How did the academic background of Malinowksi inform his later work, particularly his Argonauts of the Western Pacific text?

Starting in 1910, Malinowski studied Aboriginal Australians and their exchange patterns while at the London School of Economics (LSE). His work also included a trip to New Guinea, where he was located when World War I broke out in 1914. As he was not allowed back to England (as he was a citizen of Austria), he was allowed by the Australian government to travel to the Trobriand Islands in Melanesia. His book, Argonauts of the...

Starting in 1910, Malinowski studied Aboriginal Australians and their exchange patterns while at the London School of Economics (LSE). His work also included a trip to New Guinea, where he was located when World War I broke out in 1914. As he was not allowed back to England (as he was a citizen of Austria), he was allowed by the Australian government to travel to the Trobriand Islands in Melanesia. His book, Argonauts of the Western Pacific, focuses on the Trobriand Islands, using participant observation and interviews. In this book, published in 1922, he first discusses the methodology of ethnography, and then focuses on the religious beliefs, folk lore, and ways of life of the Kula people. He defines the conditions for getting involved with ethnographic work as "cutting oneself off from the company of other white men, and remaining in as close contact with the natives as possible." By interacting with the local people, he believes, the ethnographer gets to know them intimately, and this is the method he used for his study of the people on the Trobriand Islands.