Set the scene:
Bronislaw Malinowski was born in Cracow, Poland, in 1884. He studied the 'hard sciences' there to postgraduate level, but sickness forced him to set aside his intended doctoral research; instead he focused on the infamous The Golden Bough by Sir J. G. Frazer. Attaining the highest possible distinction, he then went to study Chemistry at Leipzig, but shifted to experimental psychology and economic history.
During a visit to Australia, WWI left him interred there, though he was able to move as far as the Trobriand islands where he spent a prolonged period living within a 'native community', studying them and involving himself on (almost) all fronts. Eventually he held a teaching post at LSE lecturing in Social Anthropology (the first such post in London; the UCL post was distinctly Cultural), and his Trobriand experiences led him to produce some outstanding and groundbreaking ethnographic work, and to be among the first to propound the necessity of prolonged anthropological fieldwork, as opposed to the then dominant 'armchair' or 'excursion' type approaches.
Anyway... Malinowski built around himself an almost messianic mythic image: the saviour of the human/social sciences; the bringer of the new path; the enlightener of ways, so to speak. In his way, he was Indiana Jones. His students formed the next generation of outstanding, outreaching British ethnographers and anthropologists, and brought into existence the true notion of professor/adventurer that so defines certain prominent anthropologists of the past. Of course, he was still marred by evolutionist (and similarly now-outdated modes) of thought, and there remains in his work more than a dash of the colonialist. But nevertheless...
And he had the hat. It's all about the hat.
I've been revising for my upcoming exams, trying to construct a thorough and accurate conception of anthropological theory (and theorists) since the turn of the last century. In so doing I came across this. (Oh yes, and I got a C in my ritual/theatre/performance paper, which pissed me off...
. Bugger it.)
Letter from Bronislaw Malinowski to Bertrand Russel in 1930, with response.
In Anthropologists and Anthropology by Adam Kuper.
Dear Russel,
On the occasion of my visit to your School I left my only presentable brown hat in your anteroom. I wonder whether since then it has had the privilege of enclosing the only brains in England which I ungrudgingly regard as better than mine; or whether it has been utilized in some of the juvenile experimentations in physics, technology, dramatic art, or prehistoric symbolism; or whether it naturally lapsed out of the anteroom.
If none of these events, or rather shall we call them hypotheses, holds good or took place, could you be so good as to bring it in a brown paper parcel or by some other concealed mode of transport to London and advise me on a post card where I could reclaim it? I am very sorry that my absentmindedness, which is a characteristic of high intelligence, has exposed you to all the inconvenience incidental to the event.
I do hope to see you some time soon.
Your sincerely,
B. Malinowski.
My secretary has found a presentable brown hat in my lobby which I presume is yours, indeed the mere sight of it reminds me of you.
I am going to the School of Economics to give a lecture , and unless my memory is as bad and my intelligence as good as yours, I will leave your hat with the porter at the School of Economics, telling him to give it to you on demand.
How fucking cool?!
***(addendum)***
On an equally wonderful front, one of my flatmates just sent me this;
Fellow writers and londoners take interest...
One more: How fucking cool?!
xxx
Bronislaw Malinowski was born in Cracow, Poland, in 1884. He studied the 'hard sciences' there to postgraduate level, but sickness forced him to set aside his intended doctoral research; instead he focused on the infamous The Golden Bough by Sir J. G. Frazer. Attaining the highest possible distinction, he then went to study Chemistry at Leipzig, but shifted to experimental psychology and economic history.
During a visit to Australia, WWI left him interred there, though he was able to move as far as the Trobriand islands where he spent a prolonged period living within a 'native community', studying them and involving himself on (almost) all fronts. Eventually he held a teaching post at LSE lecturing in Social Anthropology (the first such post in London; the UCL post was distinctly Cultural), and his Trobriand experiences led him to produce some outstanding and groundbreaking ethnographic work, and to be among the first to propound the necessity of prolonged anthropological fieldwork, as opposed to the then dominant 'armchair' or 'excursion' type approaches.
Anyway... Malinowski built around himself an almost messianic mythic image: the saviour of the human/social sciences; the bringer of the new path; the enlightener of ways, so to speak. In his way, he was Indiana Jones. His students formed the next generation of outstanding, outreaching British ethnographers and anthropologists, and brought into existence the true notion of professor/adventurer that so defines certain prominent anthropologists of the past. Of course, he was still marred by evolutionist (and similarly now-outdated modes) of thought, and there remains in his work more than a dash of the colonialist. But nevertheless...
And he had the hat. It's all about the hat.
I've been revising for my upcoming exams, trying to construct a thorough and accurate conception of anthropological theory (and theorists) since the turn of the last century. In so doing I came across this. (Oh yes, and I got a C in my ritual/theatre/performance paper, which pissed me off...
. Bugger it.)
Letter from Bronislaw Malinowski to Bertrand Russel in 1930, with response.
In Anthropologists and Anthropology by Adam Kuper.
Dear Russel,
On the occasion of my visit to your School I left my only presentable brown hat in your anteroom. I wonder whether since then it has had the privilege of enclosing the only brains in England which I ungrudgingly regard as better than mine; or whether it has been utilized in some of the juvenile experimentations in physics, technology, dramatic art, or prehistoric symbolism; or whether it naturally lapsed out of the anteroom.
If none of these events, or rather shall we call them hypotheses, holds good or took place, could you be so good as to bring it in a brown paper parcel or by some other concealed mode of transport to London and advise me on a post card where I could reclaim it? I am very sorry that my absentmindedness, which is a characteristic of high intelligence, has exposed you to all the inconvenience incidental to the event.
I do hope to see you some time soon.
Your sincerely,
B. Malinowski.
My secretary has found a presentable brown hat in my lobby which I presume is yours, indeed the mere sight of it reminds me of you.
I am going to the School of Economics to give a lecture , and unless my memory is as bad and my intelligence as good as yours, I will leave your hat with the porter at the School of Economics, telling him to give it to you on demand.
How fucking cool?!
***(addendum)***
On an equally wonderful front, one of my flatmates just sent me this;
Fellow writers and londoners take interest...
One more: How fucking cool?!
xxx
VIEW 11 of 11 COMMENTS
It was him- they need things spelt out in that part of the world!
That would just be leola and Ttrent saying horrible, vicious lies about me. I'm going to have serious words with them!