Los primeros 24 años: la antropología social británica en Melanesia, 1898-1922

Abstract

In 1922 we saw the realization of a methodologial revolution in Birtish anthropology, whos cretis is given Bronisław Malinowski. That revolution began in 1898, with the Cambridge University expedition to the Torres Strait in Melanesia. We accept the importance of the revolution, and the pivotal role of Malinowski in it, but we insist on the relevance of the participation of nine other British anthropologists in its preparation. The text is a brief presentation of these anthropologists’ work and of the final result as presented in Malinowski’s ethnography. On the basis of this empirical material I study the available sources of the gradual appearance of fieldwork in British social anthropological research in Melanesia and discuss the characteristics of the aforementioned revolution.