A Scientific Theory of Culture and Other Essays
Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1944. First Edition. Octavo; x, 228pp. A Fine copy in publisher's blue cloth, spine green-titled, in Near Fine (faint edgewear) dust jacket. Item #23432
Bronislaw Malinowski (1884–1942), one of the founders of modern social anthropology, revolutionized the discipline through his intensive fieldwork among the Trobriand Islanders of Melanesia and his insistence that cultures be understood through direct observation and through the functions performed by their institutions. Published posthumously two years after his death, this work brings together three major groups of writings: “A Scientific Theory of Culture,” in which Malinowski develops a systematic theory of culture based upon the satisfaction of human needs; “The Functional Theory,” a further formulation of his anthropological method; and “Sir James George Frazer,” his appreciation and critical assessment of the great Victorian anthropologist.
Price: $75.00