~ A DIA RY IN TH E

ST RIC T SE NS E OF
TH E TE RM by Bronislaw
Malinowski ~
I

I
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PREFA CE BY V.ALETTA MALIN OWSK. A.

INTRO DUCTI ON BY RAYMO ND FIRTH
TRANS LATED BY NORBE RT GUTER M.A.N
INDEX OF NATIV E TERMS BY M.A.RIO BICK

ROUTL EDGE & KEGAN PAUL

LONDON

lUMITJl RBlft

<lOLLlll& LetlitP
t.JliBAaY

First publishe d in Great Britain in 1967

by Routledg e o/ Kegan Paul Ltd.
Broadwa y House
68-74 Carter Lane
London, E.G. 4
Printed in the United States of America

@ 1967 by Valetta. Malinow ska

No part of this boo le may be reproduc ed
in any form without permissi on from
the publishe r, e:ccept for the quotatio n of
brief passages in criticism

uN l v wa&l'r'l
,~oLLZ& r.em:JGII
t.IBB.Url .

/)M

CO NT EN TS

V alett a M alinowska, vii

INT: aonu cTIO N: Raym ond Firth
, xi
PB.EF ACE :

NOTE ,

.xxi

.A DIAR Y IN THE STRI CT SENS E OF

THE TER M

Part One: 1914 -191 5,1

Part Two : 1917-1918, 101
AN INDE X OF NATI VE TE:&M s
:

Mar io Rick,

~99

ILLUSTB .ATIO NS

Facsimile page, ii
East ern New Guinea and Adja cent Islands,
end pape r
Mailu Islan d and Adja cent Coas t of Papu
a, ~6
The Kula Dist rict, 138-139
Trob.r iand Islands, 164

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PRE FAC E
Bronis law Malinowski was alread y in the United States
when
the Second World War broke out, and he accept ed what
was
at first a tempo rary, and later a perma nen't post, as Profes
sor
of Anthr opolo gy at Yale Unive rsity. Natur ally he needed
a
consid erable amoun t of the manus cripts, notes, and books
which
he had left at the Londo n School of Econo mics on
leavin g
for the United States for his sabbat ical leave at the
end of
1938; and after accep ting the Yale appoin tment he made
a
carefu l seiection of these, to be sent to him at New Haven
, ~hile
the greate r part of his books and paper s were stored away
in
the Londo n Schoo l of Econo mics for the durati on of the
war.
In New Haven , part of this mater ial was kept at his home,
and
the rest was kept in his office at the Yale Gradu ate Schoo
l.
In May 1942, Malino wski died sudden ly of an entirel y unpredic ted heart attack . One of the first people to come
to New
Haven on hearin g the bad news was Dr. Feliks Gross, friend
and
forme r studen t of Malino wski's , who offered to help in the
special task of sortin g and orderi ng Malino wski's books and
papers ,
beginn ing with the conten ts of the Gradu ate School
office.
While this work was going on, Dr. Gross sudden ly teleph
oned
me from that office, asking if I knew of the existence
of a

---

Vlll

Preface

smallish thick black noteboo k which he had just found, containing a diary of Bronisl aw Malinow ski, written almost entirely in Polish in his handwr iting. Dr. Gross brough t the notebook straigh t over to me and translat ed a few entries chosen
at random which referred to his field work in Souther n New
Guinea. Malinow ski had never mention ed to me the existenc e
of this diary; I kept it carefull y and took it with me to Mexico

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when I moved there perman ently in 1946.

Sometime after the end of the war, Malinow ski's books and
papers were taken from their storage place in the London
School of Econom ics, and about 1949 this conside rable mass
of manusc ripts, notes, and books was sent to me in Mexico ;
among these I found two envelopes contain ing noteboo ks, one
marked "Early Polish Diary" and t;he other "Diarie s." All of
these small noteboo ks were written in Polish. I put these with
the firs~ noteboo k found at Yale, with the idea of having them
translat ed and possibly publishe d at some later date.
The diaries remaine d, therefor e, locked away until the end
of 1960, when I made a visit to New York. There I spoke of
the diaries to one of Malinow ski's publishe rs ; and we decided
on their publica tion. Mr. Norber t Guterm an was kind enough
to underta ke the translat ion from Polish, which he rendere d
in a very direct manner . In correcti ng the proofs I have tried
to assure the closest possible adheren ce to Malinow ski's personal use of English words and phrasin g, in which languag e in
the latter part of his life he expresse d himself with such freedom .
A few extreme ly intimat e observa tions have been omitted , the
omissions being indicate d by dots. The early Polish diary has
not been included because it antedat es Malinow ski's anthrop ological career.
I have always felt a desire- even a need-t o know something of the life and persona lity of any painter , writer, musicia n,
or scientis t whose work has profoun dly interest ed or moved me.

Preface

IX

I feel that the psychol ogical and emotion al light shed by diaries,
letters, and autobio graphie s not only give one a fresh insight
into the persona lity of the man who wrote certain books, developed a certain theory, or composed certain sympho nies;
but that through this knowledge of that man as he lived and
felt, one is often brough t into a closer contact and a greater
compreheruion of his work. When there exists, therefor e, the
diary or autobio graphy of an outstan ding persona lity, I feel
that these "data" regardi ng his daily and inner life and his
thought s should be published, with the delibera te aim of revealing that persona lity, and linking up this knowledge with the
work left behind.
I know that some people will think that a diary is of a
basicall y private nature and that it should not be publishe d;
and those who hold this point of view will probabl y be severely
critical of my decision to publish my husband 's diaries. But after
seriousl y weighing the matter, I reached the conclusion that
it is of greater importa nce to give to the present and future
students and readers of Malinowski's anthrop ologica l writings
this direct insight into his inner persona lity, and his way of
living and thinking during the period of his most importa nt
work in the field, rather than to leave these brief diaries shut
away in an archive. I am, therefor e, solely responsible for the
decision to publish this book.
VALETT A MALINOW SKA

Mexico
May 1966

INT ROD UCT ION *

This diary by Broni slaw Malinowski covers only

a very brief
period of his life, from early Septe mber 1914 to the
begin ning
of Augu st 1915, and from the end of Octob er 1917
to mid-J uly
1918 -abou t ninete en month s in all. It was 'w ritten in
Polish , as a
priva te docum ent, and was never intend ed for
public ation.
What then is its significance? Malin owski was a
great social
scient ist, one of the found ers of mode rn social anthro
polog y,
and a thinke r who tried to relate his gener alizat ions
about human natur e and huma n societ y to the issues of the world
aroun d
him. The diary refers to that very critic al period of
his caree r
when, havin g equip ped himself theore tically for empir
ical studie s,
he began to carry out field resear ch in New Guine
a. The first
sectio n covers his appre ntices hip period amon g the
Mailu ; the
second, after an unfor tunat e gap of two years , covers
most of
his last year in the Trobr iands . Nowa days it is recog
nized that
while the perso nality of a scient ist may not neces sarily
have a
direct bearin g upon his selection and treatm ent of
proble ms, it
must influence his work in other more subtle ways.
Altho ugh
* I am gratefu l to Audre y Richar ds and Phyills Kaberr y,

friends of
Malinowski, and to J6zefa Stuart , his eldest daught
er, for advice on this
Introdu ction. They have, of course, no respon sibility
for the opinioll5 expressed here.

+
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Xll

Introduction

chronologically very brief, and although giving no great amount

of detail on professional matters, the diary does indicate vividly
how Malinowski thought about issues and about people--or at
least how he expressed himself when he was writing only for himself as audience.
Malinowski came to be in New Guinea through his association with British anthropology. What led _him to this move so
far from Poland, his native country, is not now fully bown.
But despite his often unkind comments upon England and English gentlemen, ~-~~!!1-~Q alwttys to havf! .ll. pa~Ic__Ee~_Egc:Lfor the
English intelJ.(!ctual tr~dition and ~h~---~.n.:glish . W!J..Y of life, and
it seems likely that even at that early period of his career he
was attracted to both. (Note his revealing description of
Machiavelli in this diary as "very like me in many respects.
An Englishman, with an entirely European mentality and
European problems.") He himself has told us how, when at
the ( Jagiellonian) University of Cracow, he had been ordered
to abandon for a time his physical and chemical research because
of ill-health, but was allowed to follow up a "favorite sideline
of study" and so began to read Frazer's The Golden Bough in
the original English version-then three volumes only.* Malinowski had obtained his Ph.D degree in 1908 in physics .and
mathematics, and after two years of advanced study at Leipzig
he ca~e to ~on~on a11d began his systematic studies of anthropology with C. G. Seligman and Edward W estermarck, at- the
London School of Economics and Political Science. He also
*For this and other details see B. Malinowski~ Myth in Primitive Psychology, London, 1926, pp. 5-6; also Raymond Firth in Man and Culture,
London, 1957, pp. 2-7; Konstantin Symmons-Symonolewicz, "Bronislaw
Malinowski: Formative Influences and Theoretical Evolution," The Polish
Review, Vol. IV, 1959, pp. 1-28, New York. A few further facts appear
in "A Brief History (1913-1963)" of the Department of Anthropology of
the London School of Economics, published in the departmental programme
of courses, session 1963-64 and succeeding years.

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Introduction

Xlll

made cont act with A. C. Had don and W.

H. R. Rive rs of Cambrid ge-a ll of whom are ment ioned in the
diary . His first majo r
publ icati on, a docu men tary stud y of The
Fam ily .Among the
.Australian .Aborigilnes, was publ ished in
Lond on in 1913 . Anothe r book, in Polis h, on Prim itive Relig ion
and Forms of Social
Stru ctur e, completed early in 1914 , was publ
ished in Pola nd in
1915 . l1l,fluenc~d espe ciall y by Selig man
and Had don, Malinowski had prep ared for field resea rch in the
Wes tern Pacif ic, after
an unsu cces sful attem pt by Selig man to
get fund s for him to
work in the Suda n. Mon ey for field resea rch
in anth ropo logy was
then much more difficult to obta in than it
is nowa days . Malinowski was help ed thro ugh scho larsh ip fund
s and a gran t from
Rob ert Mon d, the indu stria list, obta ined
prim arily thro ugh
Seligma:il's energies. An attac hme nt as
Secr etary to . R. R.
Mar ett; who was Reco rder of Sect ion
H-t he Anth ropo logy
Sect ion- of the Briti sh Asso ciati on, whic
h was meet ing in Melbour ne in 1914 , gave him a free pass age
to Aust ralia . Malinowski's situa tion, with exigu ous field resou rces,
was comp licat ed by
the outb reak of war, since he was techn
icall y an Aust rian nationa l. But thro ugh the help of his frien
ds, the Aust ralia n authori ties prov ed themselves very unde rstan
ding by allowing him
to proc eed to carr y out his field resea rch
in New Guinea. Thei r
liber ality was also shown in supp leme nting
his finances by a
gran t from the Hom e and Territorie~ D~p~
r~me.nt of th~-Com
monwealth. Afte r trave ling to Port Mor
esby , Malinowski spen t
the grea ter part of six mon ths in the Mail
u area in the sout h of
New Guinea. A brief visit to the Trob rian
d Islan ds off the north east coas t stim ulate d his inter est more and
he retur ned there on
two subs eque nt expe ditio ns of a year
each , 1915 -16 and
19l7 -18.
One of Malinowski's outs tand ing cont ribut
ions to the development of socia l anth ropo logy was the
intro duct ion of much
more inten sive and much more soph istic ated
meth ods of field re-

XIV

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Introduction

search than had previously been current m his subject.* The

many references to his ethnographic work in his diary show his
industry. The day after his arrival in New Guinea he had contacted an informant (Ahuia Ova), and the next day he began
collecting field data on social structure. Only a fortnight later
he noted two basic defects in his approach-he did not observe
the people enough, and he did not speak their language. Both of
these he tried hard to correct, and his endeavor was the clue to
all his later work. The ethnography of the diary consists of
references to subjects of talk or observation-taboo, burial rites,
stone axes, black magic, dancing, procession with pigs-rather
than development of ideas about field questions or theoretical
problems. But an occasional note shows these behind the scene.
"I asked about the division of land. It would have been useful to
find out about the old system of division and to study today's as
a form of adaptation." ~~~ - ~san early indicat~on of an interest
in social change which la.t.~r develope~ into a major theme in his
work. What the first diary does show is Malinowski's keen desire to get his early material written up as soon as possible for
publication, and in fact his report on The Natives of Mailu was
ready before the middle of 1915.t One is led to infer that it was
in the co~:.S.~-~L'Y!!tii1K~ ~~i~ _IIll!-_tg-~~~f_ ('~i~ f~ct a~ I -~~rked
out my notes") that Malinowski cam~ . to perceive the significance of many points of field method which he later developed
and incorpo~at~d ~;;t~'ii~ i_~~;t~~;;t.- The Trobriand account is
more vivid-the choosing of the site for the tent, the meeting
with old acquaintances, including the chief To'uluwa, and the
man "who used to bring me eggs, dressed in a lady's nightgown";
"See Phyllis Kaberry, in Man and Culture, 1957, pp. 71-91.

t See bibliographical reference in introduction to Index of Native Terms

infra. Malinowski's preface was dated June 9th, 1915, from Samarai, when
he had already begun his second expedition to New Guinea. (He received
the D.Sc. degree from the University of London in 1916 for this publication together with The Family Among the Australian Aborigines.)

Introduction

XV

the making of village plan and cens11s ; the amassing of information about baloma and milamila, about gimwali and sagali. The
references to the kula are fascinatin g to anyone who has followed his analysis of that complex system of exchange of shell
tokens of social status, with its economic, political, and ritual
overtones.
What--an anthropol ogist may miss particular ly in the diary
is any detailed account of how Malinowsk i arrived at the choice
of his field problems, why he selected one topic rather than another for investigat ion at a particular point of time, and
whether fresh evidence led him to reshape a hypothesis . Some
evidence there is-as when he notes that reading Rivers drew his

atte~I:)~_!_~ -":R!"_<?"!l.lems gf.__t_h~)tive_~s_!;y_E~/~_:p_~e.s_~lll~bly those of ~-;'

k~~~?iP~

But on the whole such methodolo gical issues are not

pursued in this daily record of his thoughts. <?_~~_<>!~ - i~-~~:e~t
are Malinowski's occasional flashes of theoretica l observatio n,
such as his :r:eiilar~s_ ?~:J~E$1l:B:i~.-as- a ~y;tt:ln of so~i~fia-eas,-bot"?
instrumen t and o_bjective creation or on history as "observation of facts in keeping with ~ certain -~~~-o!y~'; These give
sign of his concern with issues which were then relatively
novel but later became part of the general talk of the academic market place. But if the diary does not dwell either on
field methodolo gy or on problems of anthropol ogical theory, it
<ioes convey- most keenly :the re_I!._Qtjons of a field anthropol ogirl
i!!~~ aH~-~_s:~~i~t;. There he m~~t ii~ -;;--;~~ord~; -~~d-;;:ilaiyst,
but as such he cannot completely share the c~stc>.ms a~d. values
of the people, admire or dislike them as he may. The feeling of
confinement, the obsessional longing to be back even if for the '
briefest while in one's own cultural surroundin gs, the dejection
and doubts about the validity of what one is doing, the desire to
escape into a fantasy world of novels or daydream s, the moral
compulsion to drag oneself back to the task of field observatio n
-many sensitive fieldworkers have experience d these feelings on

Introduction
occasion, and they have rarely been better expressed than mthis
diary. Some emotions, no doubt, have been expressed more violently by Malinowski than they would be felt~or at least
, stated-by other anthropologists. Most fieldworkers at some
time have been bored by their own inquiries, and have been conscious of frustration and exasperation against even their best
friends in the field. Few may have been willing to admit this
even to themselves. Few perhaps except those as highly strung
as Malinowski have cursed the people they were studying as
heartily as he did. Yet this revelation of a darker side of the
relation of an anthropologist to his human material should not
mislead us. Malinowski often used equally violent language about
other groups and persons, European and American. He had to
explode to get his irritations out of his system and it was almost
a point of honor with him not to repress his feelings or curb his
tongue. This also should not obscure from us Malinowski's own
appreciation of his Trobriand friendships, of which the diary
also makes mention. Few anthropologists too would be prepared
to write with Malinowski's freedom, even as he did for his own
eyes alone, of their sensual lusts and feelings, or to engage in,
much less set down, such ribald gestures as singing to a W agner
melody the words "Kiss my ass" to chase away flying witches!
.f:s_-~~ -~I:_~g:_l'l,_:p~er, M.a,li;n_Q:w:ski stoQd s()mewhat _JJ,:p_l).rt
from the government
officials, missionaries, and traders who con.
.- - ... r-- .. .siJtJJted the white ~.s-ociety -in .New ..Guinea_at .thAi;.,__tjme. Consequently, we get from him new and sometimes unexpected shafts
of light, though only in passing, upon personalities known
usually to us only from more formal literature. His thumbnail
sketch of the now almost legendary figure of Sir Hubert Murray,
the lieutenant governor and apex of the official pyramid, seems
to me very apt, though his remarks about some other acquaintances, including Saville, the missionary who helped him, may
be less just. It IS significant that Malinowski's capacity for
-'<'-" ,-~" "' " ~ ~

,,,..,_, __ , ,,._ '

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II

Introduction

xvn
seek ing out mea ning ful experiences
led him as muc h to the compan y of some of the pea rl buy ers in
the Tro bria nds, part icul arly
Raff ael Bru do with whom he late r stay
ed i~ Pari s, as to the more
official sect ors of the whit e soci ety.
Tho ugh scan ty, his commen ts on cond ition s in New Guin ea
half a cent ury ago ar~ very
usef ul sociological evidence. But it
is as a hum an docu men t
-- .
.
~.!h~:r -~~a'B_~~_fl:_~<:~.~II:~fi<:: (!.9!1 t_:rj];
>p,tion. .tha t, Malinowski~s. .,diQ,;r.y
shou ld be eval uate d.
. --- . . .. -- ....
A diar y in the ordi nary sense can be
a simple chro nolo gica l
reco rd of day -to- day events. This is
wha t man y peop le keep, or
try to keep, as a kind of aide-mem
oire to thei r recollections or
as a kind of just ifica tion to prov e
to themselves that the days
that have gone by have not been com
plet ely was ted. An exte nsio n
of this kind of diar y, seen in the mem
oirs of gene rals, amb assado rs, and othe r pub lic figures, may
prov ide inte rest ing, perhap s criti cal, evidence on the shap
ing of pub lic affa irs. In reveal ing the doings and sayi ngs of prom
inent~ peop le the reco rd
may be all the mor e attr acti ve to the
wor ld at larg e if the issues
men tion ed are cont rove rsia l or touc
hed with scan dal. But anothe r kind of diar y, muc h mor e diffi
cult to writ e with sinc erity ,
is the expr essi on of a pers ona lity
thro ugh day -to- day commen tary on events at leas t as muc h
in the wor ld of the self as
in the wor ld outside. The grea t diar
ies of hist ory, if not nota ble
for the ligh t they thro w on pub lic even
ts, illumine thos e priv ate
aspe cts of a pers ona lity which can
be inte rpre ted as havi ng a
gene ral mea ning for the stud ent
of hum an char acte r. The ir
significance lies in the inte rpla y of
tem pera men t and circ umstan ce, in the inte llect ual, emo tion
al, and mor al stru ggle s of
men or women striv ing to expr ess
themselves, to pres erve indivi dual ity, and to mak e head way in
the face of the challenges,
tem ptat ions , and flatt erie s of the soci
ety in which they live. For
such a diar y to have mea ning and imp
act, liter ary skill may be
less imp orta nt than forc e of expr essi
on, mod esty is prob ably
-- -----~

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XVlll

Introduct ion

less effective than vanity, weakness must be displayed as well as

strength, and a kind of brutal frankness is essential. If it is ever
published for the common reader to see, the writer must incur
criticism as well as appreciati on; in justice too he should be
g1.ven understan ding if not compassio n.
By these criteria, while this diary of Malinowsk i's in its
purely ethnograp hic sense cannot be ranked as more than a
footnote to anthropolo gical history, it is certainly a revelation
of a fascinatin g and complex personalit y who had a formative
influence on social science. In reading it, one must bear lin mind
its purpose. I think it is clear that its object was not so much
to keep a record of Malinowsk i's scientific progress and intentions, or to set down the daily events of his studies in the field,
as to chart the course of his personal life, emotional as well as
intellectua l. In the earlier section it would seem that he regarded
the periodic chronicle of his thoughts and feelings as a way of
helping to organize his life, and to realize its deeper meaning.
But in the later section he meant it as an instrumen t as well as a
reference work; he saw it as a means of guiding and indeed rectifying his personalit y. Part of the reason for this intensified
emphasis of the diary as discipline was clearly the relationsh ip
he had entered into with the woman who later became his wife.
What he writes of E. R. M.'s qualities of character in this diary
those who knew her later would confirm, and what shines out in
these pages is the depth and sincerity of his love for her and the
efforts he continuall y made to avoid sullying what he tried to
keep as a pure emotional bond. What it meant to him then and
, as far as one can judge all through their later years is beautifully expressed in the phrase that for him she had "treasures to
give and the miraculou s power to absolve sins.'' There seems to
have been little that he did not confess to her; in the later diary
his relation with her was partly at least responsibl e for its
frankness. To be honest with her as well as with himself was one
of Malinowsk i's prime aims. Yet he did not pursue it consis-

Introduction

XIX

tentl y, and it was his emot ional link with

anoth er woman from
whom he had not comp letely brok en which
acco unts for so much
of his self-q uesti oning and self-a ccusa tion. *
The vividness of some of the descr iptio ns in
the diary is very
strik ing, revea ling Mali nows ki's perce ptive
eye for the color of
the New Guin ea lands cape , and his love of the
sea and of sailin g.
It is very. .inter estin g to have these sidel ights
on his perso nalit y.
But how far his inner most perso nal feelin
gs shou ld be expo sed
must alwa ys rema in a quest ion. Wha tever
the answ er be it is
ampl y clear that this diary is a movi ng, huma
n docu ment writt en
by a ~an who wished to leave hims elf with
no falsi ty of illusi on
abou t his own chara cter. Some passa ges in
it illus trate his emotions , while other s mock at them. Some passa
ges show his hypo chon dria, his conti nual ques t for healt h, throu
gh the purs uit of
a mixt ure of exerc ise and medi came nts. Othe
r passa ges again
may even nowa days offend or shock the reade
r, and some reade rs
may be impr essed as much by the revel ation
of elements of brutality , even degr adati on, which the recor d
shows on occas ion.
My own reflection on this is to advis e anyo ne
who wishes to sneer
at passa ges in this diary to be first equa
lly frank in his own
thou ghts and writi ngs, and then judg e again
. Malin owsk i's was
a comp lex perso nalit y, and some of his less
admi rable chara cterist ics corn~ throu gh perh aps more clear
ly in this diary than
do his virtu es. If so, this is what he inten ded
becau se it was his
fault s and not his virtu es which he wishe
d to unde rstan d and
make clear to himself. Whe ther or no most
of us would wish to
emul ate his frank ness, we shou ld concede its
coura ge.
Lond on
Marc h 1966

RAYM OND FIRTH

* As I under stood it much later from him, it was

Baldw in Spenc er's
knowl edge and misun dersta nding of the overla
p in this relatio n and inept
attem pt to interv ene which led to the breac
h betwe en him and Malin owski .
E. R. M., when Malin owski 's wife, appar ently
share d his views thoug h she
spoke of Spenc er, who had been an old
friend of hers, in more forgiv ing
terms .