Written Assignment 1 Anthropology

Annette B. Weiner describes her fieldwork in the Trobriand Islands of Papua New Guinea as entering a world without cultural guideposts. She was fully aware and expected to find difficulty with learning a new language and of letting go of her own cultural assumptions. Weiner studied the Trobriand Islands via the writings of Bronislaw Kasper Malinowski and thus her expectations were set by fieldwork performed sixty years earlier. Not to mention that Malinowski was a man, of a different time and therefore was almost of a different culture himself.
I would say that one of the main expectations was that of the role of women in the Trobriand culture. She writes that her fieldwork was not originally focused on the productiveness of women, however that changed when she witnessed the women distributing “their own wealth”, bundles of banana leaves and banana fiber skirts, which they exchanged in honor of someone that had recently passed away. Malinowski’s analysis only focused on men and their wealth. This observation seems to have shaped and peaked Weiner’s interest in further studying the women and their importance within the culture. Weiner was only aware of her expectations after witnessing the women’s ritual and once compared to Malinowski’s accounts.
Her observations made a difference, in that they reflected that women’s roles were much more significant within the Trobriand society. Not only did Weiner’s observations challenge the role of women, but also the Malinowski’s assumption of the role of men.
Weiner employed several methods. One, she took up residence within the village. This allowed her to observe every aspect of the culture. Had she not taken up residence, she would have severely limited her exposure to the Trobriand way of life. Two, she compared Malinowski’s findings along-side her own. This neutralized her preconceived notions of what she was going to experience while studying this culture.
Weiner’s problems would consist of “weeding out” the