Juxtaposition and the creative reader Malinowski in the field

A re-assessment of Bronislaw Malinowski's two principal texts conceived during his fieldwork experience in the Trobriand Islands, The Argonauts of the Western Pacific and A Diary in the Strictest Sense of the Term, will be attempted in light of James Clifford's contention that they are two halves of the same work, separated only by essentialist binary opposition codes (i.e., self/other, dominant/submissive, objective/subjective, public/private) that have dominated much of western modern philosophical discourse. This re-assessment will take the form of a postmodern critique of some of the fundamental epistemological tenets and assumptions underlying traditional western thought on which scientific Anthropology and its principal methodology, ethnography is based. Central to this re-assessment is the question of authority of ethnographic texts such as those of Malinowski: how can textual authority be re-imagined/re-read in light of these postmodern contentions? Hence, our attempt to utilize the method of collage to flatten authority.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Sociology and Anthropology

Grantor dc:publisher

Carleton University

Year dc:date.issued

1999

Author dc:creator

• Edwards, Glenn (David Glenn)

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright © 1999 the author(s). Theses may be used for non-commercial research, educational, or related academic purposes only. Such uses include personal study, research, scholarship, and teaching. Theses may only be shared by linking to Carleton University Institutional Repository and no part may be used without proper attribution to the author. No part may be used for commercial purposes directly or indirectly via a for-profit platform; no adaptation or derivative works are permitted without consent from the copyright owner.

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

10.22215/etd/1999-12733

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:carleton.scholaris.ca:20.500.14718/27232