Julie Campion
TESC ANT-101-OL009
Student ID 0196565
Written Assignment 1 Annette Weiner set off to do field work in the Trobriand Islands some 60 years after the highly regarded anthropologist Bronislaw Kasper Malinowski. Weiner had set expectations of what her field work might cover; she encountered contradictions to her expectations and was able to neutralize them. Additionally, her field work is a classic representation of the five characteristics of culture, as well as a representation of how anthropology has grown since its early inception. (Haviland)
While preparing for her trip she expected that she would find the Trobriand society to be how Malinowski described it and struggled with her tasks of learning a new language, careful observation and harboring her own cultural assumptions so that it would not cloud her clear assessment of the Trobriand peoples. (Haviland) Her initial expectations were shaped by the extensive studying she did of Malinowski’s works on the society. She expected to find the same or similar findings as Malinowski and therefore had not intended to set out to disprove any of his earlier writings. She intended on focusing on the male aspect of the clan and had little comprehension of how much women played a role in the Trobriand society. Her expectations guided her towards learning about how men were the focus of the tribe leaving women as having matrilineal lineage importance only. Shortly after arriving however, Weiner became aware that her preconception of how the society operated was missing the crucial element of the women’s role. Within her first days of arrival she was invited to watch how the women distributed their wealth amongst each other in a ritual surrounding the death of a clan member.
She began to break down her preconceived notions as she became more familiar with women’s purpose in the tribe. Also,