A Diary in the Strict Sense of the Term by Bronisław Malinowski

Living in the Stone Age is a call to write the history of colonialism differently, as a tale of weakness not strength. Thus, Rutherford shows, was born a colonialist ideology. Danilyn Rutherford shows how, to preserve their sense of racial superiority, these officials imagined that they were traveling in the Stone Age-a parallel reality where their own impotence was a reasonable response to otherworldly conditions rather than a sign of ignorance or weakness.

These officials became deeply dependent on the good graces of their would-be Papuan subjects, who were their hosts, guides, and, in some cases, friends. Why has this fantasy held such a tight grip on the imagination of journalists, policy-makers, and the public at large? Living in the Stone Age answers this question by following the adventures of officials sent to the New Guinea highlands in the 1930s to establish a foothold for Dutch colonialism. Kennedy referred to the Papuans as “living, as it were, in the Stone Age.” For the most part, politicians and scholars have since learned not to call people “primitive,” but when it comes to the Papuans, the Stone-Age stain persists and for decades has been used to justify denying their basic rights. In 1967, Clifford Geertz felt that the 'gross, tiresome' diary revealed Malinowski as 'a crabbed, self-preoccupied, hypochondriacal narcissist, whose fellow-feeling for the people he lived with was limited in the extreme.' But in 1988, Geertz referred to the diary as a 'backstage masterpiece of anthropology, our The Double Helix.' Similarly in 1987, James Clifford called it 'a crucial document for the history of anthropology.'ĭownload Living in the Stone Age Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

He kept it, he said, 'as a means of self-analysis.' Reviews ranged from 'it is to the discredit of all concerned that the diary has now been committed to print' to 'fascinating reading.' Twenty years have passed, and Raymond Firth suggests that the book has moved over to a more central place in the literature of anthropological reflection. Almost certainly never intended to be published, Malinowski's diary was intensely personal and brutally honest.

Many anthropologists felt that the publication of the diarywhich Raymond Firth describes as 'this revealing, egocentric, obsessional document'was a profound disservice to the memory of one of the giant figures in the history of anthropology. When it was first published (in 1967, posthumously), Bronislaw Malinowski's diary, covering the period of his fieldwork in 18 in New Guinea and the Trobriand Islands, set off a storm of controversy. Download A Diary in the Strict Sense of the Term Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

A Diary in the Strict Sense of the Term by Bronisław Malinowski