Coral Gardens And Their Magic: A Study of the Methods of Tilling the Soil and of Agricultural Rites in the Trobriand Islands: Two Volumes Bound As One

by Bronisław Malinowski

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Genres: Anthropology, Gardening

350 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1935

About the author

Bronisław Kasper Malinowski (IPA: [ˌmaliˈnɔfski]; April 7, 1884 – May 16, 1942) was a Polish anthropologist widely considered to be one of the most important anthropologists of the twentieth century because of his pioneering work on ethnographic fieldwork, with which he also gave a major contribution to the study of Melanesia, and the study of reciprocity.

Reviews

[Marcelo Reis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most people think that Malinowski's masterpiece is "Argonauts of Southern Pacific", maybe because there were broad-audience strategies behind the account of Kula, the trade scheme of Trobrianders.

But few works of Anthropology are so well-done as "Coral Gardens". The two-volume ouvre deals with the relation of Trobrianders with soil, not from a single aspect -- say, economic --, but from every facet of man/soil interaction: magic, poetry, art, economy, social relations, etc.

The descriptions (along with fantastic photos taken by Malinowski himself) are delightful, and sometimes I felt like characters of story (OK, it's not fiction) are just in front of me, and Trobriand was still there with its innocence and as a paradise for _primitive_ ethnographer.

[Roberto Yoed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now focused on the gardens, land tenure and agriculture in general, Malinowski shows how magic, myths, family, marriage, gifts, hierarchy and other cultural phenomena are connected. This may be until now his best prose.

He also confirms what I have been saying from a long time: Trobriand natives were patriarchal. At last Malinowski says that their domestic (p. 37) and community (p. 359) spheres are indeed masculine driven. Which, to a specific degree of course, tells us that private property was in crescendo.

The book could have been 5 stars but still, no ideology critique of myths, magic nor of chieftainship.

[Garrison Doreck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Malinowski's best theoretical, methodological, and empirical formulation of an ethnography of language, especially by drawing on pragmatist philosophy.