Culture as institution, part I

1. Bronislaw Malinowski

1.1. His “field”: New Guinea as a colony under various European colonial power (1914)

1.2. He focused on the internal operation of the native society.

2. ¨“Untouched and unknown” people: an authentic culture

2.1. He settled in the Trobriands, whose inhabitants exemplifying “the ways and manners of Oceania as it flourished for ages, unknown and untouched by Europeans.”

2.2. “The most favorable moment for ethnographic work”

3. ¨William Rivers

3.1. “The mollifying influences of the official and the missionary”

3.2. “Friendly and peaceful reception”

3.3. The colonial situation?


4. The construction of an ethnographic object

4.1. Malinowski makes the colonial background invisible

4.2. An authentic culture and society of Trobrianders

5. Decontextualization

5.1. ¨The temporal dimensions of a place and a tribal group were compressed into a single moment ambiguously situated outside the flow of time.

5.2. ¨Ethnographic “present” (colonial present), an imagined “past” (a pre-colonial past)

6. What is “institution”?

6.1. Critique of the notion of “Primitive communism” (ethnocentrism): do the primitive people follow customs blindly?

6.2. The primitive people, like all kinds of human beings, follow customs for satisfying needs:
–Biological needs
–Psychological needs
–Social needs

Basic needs(individual)	Direct responses
Nutrition	Food Supply system
Reproduction	Marriage and family
Bodily comforts	Domicile and dress
Safety	Protection and defense
Relaxation	Systems of play and repose
Movement	Set activities and systems of communication
Growth	Training and apprenticeship

Social needs	Responses to instrumental needs
Renewal of cultural apparatus	Economies
Charters of behavior and their sanctions	Social control
Renewal of personnel	Education
Organization of force and complusion	Political organization

6. Example A: Kula Ring
6.1. An exchange system among the people of the Trobriand Islands of southeast Melanesia, in which permanent contractual partners trade traditional valuables following an established ceremonial pattern and trade route.

Soulava: necklace
Mwali: armshell

6.2. Functionalist analysis of Kula Ring

¨Friendship: A pattern of peaceful contact and communication,
¨Exchange of utilitarian items in the course of kula expeditions,
¨Reinforcing the status and authority distinctions.

7. Example B: Religion
*What is the function of worshipping ancestor or gods?
–Maintaining family solidarity?
–Explaining unfortunate events?
–Protection?

8. What is institution?
8.1.Definition: Structure of social relations or organized system of purposeful activities

8.2. Five elements of institution
Charter: a myth or history or formal agreement
Personnel: people who are involved in the relationship
Norms: Rules that people follow
Material apparatus: tools and materials used in a set of activities
Function: performed by those activities to fulfill some needs

9. Functionalist critique of “the rules of custom”
9.1. "Primitive people" are not cultural dopes "ruled" by custom.
9.2. They are as rational as modern people although they differ in their norms, needs and institution.

10. Malinowski’s contribution
10.1. Revolution of social anthropology
10.2. Investigating the internal mechanism of the natives’ society or culture.
10.3. Seeing the others as ordinary but complex as the modern people.

*Functionalist theory of socio-economic inequality
It is argued that inequality is an institution for recruiting the most able individuals into the most socially valuable roles. Do you agree?

Next week:
Please read Monaghan and Just 2000, chapter 3;
王銘銘2005第二章