Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922), a cultural anthropology monograph by Bronislaw Malinowski, concerns his adventures in the archipelagoes of what was then assigned as "Melanesian New Guinea," which is today known as the Kiriwana island chain, upper east of New Guinea. The work centers around the trade practices and cultural customs of the Trobriand people on the archipelago. Malinowski's anthropological perceptions are considered essential to the modern field of ethnography; his work is viewed as the first field study. Argonauts of the Western Pacific is the first in a trilogy on the Trobriand individuals. It was trailed by The Sexual Life of Savages in North-Western Melanesia in 1929 and Coral Gardens and Their Magic in 1935.
Malinowski starts his monograph with an announcement of his aim to reclassify how anthropological research is led and how its discoveries are transmitted to the world. He credits Joseph Conrad, the modernist writer of the neocolonialist novella Heart of Darkness, among others, for moving him to contemplate how knowledge can be acquired from remote districts of the world.
Malinowski views himself as an onlooker more than any other role. He directs circumspect research on the Trobriand Island primarily by contrasting its traditions with those of Western human civilization, an ideological heritage that illuminates his own life and suspicions. Not at all like numerous ethnographic "scientists" of advancement, has Malinowski effectively abstained from making sweeping speculations about his objects of study. He centers particularly on Kula, the Trobriand individuals' unpredictable set of trade exercises.
Following a while on the archipelago, Malinowski sees that the Trobriand islanders circle two sorts of jewelry – bracelets produced using white shells and necklaces produced using red shells – as social monetary standards. The necklaces and bracelets each travel through the islands in specific routes. Despite the fact that they hold no financial worth and are, subsequently, not traded for exchange products, they are profoundly prized and increment their holder's social capital. Simultaneously, they are promptly parted with as tokens of positive attitude between clans. The exchange of the necklaces and bracelets occurs during enormous exchanging events sorted out by village chiefs. These occasions are flighty, consolidating shamanic ceremonies and spells which the Trobriand individuals accept assistance manage the boats that shift merchandise between islands.
Malinowski contacts likewise on the natives' farming traditions, the contrasts between the jobs and standards of people, and the construction of Trobriand canoes and tools. He utilizes his examination to tissue out his meaning of a social framework as a series of activities with practical functions. This definition varies from those of preceding ethnographers, who typically made logical deliberations that they could endorse conventionally to their perceptions. For instance, Malinowski starts with a perception that the Trobriand individuals ritualize new trade expeditions by making canoes. As they manufacture the canoes, they participate in a verbal shamanic custom of spell casting. These spells, thus, are attached to profound social myths, which are associated with every other part of life, from their convictions about tribal administration to their meanings of family roles.
Malinowski gives social frameworks a role as exceptionally intricate and related. Indeed, even in the human advancements that appear to be most primitive to an edified Western onlooker, their economies connect in incalculable ways with powers, for example, conviction and societal position. The book is an investigation into human instinct as much as it is a deeply particular ethnographic examination.
