Malinowski: Odyssey of an Anthropologist, 1884-1920 FROM THE PUBLISHER
"Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942) was one of the most colourful and charismatic social scientists of the twentieth century. His contributions as a founding father of social anthropology and his complex personality earned him international notoriety and near-mythical status. This book presents a portrait of Malinowski's early life, from his birth in Cracow to his departure from Australia in 1920. By the age of 36, Malinowski had already created the innovative fieldwork methods and techniques that would secure his intellectual legacy." Young draws on an array of primary documents, including Malinowski's letters and unpublished diaries and manuscripts, and presents new information on the anthropologist's personality, private life, and early career. He describes Malinowski's restless life of travel - some of it in the imaginary footsteps of his literary hero and compatriot, Joseph Conrad - from Cracow to the Mediterranean and the Canary Island, Leipzig, London, Warsaw, Zakopane, Ceylon, Australia, colonial Papua, and the Trobriand Islands. Young also explores Malinowski's complicated relationships with women and with some of the greatest scholars of his generation.
SYNOPSIS
One of the most colorful and charismatic social scientists of the twentieth century, Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942) is considered the founding father of social anthropology. Focusing on the first 35 years of Malinowski's life, this study draws upon his private papers to illuminate the relationship between his living, thinking, and writing. Coverage includes Malinowski's boyhood in Cracow, his complicated relationships with women, and his interactions with other scholars. Young teaches anthropology at the Australian National U., Canberra. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
Anthropologist Young was invited to write this biography by the youngest daughter of Bronislaw Malinowski, considered by many the father of social anthropology. Young traces Malinowski's life and work from his childhood in Poland to his departure from Australia in 1920 at age 36, following his legendary fieldwork in the Trobriand Islands and his marriage to Elsie Masson. He draws widely on Malinowski's diaries to reconstruct his inner self, emotional states, struggles with ill health, relations with his parents, love affairs, love for Elsie, strivings toward self-improvement, travels, and occasional racist ranting during fieldwork. Young also dips deeply into his subject's publications, fieldnotes, and letters to draw an amazingly detailed portrait of Malinowski at work-not to mention the intellectual climate of the times, the influence of Nietzsche, Conrad, Durkheim, and Sir James Frazer on Malinowski, and development in the field of anthropology. Malinowski emerges in all his complexity. An outstanding scholarly biography written in an eminently readable style, this is highly recommended for biography and anthropology collections.-Joan W. Gartland, Detroit P.L. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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