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MALINOWSKI Bronislaw Malinowski, born in Poland in 1884 (died 1942), is one of the most influential founding British social anthropologists. From his work with the Trobriand Islanders of New Guinea he pioneered a set of principles for carrying out ethnographic fieldwork. He viewed that all societies should be understood as interconnected mutually functioning parts and, drawing on Freud, was able to show how beliefs such as magic were not primitive superstition but about individual psychology and also served an important social role. The publication of his fieldwork diaries in the 1960s, however, led to a critical debate about the nature of observing other cultures. His work was extremely influential in sociosemiotics circles from Firth onwards. (DMac)

See also HALLIDAY.