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The Early Writings of Bronisław Malinowski is a 1993 anthropological book edited by Robert J. Thornton and Peter Skalník collecting some early short works of Polish anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski, published posthumously. The book contains an introductory section about Malinowski's scholarly influences, namely Friedrich Nietzsche, James George Frazer, and Ernst Mach, as well as analyses on his early intellectual development. Following the introduction, nine of Malinowski's works written from 1904 - 1914 are translated and reproduced:

• "Observations on Friedrich Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy" (1904-1905)
• "On the principle of the economy of thought" (1906)
• "Religion and magic: The Golden Bough" (1910)
• "Totemism and exogamy" (1911-1913)
• "Tribal male associations in Australia" (1912)
• "The economic aspects of the intichiuma ceremonies" (1912)
• "The relationship of primitive beliefs to the forms of social organization" (1913)
• "A fundamental problem of religious sociology" (1914)
• "Sociology of the family" (1913-1914)

More widely published contemporaneous works by Malinowski, The Family Among the Australian Aborigines (1913) and Wierzenia pierwotne i formy ustroju spolecznego (1915) are not included in this volume. Many of the included works listed above were previously only available in Polish or German, and two were published for the first time in this book.

Thornton and Skalník emphasize the importance of Malinowski's early writings in foregrounding his future scholarship on functionalism, social anthropology, and ethnography. They write:

"These essays are more pieces in several complex puzzles about the European confrontation with the 'Savage', about self-knowledge and the constructions of selves and others, about the adequacy of European philosophy and social science, and many other issues that extend far beyond the field of anthropology alone."

— Robert Thornton and Peter Skalník, The Early Writings of Bronsiław Malinowski, page 2

Eastern European philosophy and culture influence many of these early works, with particular emphases on the works of Émile Durkheim and Marcel Mauss in addition to Nietzsche, Mach, and Frazer.

References

1. Kuklick, Henrika (November 1995). "The Early Writings of Bronislaw Malinowski. ROBERT J. THORNTON and PETER SKALNIK, eds. LUDWIK KRZYZANOWSKI, trans". American Ethnologist. 22 (4): 1008–1009. doi:10.1525/ae.1995.22.4.02a00290.
2. Barrett, Stanley R. (September 1995). "Book Reviews : Robert J. Thornton and Peter Skalnik, eds., The Early Writings of Bronislaw Malinowski. Cambridge University Press, New York, 1993. Pp. 312, index. $59.95 (cloth". Philosophy of the Social Sciences. 25 (3): 413–415. doi:10.1177/004839319502500311. ISSN 0048-3931. S2CID 144352866.
3. Jarvie, I. C.; Thornton, Robert J.; Skalnik, Peter; Krzyzanowski, Ludwik (December 1994). "The Early Writings of Bronislaw Malinowski". Man. 29 (4): 1023. doi:10.2307/3034023. JSTOR 3034023.
4. Hatch, Elvin (December 1994). "Historicizing Malinowski: Two Views The Early Writings of Bronislaw Malinowski. Robert J. Thornton, Peter Skalnik, Ludwik Krzyzanowski". Current Anthropology. 35 (5): 684–686. doi:10.1086/204333. ISSN 0011-3204. S2CID 143269670.
5. Kohl, Karl-Heinz (1995). "Review of The Early Writings of Bronislaw Malinowski". Anthropos. 90 (4/6): 649–651. ISSN 0257-9774. JSTOR 40463263.
6. Morton, John (1995). "Review of The Early Writings of Bronislaw Malinowski". The Journal of the Polynesian Society. 104 (2): 229–231. ISSN 0032-4000. JSTOR 20706617.
7. Pels, Peter (1994). "Review of The Early Writings of Bronislaw Malinowski". Etnofoor. 7 (2): 109–114. ISSN 0921-5158. JSTOR 25757847.
8. Barrett, Stanley R. (1995). """The Early Writings of Bronislaw Malinowski", edited by Robert J. Thornton and Peter Skalnik (Book Review)."". Philosophy of the Social Sciences. 25 (3): 413. doi:10.1177/004839319502500311. S2CID 144352866.
9. Jr., George W. Stocking (March 1995). "The Early Writings of Bronislaw Malinowski . Robert Thornton, Peter Skalnik, Ludwik Krzyzanowski, Bronislaw Malinowski". American Anthropologist. 97 (1): 184–185. doi:10.1525/aa.1995.97.1.02a00630. ISSN 0002-7294.

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