The Writing of Argonauts of the Western Pacific. Bronislaw Malinowski in Icod de los Vinos, Tenerife, Canary Islands

Abstract

Upon his return from Melanesia, Bronis?aw Malinowski wrote his famous work Argonauts of the Western Pacific during a stay in the north of Tenerife in the Canary Islands (Finca Boquín, Icod de los Vinos) between 1920 and 1921. In it, he attempts to capture the results of his research in the Trobriand Islands (Papua New Guinea), laying the foundations for what would become the classic methodology of anthropology, formalising the criteria for ethnographic research and intensive fieldwork. However, little was known about the details of this stay and his theoretical and editorial musings, which will be unravelled here by one of his main biographers based on his letters to Frazer. This lecture, given by anthropologist Michael Young in 2023 for the London School of Economics on the centenary of the writing and publication of Argonauts of the Western Pacific, is a valuable contribution to the social sciences. Other aspects of interest in this work are also addressed, such as the ideas that may have been present in the meaning of kula and its principles of reciprocity. Finally, a graphic appendix attempts to document the protagonists and the place of writing of this key work in the history of anthropology.