, stone blades, to fre obtain in exchange sago and the heavy dug-outs, which are sed afterwards by the Motu for the construction of their lakatoi canoes The hiri, as these expeditions are called in Motuan, have been described ealth of detail and clearness of outli man's " The Melanesians of British New Guinea, Car
SUBJECT, METHOD AND SCOPE SUBJECT, METHOD AND SCOPE Further East, on the South coast, there lives theindustrious, this cannot be done as rigorously, but every student will do a-faring population of the Mailu, who link the East End oi his best to bring home to the reader all the conditions in which trading expeditio inally, the natives of the islands graphy, where a candid account of such data is perhaps even and archipelagoes, scattered around the East End, are in constant trading relations with one another. We possess in bore necessary, it has unfortunately in the past not always been supplied with sufficient generosity, and many writers do Professor Seligman's book an excellent description of the not ply the full searchlight of methodic sincerity, as they move subject, especially of the nearer trades routes between the among their facts but produce them before us out of complete various islands inhabited by the Southern Massim t There abscurit exists, however, another, a very extensive and highly complex trading system, embracing with its ramifications, not only the I sientific hall-mark on them, in which wholesale generalisations islands near the East End, but also the Louisiades, Woodlark are laid down before us, and we are not informed at all by what Island, the Trobriand Archipelago, and the d'Entrecasteaux actual experiences the writers have reached their conclusion. oup: it penetrates into the mainland of New Guinea, and No special chapter or paragraph is devoted to describing to us xerts an indirect influence over several outlying districts, such as Rossel Island, and some parts of the Northern and the conditions under which observations were made and infor Southern coast of New Guinea. This tradin mation collected. I consider that only such ethnograph tem, the Kula, sources are of unquestionable scientific value, in which we can is the subiect I am setting out to describe m this volume, and clearly draw the line between, on the one hand, the results of it will be seen that it is an economic phenomenon of considera- direct observation and of native statements and interpretation ffe of those natives who live within its circuit, and its impor- common sense and psycholgical insight. Indeed, some such ambitions, desires and vanities are very much bound up with I this chapter)ought to be forthcoming, so that at a glance the the Kula II rsonal acquaintance with the facts which he describes, and Before proceeding to the account of the Kula, it will be well n idea under what conditions information had been to give a description of the methods used in the collecting of the ethnographic material. The results of scientific research Again, in historical science, no one could expect to be any branch of learning ought to be presented in a manner seriously treated if he made any mystery of his sources and absolutely candid and above board. No one would dream poke of the past as if he knew it by divination. In Ethno- of making an experimental contribution to physical or chemical I the same time, while his sources are no doubt easily accessible account of all the arrange- but also supremely elusive and complex they are not ments of the experiments; an exact description of the apparatus used: of the manner in which the observations were conducted bodied in fixed, material documents, but in the behaviour of their number; of the length of time devoted to them, and a nd in the memory of ting men.In Ethnography, the of the degree of approximation with which each measurement tance is often enormous between the brute material yas made. In less exact sciences, as in biology or geology, ailu, "by B. Malinowski of S. Australia, I915: Chapter iv, 4, pP. 612 to 629. ers and s t Op. cit. Chapter xl wes can visualise with pertect precision the conditions under which the work
SUBJECT, METHOD AND SCOPE SUBJECT, METHOD AND SCOPE information-as it is presented to the student in his own obser I came back duly, and soon gathered an audience around vations, in native statement, in the kaleidoscope of tribal life- me. A few compliments in pidgin-English on both sides,some and the final authoritative presentation of the results. The i tobacco changing hands, induced an atmosphere of mutual years between the moment when he sets foot upon a native begin with subjects which might arouse no suspicion, I started beach,and makes lis first attempts to get into touch with the to"do"technology. A few natives were engaged in manu- natives, and the time when he writes down the final version of facturing some object or other. It was easy to look at it and his results. A brief outline of an Ethnographer's tribulations, obtain the names of the tools, and even some technical expres as lived through by myself, may throw more light on the dons about the proceedings, but there the matter ended. It question, than any long abstract discussion could do must be borne in mind that pidgin- English is a very imperfect Instrument for expressing ones ideas, and that before one gets III a good training in framing questions and understanding answers Imagine yourself suddenly set down surrounded by one has the uncomfortable feeling that free communication in it with the natives will never be attain your gear, alone on a tropical beach close to a native village, un able to enter into any more detailed or explicit conversation while the launch or dinghy which has brought you sails away i with them at first. I knew well that the best remedy for this out of sight. Since you take up your abode in the compound of was to collect concrete data, and accordingly I took a village some neighbouring white man, trader or missionary, you have census, wrote down genealogies, drew up plans and collected nothing to do, but to start at once on your ethnographic work of kinship, But all this remained dead Imagine further that you are a beginner, without previous which led no further into the understanding of real native experience, with nothing to guide you and no one to help you.: mentality or behaviour. since I could neither procure For the white man is te temporarily absent, or else unable or i god native interpretation of any of these items, nor get unwilling to waste any of his time on you describes my first initiation into field work on the. this exactly what could be called the hang of tribal life. As to obtaining of New Guinea. I well remember the long visits i paid to the south coast their ideas about religion, and magic, their beliefs in sorcery villages during the first weeks; the feeling of hopelessness and and spirits, nothing was forthcoming except a few superficial despair after many obstinate but futile attempts had entirely it ems of folk-lore, mangled by being forced into pidgin English. failed to bring me into real Information which i received from some white residents in touch with the natives, or supplyi the district, valuable as it was in itself, was more discouraging me with any material. I had periods of despondency, when I i tl:all anything else with regard to my own work. Here were buried myself in the reading ot novels, as a man might take i men who had lived for years in the place with constant oppor to drink in a fit of tropical depression and boredom tunities of observing the natives and communicating with them magine yourself then, making your first entry into the and who yet hardly knew one thing about them really well village, alone or in company with your white cicerone. Some llow could I therefore in a few months or a year, hope to over- Others, the more dignified and elderly, remain seated wherethey, take and go beyond them l Moreover the manner in which my are. Your white companion has his routine way of treating the natives, and he neither understands, nor is very much concerned was, naturally, that of untrained minds, unaccustomed to formulate their thoughts with any degree of consistency and with the manner in which you, as an ethnographer, will have precision. And they were for the most part, naturally enough, to approach them. The first visit leaves you with a hopeful full of the biassed and pre- judged opinions inevitable in the feeling that when you return alone, things will be easier. Such was my hope at least average practical man, whether administrator, missionary,or trader, yet so strongly repulsive to a mind striving after the