Bronislaw Malinowski

From Philosopedia

Bronislaw Kasper Malinowski (8 April 1884 - 16 May 1942)

Malinowski was born in Krakow, Poland, on April 7, 1884, the son of Lucjan Malinowski, a professor of Slavic philology at Jagellonian University and a linguist and folklorist of some reputation who was descended of Polish nobility. His mother, Józefa Lacka, was from a cultured landowning family and an accomplished linguist in her own right.

As described in NNDB,

He was frail, often sickly in his childhood, and thus at various intervals during his attendance of Kraców’s King John Sobieski public school and, later, university, he was forced to slow down and take time off for the sake of his health. It was during one such period at Jagiellonian University that he discovered Sir James Frazer’s mighty work The Golden Bough, a event which whetted his curiosity about primitive peoples and about human cultures and society. Thus it was that he began to broaden his focus from his original passion for mathematics and physics to the fields of philosophy and psychology. Meanwhile, despite the setbacks created by his health, he managed to obtain his PhD in Philosophy, Physics and Mathematics in 1908, graduating Sub auspiciis Imperatoris, the highest honor in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Soon after, he resumed study at Leipzig University in Germany, focusing on physical chemistry, where he also came under the considerable influence of philosopher/psychology pioneer Wilhelm Wundt – who would similarly influence French sociologist Émile Durkheim. In 1910, using a stipend to train as a university teacher, Malinowski traveled to London where he spent significant time doing research at the British Museum. He studied at the London School of Economics, under Edvard Westermarck, and received his DSc in 1913, and his PhD in Science in 1916. In the meantime he had begun his early field expeditions, traveling to New Guinea, Australia, and various parts of Melanesia. And it was during this period that he began his signature work among the Trobriand Islanders, studying kinship, trade, the practical purposes of ritual and religion, as well as the intersection between cultural ideals and actual daily behaviors.

Malinowski is buried in New Haven, Connecticut, at the Evergreen Cemetery, 92 Winthrop AVenue, Grasso Boulevard.