ANTH 1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Nigger, Fieldnotes, Cultural Anthropology
10 Apr 2014
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Document Summary
Before we continue with talking about ethnographic fieldwork as a method, let us take a look at the results to which it can lead, for example in bronislaw malinowski" argonauts of the western. Pacific, arguably the most important single work in the history of modern anthropology: description of the kula exchange system: Circular exchange of two kinds of valuables (vaguy"a): Arm shells (mwali) are highly coveted and traded at high prices (m. speaks of 30 pounds for certain shells! ), so they are expensive and yet m. calls them meaningless and useless! Necklaces (soulava) are made of small discs of red spondylus shell which are a widespread element of ornamentation in the region. Kula-objects (vaygu"a) are not meant for being worn, and if they are, not by their temporary owners, but by people to whom they have been lent for the occasion.
