BRONISLAW MALINOWSKI

THEORY OF CULTURE
BY
DR. JASLEEN KEWLANI RAMBANI

BY DR. JASLEEN KEWLANI RAMBNI

 ABOUT MALINOWSKI
• Malinowski was a professor of Anthropology
in University of London. He carried his
research works in places like Melanesia, New
Guinea, Australia also.
• His most popular theory is the Theory on
Culture. This theory is couched in
functionalism. According to the term function
means ‘satisfaction of human needs’.

BY DR. JASLEEN KEWLANI RAMBNI

 THEORY OF CULTURE
• Malinowski says that even the basic human
needs like hunger and sex seek cultural
satisfaction; and they also become linked up
with new ‘derived’ needs.
• He adds that whenever we analyze and
explain the relationship between cultural
performance and human needs, shall explain
functionalism.

BY DR. JASLEEN KEWLANI RAMBNI

 Conti..
• He owned some set of ideas which he
used to explain and analyze cultural
behavior. Culture for him includes
charters of social groupings, consumer
goods, human ideas and crafts, beliefs
and customs.
• Culture for Malinowski is partly
apparatus, partly material, partly human,
partly spiritual.
BY DR. JASLEEN KEWLANI RAMBNI
 Conti…
• With the help of the cultural instruments,
man is able to cope with the problems he
faces.
• He says, “culture comprises inherited
artifacts, goods, technical processes,
ideas, habits and values’; and all forms of
social organizations are part of culture.

BY DR. JASLEEN KEWLANI RAMBNI

 Conti..
• Malinowski defined culture as
functioning whole and tried to
understand and explain the use or the
function of the ideas, beliefs, habits
customs and the institutions which
together make this whole of the culture;
by means of fulfilling the needs.

BY DR. JASLEEN KEWLANI RAMBNI

 HIS TECHNIQUES OF STUDYING
CULTURE
• To study the functional whole, Malinowski
designed his own technique. He was the unique
mind who used regularly used terms and
concepts used in day to day life to analyze and
interpret culture.
• First method is statistical documentation. He
wanted the fieldworkers to focus on an activity
understand its elements, and relate it to different
opinion of people from that group.

BY DR. JASLEEN KEWLANI RAMBNI

 Conti…
• He says that social action of everyday has to
be observed minutely to understand the
ethnographic diary of a social group. Here, the
focus is on rules and regulations of society.
• He wants that the fieldworkers should collect
ethnographic statements, typical utterances,
items of folklores, and characteristics
narratives to document the mentality that
native group has.

BY DR. JASLEEN KEWLANI RAMBNI

 NEED: CONCEPT
• He wrote a book entitled, ‘Scientific Theory of
Culture’ and explained ‘needs’ in that book.
Needs are of two types, (i) needs of human
beings, and (ii) needs of society.
• Need means the system of conditions that
exists in human beings in relation to both
cultural conditions and natural environment;
which are sufficient and necessary for survival
of groups an organisms.
BY DR. JASLEEN KEWLANI RAMBNI
 Conti.
• Diversified types of needs according to
Malinowski include, basic needs, integrative
needs, derivative needs; all these are
constitutive part of the cultural imperatives of
human society.
• His theory of culture is based on study of the
Trobriand Islanders, Argonauts of Western
Pacific; and their complex institution of Kula
Ring and the related concepts of Reciprocity
and Exchange.
BY DR. JASLEEN KEWLANI RAMBNI
 KULA RING
• Kula Ring is a non-monetary system of
exchange in Melanesia, and it is extremely
important for the individuals and groups, in
social as well as cultural terms.
• Kula implies the circulating exchange of the
valuables in the members of the group. The
exchange includes ceremonial exchange of
shell and beads necklaces between trading
partners living on different islands.
BY DR. JASLEEN KEWLANI RAMBNI
 Conti…
• There are two potential gains coming
out: (i) pure economic gain, and (ii) social
gain.
• Healthy and wealthy families even gifted
their daughters for marriages to establish
more politically and socially stringer
relationships with traders from other
islands.
BY DR. JASLEEN KEWLANI RAMBNI
 Conti…
• At times redistribution is done by the
central head of the Kula ring and the
things are given to all again.
• This is how the social and cultural
institutions serve the needs of the
society and work in relation to whole
society.

BY DR. JASLEEN KEWLANI RAMBNI

 Conti..
• The exchange is not immediate and not
monetary. Hence it is delayed. And being
delayed it creates sense and obligation of
reciprocity and social relationships.
• Reciprocity is (i) General Reciprocity- giving
gift without expecting an immediate return;
and (ii) Balanced Reciprocity- means there is
a moderate expectation of immediate return.

BY DR. JASLEEN KEWLANI RAMBNI

 CONCLUSION
• These forms of reciprocity create
hierarchy and the failure to return ends
in relationships between equals.
• This kula system also creates leadership
and leaders.
• Hence functionalism is attained through
the cultural whole, with a focus on the
needs, reciprocity and exchange.
BY DR. JASLEEN KEWLANI RAMBNI