Question

How and why did Malinowski challenge the notion that “economic man” (homo economicus) is a human universal?

Answer 1

Malinowski delineated three significant circles of trade: means, eminence, kula. In the resource circle, the islanders send sweet potatoes to the town boss, who must assign them for public devouring. The distinction circle has unique things for ladies and men. The ladies trade non-business items produced using banana leaves for events, for example, marriage and funerary courses of action. These banana leaves give defensive sorcery against magic just as images of solidarity to the network. The male eminence circle includes hatchet sharp edges, mud pots, sweet potatoes, tusks and kayaks, and men trade these things as settlement, pay for homicide and prizes. The kula ring incorporates armshells and accessories around a 700 mile chain of islands. Close by this formal trade, this exchange framework keeps up an equal optional exchange utilitarian things (groceries, crude materials, makes, and so forth) Inside the setting of social submersion, Malinowski immediately perceived Trobriand financial movement resisting the contruct of homo economicus.

Malinowski’s observations of the Trobriand Island economy forced a new understanding of economic rules, governed by the a new set of economic assumptions, now playfully termed as homo reciprocans. 64 Consequently, Malinowski set up his own principles to articulate how classical political economy is not universal: (1) people are socially-motivated and inherently cooperative (2) people inherently change for the community; (3) in primitive (non-tainted) societies, needs and wants are largely met; (4) the Trobriand Islander is not out to maximize, but rather he follows a complex set of traditional forces: duties and obligations, beliefs and magic, social ambition and vanities; and (5) the larger family or tribe makes the primary economic decisions, and thus serves as the unit of analysis.

Malinowski determined that the Trobriand Islander acts in a way antithetical to homo economicus, directly confronting the ethnocentrisms of rational economics. With the lingering effects of a postenlightenment climate, Malinowski arose as a true forerunner of postmodernity. Unsurprisingly, the academic response was quite passionate. Many decried Malinowski as too relativistic and intellectually dishonest

But others followed Malinowski to solidify the cultural sensitivity to economic theory. Their overall goal was to develop a grand theory of economics that applied to both Western and non-Western systems. These anthropologists sought to sift through classic political economy and adjust it to a more universal paradigm. Many of the basic outlines of homo economicus were not completely discarded, but modified. Everyone had basic wants, but these wants were culturally-determined. For example, non-monetary economies did not value gold as highly as monetary economies.