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Bronislaw Malinowski

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Scientist

The Resume

    (April 7, 1884-May 16, 1942)
    Born in Krakow, Poland
    Anthropologist
    Studies natives of the Trobriand Islands of Papua New Guinea
    Wrote 'Argonauts of the Western Pacific' (1922) and 'Coral Gardens and Their Magic' (1935)

Why he might be annoying:

    He had no compunction about referring to the people he studied as 'savages' in his writing, including in book titles like 'Sex and Repression in Savage Society.'
    His explanation to a fellow anthropologist for not answering a letter promptly was, 'We supermen need not stick to any conventions.'
    He would have a research assistant dip a brush in a bucket of 'medicine,' then scrub him down while he lay naked except for a piece of cloth discreetly covering his genitals.
    When his diaries were posthumously published (1967), a reviewer wrote that he came off as 'a crabbed, self-preoccupied, hypochondrial narcissist whose fellow-feeling for the people he lived with was limited in the extreme.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    As a teacher, he was praised for his egalitarian attitude towards female students.
    He was one of the first anthropologists to live among the people he studied.
    He demonstrated that 'primitive' cultures were more complex and more diverse than previously believed.
    Folklorist James George Frazier compared his impact on ethnology to that of Shakespeare on literature.
    He wrote, 'The final goal is to grasp the native's point of view, his relation to life, to realize his vision of his world.'

Credit: C. Fishel


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Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying