Bronislaw Malinowski was one of the pioneering anthropologists of the 20th centu

Question

Bronislaw Malinowski was one of the pioneering anthropologists of the 20th century. A generation of anthropologists looked up to him as the father of positivist anthropology. He championed participant observation as the only way to get into the mind of the "savage." When his diaries were released, it shattered a myth of anthropology- that of the unbiased researcher. How did Malinowski's upbringing, his culture, affect his fieldwork? How did his private diaries function in that fieldwork? How do you think you'd react if thrust into another culture? Or have you been? Do you think you could be an unbiased observer?

Explanation / Answer

Solution::
Bronislaw Malinowski was known for his innovative nature of examining the everyday life of his subjects along with them which gave his studies a very unbaised nature as he analysed his observation in a very detailed way giving importance not only to his informants but also to their lifestyle. His method of inculcating the cultural analysis has produced integrated descriptions instead of loosely classified catalogues of traits, and has stimulated the fuller recording of case material from actual behavior as a supplement to the listing of ideal patterns. This method of Malinowski was included in his personality because of his upbringing, as when he went to New Guinea and at the same time World War I broke out and since Malinowski was an Austrian subject, and hence an enemy of the British commonwealth, he was unable to travel back to England. This gave Malinowski ample amout of time to see the his informants, living with the people he studied, getting to know them personally, participating in their activities, and conducting his research in the vernacular has since become known as participant observation

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