Malinowski: Second Positivism, Second Romanticism Author(s): Ivan Strenski Source: Man, New Series, Vol. 17, No. 4 (Dec., 1982), pp. 766-771 Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2802045 Accessed: 01-03-2017 23:12 UTC

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Malinowski: second positivism, empiricist/inductivist. To be sure, in Argonauts second romanticism Malinowski does advocate and practise what In a recent number of Man, Andrzej Paluch seems impossibly complete fact-gathering and (I98I: 276-85) argued the interesting historical even an incipient behaviourism (I922a: I7-22). thesis that the young Malinowski was formed But both Argonauts and The Diary of the same by the so-called 'second positivism' of Avenar- period reveal that Malinowski did not believe in ius and Mach, mediated through the Polish 'objectively existing facts: theory creates facts'. philosophers, Straszewski and Pawlicki. I Data had to be subordinated to the 'final syn- would argue not that Paluch is wrong about the thesis' (Firth I98I: io8; Leach I966: 565; Mali- influences of the 'second positivism,' but that he nowski I922a: 5I7). Fact-mongering (I922a: tells a very incomplete story about the intellec- 5I7) was an object of Malinowski's disdain. In tual shape of the young Malinowski-a story I Argonauts, facts are gathered and behaviour believe Paluch himself admits makes far less closely observed in the service of the empathetic sense than it ought. Malinowski was as much 'understanding' of native life-something he (more, if we focus on The Argonauts of the would later indeed call 'dangerous guesswork' Western Pacific, a product of the 'second roman- (I944: 23). In the remarkable concluding pages, ticism', as he was of any 'second positivism'. Malinowski brings these points to a resound- Moreover, it is only by assuming this perspec- ingly romantic and unpositivistic conclusion: tive that Argonauts becomes intelligible, that Malinowski's arguments with colonial adminis- I have tried to pave my account with fact and trators make sense, that his choice of subject- details . . . But at the same time, my convic- matter shows a certain plan, and that his own tion, as expressed over and over again, is that good-will confessions of a radical intellectual what matters really is not the detail, not the transformation leading to the empiricist/posi- fact, but the scientific use we make of it. tivist Malinowski we know so well have credi- Thus, the details and technicalities. . . acquire bility at all. I am talking about Paluch's numer- their meaning in so far only as they express ous references to places where 'Malinowski some central attitude of mind of the natives diverges from the positivist programme', where he 'represents a standpoint opposed to' What interests me really in the study of the positivism (I98I: 280), where his 'positivist native is his outlook on things, his Weltans- spectacles' were 'not very strong' (I98I: 279) chauung, the breath of life and reality which he and even where Paluch declares that Malinows- breathes and by which he lives . . . a definite ki 'was not an adherent of. . . radical empiric- vision of the world, a definite zest of life ism' (I98I: 279). I am talking about what to (I922a: 5I7). Paluch seems the exception, but the more we read both Paluch and the early Malinowski must To his credit, Leach at least records that this seem the rule-Malinowski's part in the 'second youthful Malinowski put theory before facts, romanticism', perhaps better known in its na- even if he (Leach) does not seem to be able to tive German, 'neuromantik' (Bauman I973: 26; capitalise on this observation (I966: 565). In- Ermarth I978: 79-90; Without denying his stead of linking Malinowski's view directly positivist nurture, I want to show how Mali- with contemporary continental romantic think- nowski was a complex and substantial mixture ing, Leach can only make sense of Malinowski's of romantic and positivist, and that, at least in methodological zest for 'life' by reference to his his Argonauts, he ought to be seen as having been bitter feuds with the London cultural diffusion- dominated by a romantic agenda of fieldwork ists, Elliot Smith and Perry. and scholarship. The London diffusionists were indeed the The most regrettable part of Paluch's reading butt of Malinowski's jibes against 'curio- of the early Malinowski is its repetition of what hunting'-a short-hand reference to the has become conventional wisdom. For Jarvie museum anthropology nurtured by Elliot (I964) and Leach (i964; I966) Malinowski was Smith and Perry. At the bottom of Malinow- always a consistent and perennial positivist ski's aversion to London diffusionism was, it

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seems, a distaste for the dry and lifeless, which in much the same way as Malinowski does. emerged in his defence of the 'new' functional They (and he) did so in the name of a renewal of method. I want to recommend taking this humanism and humanistic studies (Malinowski aspect of Malinowski's arguments against dif- I922b: 2I5; I935; I944: 4; I967: 254, 267; Paluch fusionism as seriously as we have taken his I98I: 283; Ringer I969: ch. 6, 7; Symmons- critique of their speculative historical construc- Symonolewicz I959: 28). They (and he) aimed tions. For what it may be worth, Malinowski at the synthetic knowledge of man rather than maintained life-long, frequently amicable, in- the narrow specialisation they thought charac- tellectual relations with the German-speaking terised the natural scientific and technological cultural diffusionists such as Boas, Frobenius, disciplines. They (and he) indulged a distaste for Graebner, Schmidt and of course Lowie. Was it modernity and urbanisation (Lowie I937: 234; merely an accident that these scholars often Malinowski I930; Ringer 1969: 42-6I); they self-consciously acknowledged their debt to feared the 'revolt of the masses' (Malinowski German romanticism, and that they, along with I932; Ringer I969: 2I3-52). Not surprisingly, the British, were also real protagonists and they chiefly recruited members from the pro- pioneers of empirical fieldwork? (Heine- fessional, traditional and landed classes rather Geldern I964:4I0; Stocking I974: Introduction, from the new rising 6lites of commerce and Part I). When we speak about Malinowski's trade. Malinowski himself belonged to a minor opposition to diffusionism, it might perhaps be class of landed gentry called szlachta; his father best to distinguish the British from the Germans was professor of the Jagiellonian University in and Austrians, and to observe that most of Cracow and took his Ph. D. from Leipzig. Here Malinowski's explicit critical ire was aimed at is the Malinowski who despite his patriotic fears the British. for Poland in the first world war speaks sym- If, then, Paluch is correct to locate positivism pathetically of German culture (I967: 203, 207), early in Malinowski's career, perhaps romantic- particularly in contrast to the English 'lack of ism is also located equally early there as well. In enthusiasm, idealism, purpose'. In a view typi- the early I920'S this sometimes meant that Mali- cal of a Central European intellectual of his day, nowski would run the two streams together for Malinowski admired the Germans for their his own polemical purposes. In Argonauts, Mali- 'purpose, possibly lousy . . . but there is an nowski manipulates the notion of 'life' in the elan, there is a sense of mission' (I967: 208). way one might expect this half-positivist, half- Here is the Malinowski who still wrote in Ger- romantic to do, informing it with varying pro- man for German journals, notably, Die Geistes- portions of vitalist and biological meaning wissenschaften (Firth I98I: I07; Malinowski (I922a: 22). In the year that Argonauts appeared I9I4; Symmons-Symonolewicz I958: 70 (I922), the essay 'Ethnology and the Study of sqq.). Society' treated the notion of life in a familiar If one turns attention to more specific 'in- way ('zest for life') (I922b: 2I0); at the same time fluences' on Malinowski a good case can be it spoke of 'every item of culture' having a made for the importance of Wilhelm Wundt. 'positive, biological significance' (I922b: 214). But we have till now only imagined that By contrast, the less adaptable term 'spirit' Wundt's influence was restricted to passing on (I922a: 22) seems to drop out of his vocabulary ethnological notions, such as the idea of the by I923. I argue simply that at least until the 'cultural whole' derived from Volkerpsychologie early I 920'S Malinowski seemed eager and adept (I910) (Leach I964: I2I, I26; Cf. Paluch 198I: at playing both the positivist and romantic sides 279). This would fit nicely with the timing of of selected issues, because he was divided be- Malinowski's stay in Leipzig (I908-I9I0). Yet tween positivist and romantic methodologies. not so well known in English-speaking circles is Once the possibility of a serious romantic the Wundt of Die Ethik (I886) and its successor, methodological element in Malinowski's Die Nationen und ihre Philosophie (i9i5). This thought is given credence, it is remarkable how Wundt resembles more the Malinowski of the style and substance of his writing begins to philosophical anthropological interests than the make more satisfying and significant sense. man Paluch shows us in formation in Cracow. Here is a little-known Malinowski, educated Among other things, Die Ethik initiates a pole- in the dynamic intellectual ambience of nine- mic against utilitarianism which Wundt ap- teenth-century Austria-Hungary and Imperial parently kept alive for the next thirty years Germany of which most of Europe was in awe. through the publication of Die Nationen. There, Here was a neuromantik intellectual and Wundt unleashed an attack on the 'shallowness' academic world conforming in many ways with of British ethical theories, especially their that described by Ringer and others as domi- 'egoistical utilitarianism', 'materialism' and nated by the revolutionary spirit of the 'German 'pragmatism' (Ringer I969: i85), strikingly re- Mandarin' revivers of idealism and the humani- miniscent of Malinowski's views in The Diary. ties. These critics of positivism clustered con- Moreover, such views are so thoroughly em- cepts of 'life', 'empathy' and 'Weltanschauung' bodied in Argonauts that a few words about

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Malinowski's anti-utilitarian and anti- the man who would would find a home of sorts pragmatic position are in order. in avant garde London. Argonauts aimed to show that Trobriand In this light, another look at Argonauts- economic life operated by principles other than rejected, Montagu (I942: I48) tells us, by thirty- those of instrumental or utilitarian rationality. seven British publishers-may reveal why this What surprises one here is not only Malinow- classic received such poor reception both before ski's exclusion of pragmatic values from certain and after publication. It was, I believe, a neuro- ceremonial exchanges, but his determination to mantik book trying to compete and find a life exclude utilitarian values from straightforward among an audience in Britain tone-deaf to the economic exchanges. The Trobriander 'works' fundamentally neuromantik tunes of opposition 'toward aims which are certainly not directed to utilitarianism, pragmatism and social Dar- towards the satisfaction of present wants, or to winism Malinowski played so loudly. That the direct achievement of utilitarian purposes' Malinowski deliberately adapted in subsequent (I922:60). Yet while noting (correctly) that years to suit the philosophical taste of the British Malinowski judges the kula 'pragmatically use- is shown not only from the draft plans found in less' Leach claims (incorrectly) that Malinowski The Diary, (I967: 238), but also from his ar- defaults in explaining why the ceremony per- ticles, 'Practical anthropology' (I929), 'The sists. To Leach, Malinowski was simply rationalization of anthropology and administra- stumped by the kula: he had believed (sic) tion'that (I930: 405-8), and published regrets for a 'all behaviour must have a practical end' (Leach romantic methodological past in an introduc- I964: I33). This, of course, clearly ignores tion to Montague, Coming into being among the Malinowski's triumphal euphoria in discover- Australian Aborigines (I937). Since this last deals ing that the kula served no pragmatic end-a specifically with the romantic argument of conclusion for which Malinowski prepares the Argonauts, and since it is relatively unknown, reader by no fewer than three chapters of I quote at length. discussion (ch. 2, 3, 6). Utility is not sovereign Here Malinowski criticises Boas and Benedict in the kula nor in many other performances of for having recently exaggerated individual Trobriand life-not, at least, in the eyes of the cultural integrity (derived from German early Malinowski: romantic thinkers such as Herder) and convert- ing it into the dogma of cultural uniqueness or 'monadology' (I937: xxi). Even more signifi- I hope that whatever the meaning of the Kula might be for Ethnology . . . the meaning of cant is Malinowski's 'correction' of his earlier the Kula will be instrumental to dispel . . . the neuromantik methods in Argonauts. There Mali- nowski proceeded by accepting those stock-in- crude, rationalistic conceptions of primitive trade neuromantik anthropological notions such mankind . . . Indeed, the Kula shows us that as 'tribal genius', 'native outlook', 'Weltans- the whole conception of primitive value . . . has to be revised in the light of our institution chauung', 'life', as elements of proper fieldwork methodology. 'There is no doubt,' Malinowski (I 922a: 5 I6). begins,

Malinowski's participation in these neuroman- that, when in field-work we pass from one tik and academic cultural trends adds greater culture to another, we come to feel that some depth to an appreciation of his work in the new 'tribal genius' or 'national spirit' is taking I920's. Thus more than personal idiosyncracy or sway of us. I have myself confessed that 'what temperament accounts for the style of the Mali- interests me really in the study of the native is nowski who burst onto the intellectual scene of his outlook on things, his Weltanschauung, the I920's London. His personal reputation there, breath of life and reality which he breathes manufactured or not (Malinowski I967: 282 and by which he lives. Every human culture sqq.), seems more understandable if one ap- gives its members a definite vision of the preciates his participation in the culture of the world, a definite zest for life. In the roamings 'second romanticism'. This also accounts in part over human history, and over the earth, it is for Malinowski the man-the soul within The the possibility of seeing life and the world Diary, lovesick hypochondriac, libidinous aes- from the various angles, peculiar to each cul- thete, authentic specimen of brooding, fin de ture, that has always charmed me most, and siecle Spenglerian, 'socio-Slavic' (Mayo I9I8) inspired me with real desire to penetrate other gloom. This is the man recently described by cultures to understand other types of life Firth as 'romantic' in his deeply felt 'nostalgia (Argonauts I922 pp: 5 I7) (I937: xxi-xxii). for belief' (I98I: I09); the man behind the au- thor offlamboyantly titled works such as Sex and But then Malinowski draws back from the repression. . . (I 927) or The sexual lives of savages romantic methodological implications of this ...(I929), and who kept the company of kind of statement and relegates what was in the Havelock Ellis and Bertrand Russell, in short Argonauts an aspect of scientific procedure to the

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level of the artistic and personal. In the passage references to such standard members of immediately following the above, Malinowski Dilthey's methodological vocabulary as the 'na- says, tive outlook', 'Weltanschauung', empathetic understanding and so on does not mean Mali- This I would now like to correct in the nowski's appropriation of Dilthey was signi- sense that-to quote again from the same ficant. Malinowski was a notoriously catholic context-'the love of the final synthesis . . . reader and perhaps just as eclectic a writer. Does and still more the love of the variety and the occurrence of Dilthey's language in Argo- independence of the various cultures' consti- nauts add up to anything? tutes the personal and artistic inspiration of That I clearly think it does comes first from the field-worker. His scientific task lies else- Stocking's claim that Malinowski deserves ma- where (I937: xxii). jor credit for anthropology's reputation as an Sometime in the early I 920S, Malinowski 'empathetic' study of mankind (Malinowski shifted methodological ground, a shift which I926: 768; Stocking i968: I93). To be sure The we have never really appreciated because we Diary may reveal a man more 'observer' than never fully understood the place from which 'participant' (Wax I972: I2). Perhaps once more Malinowski began to move toward the positiv- we have fallen for Malinowski's myth rather ist/pragmatist position of his maturity. than seen through to his reality. Yet, I think that At this juncture I believe I have made a de- the more one examines comparative details of fensible case for the substantial contribution of the methodological and theoretical ambitions of neuromantik thought to Malinowski's method- Dilthey and Malinowski, the more plausible ology, at least in his first great work. However, becomes their relationship. my overall aim has been to redress an interpret- To begin, both Dilthey and Malinowski cher- ive balance, produced by the blanket empiricist/ ished great ambitions for their anthropological positivist readings of Malinowski by Leach, work: Dilthey aimed to build a 'new Human- Jarvie and others. To a lesser extent, I have ism' on the epistemological foundations of the sought to balance Paluch's essentially correct, human sciences he articulated; Malinowski, but unemphatic, interpretation of the mixed too, thought his work could facilitate a 'modern methodological views of the early Malinowski Humanism', both 'strictly scientific' and placed as a product of forces in concert with those at the service of 'life' (i967: 267; Symmons- arrayed against the 'second positivism'. I think Symonolewicz I959: 28). I have shown what those forces were, and how In particular reference to the protean notion Malinowski was moved by them. But the of 'life', both Dilthey (Ermarth I978: 82, question finally arises whether Malinowski's 87sqq.) and Malinowski maintained a certain synthesis of the 'second romanticism' with reserve, which put them at a distance from the Paluch's 'second positivism' was modelled on unqualified romanticising irrationalism of the the work of another scholar? I think Malinow- Mandarin Lebensphilosophie described by ski may have had such a model-whether or not Ringer. Both insisted upon the proper rights of he was aware of his identity-and that this was science by synthesising the agenda of the Wilhelm Dilthey. 'second romanticism' with the duties of intellec- To cite Dilthey's thought here partially re- tual rigour and empirical study imposed by habilitates Jarvie and Leach, although not in a scientific work. Even though Dilthey raised way either of them might have imagined. Dil- 'life' above thought, he did so more in the style they's thought owes much to the tradition of ofJamesian pragmatism than Bergsonian vital- British empiricism, as Hodges has argued (I944: ism (Ermarth I978: IIO, II2, I76). Dilthey and 88sqq.). Central to Dilthey's programme of James promoted scientific activity; Dilthey, in Geisteswissenschaften is the stress on empathetic particular, thought 'life' was straightforwardly understanding (Verstehen) and lived experience empirical (Ermarth I978: io8 sqq.) and thus (Erlebnis) of the human subjects one studies. In ought to be studied biologically (Ermarth I978: some sense this only intensifies the empiricist I78). Like Malinowski, who waxed poetic and claim of the primacy of experience itself. But the metaphysical about the 'zest for life', Dilthey Malinowski of Argonauts is not a classical believed that ethical values needed to be mea- empiricist. Yet, as it happened, since classical sured against the standard of their utility for empiricism in part fathered Dilthey's theory of 'life' (Ermarth I978: 85). Like the fieldwork Geisteswissenschaft, Malinowski could then have anthropologist of Argonauts, Dilthey believed made the easy metamorphosis to empiricist be- 'life' was objective (Ermarth I978: I88) and haviourism-without perhaps ever realising the therefore that it ought to be studied descript- route his intellectual evolution had taken. ively and critically (Ermarth I978: I74, I77): The link between Dilthey and Malinowski man ought to be studied in concrete, lived situa- may seem obvious to some readers of Argonauts, tions (Ermarth I978: 82sqq., 87) and not as an ob- yet at the same time superficial. Simply because ject of contemplative or a priori philosophising. Malinowski fills the final chapter with flowery It is well known that Malinowski assigned

This content downloaded from 187.65.128.54 on Wed, 01 Mar 2017 23:12:53 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 770 CORRESPONDENCE psychology a central place in his anthropology. Bauman, Z. I973. Culture as praxis London: This can be traced to the earliest periods of Routledge & Kegan Paul. Malinowski's English language publication re- Bruner, J. i96i [I9II]- Preface to W. cord (Firth I98I: io8; Malinowski I923a: McDougall, Body and mind. Boston: I923b). It may not be as generally known that Beacon. Dilthey held psychology in the same regard, Ermarth, M. I 978. Wilhelm Dilthey: the critique of and that, like Malinowski, he believed it had to historical reason. Chicago: Univ. Press. be connected with society, culture and history Firth, R. 198I. Bronislaw Malinowski. In (Ermarth I978: I22, I72). In a way similar both Teachers and totems (ed.) S. Silverman. New to Wundt of the Volkerpsychologie (Ermarth York: Columbia Univ. Press. I978: I72) and Malinowski throughout, psy- Heine-Geldern, R. i964. One hundred years of chology served as a Grundswissenschaft for ethnological theory in German-speaking anthropology (Ermarth I978: I4I; Firth i8i: countries: some milestones. Curr. Anthrop. Io8). 5, 407-i8. Dilthey also accommodated drives and in- Hodges, H. A. I944. Wilhelm Dilthey. London: stincts (Ermarth I978: I I3). It has been custom- Routledge & Kegan Paul. ary to attribute this element of Malinowski's Jarvie, I. C. I 964. The revolution in anthropology. thought solely to McDougall (Parsons I964: 67; London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Symmons-Symonolewicz I959: 40). Indeed, Leach, E. R. i964. The epistemological back- the case seems even stronger when we consider ground of Malinowski's empiricism. In that McDougall owed much to William James Man and culture (ed.) R. Firth. New York: -particularly McDougall's later pragmatism Harper & Row. and interest in physiological psychology (Bruner I966. Frazer and Malinowski. Curr. I96I: xi). But the case does not seem as neatly Anthrop. 7, 560-76. closed when we also consider that Dilthey not Lowie, R. I937. The history of ethnological theory. only knew James personally, but also had high New York: Farrar & Rinehart. regard forJames's pragmatism (Ermarth I978: Lukes, S. I972. Emile Durkheim: his life and work. I IO, I76). Ermarth even considers Dilthey a New York: Harper & Row. kind of pragmatist himself in that he consist- Malinowski, B. I9I3. Review of Durkheim's ently opposed 'intellectualism'. Les formes e'ementaires de la vie religieuse. With a biologically attuned psychology as its Folk-lore 24, 5-25-3 I. basic science, the anthropology of Dilthey was I 9 I 4. Soziologie der Familie. Die Geistes- cast in a methodologically individualist mould; wissenschaften (Leipzig) 32 (7 Mai), 883- Malinowski's anthropology was the same. 6. Dilthey was as explicit as was Malinowski in I922a [I96I] Argonauts of the western rejecting the view that society formed a super- Pacific. New York: Dutton (I96I). organic whole (Ermarth I978: I23; Malinowski I922b. Ethnology and the study of I9I3: 284): societies cohere because the indi- society. Economica 2, 208-ig. vidual mental lives of its members cohere I923a. Psychoanalysis and anthro- (Ermarth I978: I71). Here Dilthey seems di- pology [letter to the editor]. Nature Lond. rectly opposed to the tradition of Hegelian so- 112, 65o-I. cial and political thought; Malinowski speci- I923b. Psychology of sex and the fically articulates similar views against Durk- foundations of kinship in primitive society. heim, who, as Lukes has shown, may well Psyche 4, 98-I28. have developed his holistic sociology in re- I926. Anthropology and adminis- sponse to his study of German academic life tration. Natuire, Lond. II8, 768. (Lukes I972: 88-go). I929. Practical anthropology. Africa 2, Taken together, the picture Dilthey con- 22-8. structs of the study of man seems in remarkable I930. The rationalization of anthro- ways similar to that of Malinowski in Argonauts. pology and administration. Africa 3, 405- The student of traditional cultures seeks to 29. penetrate the worldviews of native folk through I932. Letter to W. Koppers (24 May). an empirical exercise of empathetic understand- Malinowski Archives. Sterling Memorial ing (Verstehen) and lived experience (Erlebnis) of Library. Yale University. their world. In this way anthropologists could I935. Preface to The Cassubian civiliz- make known the precious and unique visions ation (ed.) R. Florentz etal. Torum, vii-viii. of the world (Weltanschauungen) unknown until I937. Foreword to F. S. Ashley Mont- that time. This was edifying anthropology, not agu, Coming into being among the Australian the 'reforming' science of Tylor nor the 'prac- Aborigines. London: Routledge & Kegan tical anthropology' of Malinowski gone British. Paul. Ivan Strenski I944. A scientific theory of culture. New Santa Monica, Califortnia York: Oxford Univ. Press.

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I967. A diary in the other anthropologists strict who sense have recently of turned the term. (ed.) V. Malinowski. New York: Har- their attention to the Mediterranean as a cul- court, Brace &Jovanovich. turally homogeneous area, is to be found pre- Montagu, F. S. Ashley 1942. Bronislaw Mali- cisely in the identification of this strong pastoral nowski (I884-I942). Isis 34, 146-50. component. Sheep-farming is perceived to be Mayo, E. I9I8. Letter to Malinowski (23 one of the structural causes of the dominant November). Malinowski Archives Sterl- ideology in this area, reflected in important ing Memorial Library. Yale University. aspects such as the Mafia, honour and dishon- Paluch, A. I98I. The Polish background of our, the preservation of virginity and the in- Malinowski's work. Man (N. S.) I6, 276- stitution of patronage. This is all the more im- 85. portant if one reflects that in linguistic history an Parsons, T. I964. Malinowski and the theory of entirely opposite identification has frequently social systems. In Man and culture (ed.) R. been made-the Mediterranean area has been Firth. New York. Harper & Row. identified with a pre-Indo-European agricultu- Ringer, F. I969. The decline of the German man- ral civilisation, in opposition to the pastoral darins. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. civilisation which would coincide with the Press. arrival of the Indo-Europeans. This view does Stocking, G. W., Jr. I968. Special Review: not consider that on the Apennine Mountains, empathy and antipathy in the heart of dark- the Pyrenees, the Massif Central and the Sierras, ness: an essay review of Malinowski's field which are still (or were until recently) classic diaries. Hist. behav. Sci. 4, I89-94. areas of transhumant sheep-farming, it is un- 1974. The shaping ofAmerican anthropolo- known what agricultural growth could prosper. gy, 1882-1911. New York: Basic Books. Even the most recent and, in my opinion, the Symmons-Symonolewicz, K. 1958. Bronislaw most interesting of the Indo-European theories Malinowski: an intellectual portrait. Pol. -that of Gimbutasl-is not entirely free of this Rev. 3, 55-76. contradiction: it begins with classical evol- 1959. Bronislaw Malinowski: formative utionistic outlines, which oppose an agricultural influences and theoretical evolution. Pol. civilisation, characterised by a matriarchy, Rev. 4, 17-45. based on collective and egalitarian ownership, Wax, M. L. 1972. Tenting with Malinowski. peaceful by nature and with chthonic gods (the Am. sociol. Rev. 37, 1-13. Earth Mother) to a pastoral civilisation charac- terised by a patriarchy, based on individual ownership, of warlike nature and with celestial Rams and billy-goats gods (the Father in Heaven). The pastoralist The article by Anton Blok which appeared in civilisation would originate from the Euro- Man (N. S.) i6, 427-40 offers a convincing ex- Asiatic steppes (Kurgan) and would represent planation of the origins of the semantic motiv- the Proto-Indo-European group before the Dia- ations of the words 'billy-goat' and 'horned' to spora; while the agricultural civilisation would express the concept of the betrayed husband. It represent the Pre-Indo-European or Old Euro- also lends itself to a discussion of a method- pean substratum and would be identified with ological nature. the original Mediterranean. Sicily and southern The etymology as such was already known. Italy, so obviously pastoral, would thus come to We find it clearly defined in a good dialectal be included, through this vision, in the agri- dictionary of the last century-the Vocabolario cultural cradle! bolognese italiano (i869-74) edited by Coronedi For this reason, the invitation which Blok Berti: 'Bech: Becco, capro, caprone, irco. The extends to anthropologists to interest them- male of the nanny-goat. Said of whoever en- selves in history seems particularly important. If dures the shame which comes to him from his this challenge were to be taken up, empirical and wife, having thus taken on the likeness of this methodological discoveries of considerable im- animal's instinct. This beast does not become angry, portance could result, especially in terms of a unlike others, on seeing his mate lying with others' comparison with the conclusions of the Indo- (my emphasis). Blok's merit lies in having Europeanists. brought to light how this type of information Leaving aside for the moment the Indo- (on the behaviour of animals which form the European problem and its intrinsic contradic- basis of an economic structure) generally tends tions I would like to discuss some of Blok's to be neglected. methodological arguments and to extend his The pastoral civilisation which is reflected in linguistic horizon. I begin with the premiss that this metaphor of the 'horns'-as with other the pastoralist nature of much of the Mediterra- numerous metaphors of pastoral origin found in nean area is undeniable, not only on the syn- Latin and in the Romance languages-is of fun- chronic level, but also on the diachronic level, damental importance for the Mediterranean. due to the clearly pastoral character of the pre- Perhaps the principal merit of Blok, and of the historic cultures of the Apennines, the Pyrenees

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