ABSTRACT
The phase of Malinowski's work to be discussed in this paper is his relation to the development of the theory of social systems, a principal common interest of sociology and social anthropology. It seems to me that the most adequate way to approach the problem is to recognize that there are two relatively distinct levels on which such theorizing may be attempted. The first is the level closest to the ethnographic facts, the immediate conceptual framework in terms of which observed activities are described and interpreted. The second is the level of general theory where such facts serve illustrative and demonstrative purposes, since the main concern of the theorist is to discern general lines and patterns of order in his subject-matter.
