Decentering Anthropology by Way of Malinowski

Chandana Mathur is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. She is a former Chair of the World Council of Anthropological Associations (2016–18) and a former Vice President of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (2021–23). She has received a Distinguished Service Award from the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, and a Presidential Award from the American Anthropological Association.

“This book has a wonderful concept—it is a great idea to consider Malinowski’s contributions to anthropology from the perspective of 2025, a century after Argonauts of the Western Pacific was published. The introduction is terrific in setting forth the book’s argument.” • Gordon Mathews, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Decentering Anthropology, by Way of MalinowskiChandana Mathur and Dorothy L. ZinnPart I: In the Wake of Bronisław MalinowskiChapter 1. The Center as an Intersection: Following the Malinowski–Masson CollaborationDaniela SalvucciChapter 2. Magic’s Transference for National Invented Traditions: Malinowski in Mexico (and Oaxaca)Ricardo F. MacipChapter 3. Gardens in Connections: Plants, Ethnography, and Malinowski’s LegacyDavide CacchioniChapter 4. Malinowski, Kenyatta, and Anthropology in Kenya’s Nation BuildingIsaac K. NyamongoChapter 5. A Notorious Diarist—Bronisław Malinowski and His Sinful Publics: Polish Editor’s RemarksGrażyna KubicaPart II: Decentering Malinowski, Decentering AnthropologyChapter 6. After the “Diary in a Queer Sense of the Term”: Anxious Borders between Works and Lives in Anthropology TodayThomas StrongChapter 7. Decolonizing Archival Description: Reviewing Problematic Language in the Malinowski CollectionEmma PizarroChapter 8. Rupture and Social Isolation in Ireland’s Asylum System: A Personal ReflectionAbayomi OgunsanyaChapter 9. Un-disciplining the “Native”: Decolonizing and Disrupting Alterity in AnthropologyJoy OwenAfterword: Ambivalence: Between Malinowski’s Two Anthropological WorldsMichał BuchowskiIndex