Crime and Custom in Savage Society: With a New Introduction by James M. Donovan - Softcover

-Malinowski has said a great deal for so small a book. This little treatise is destined to be widely read and oft referred to.- --Frank H. Hankins, Social Forces -Brilliant, weighted with many concrete facts, illustrated with graphic accounts of Melanesian crimes and tragedies, and illuminated with the clear insight of one who knows these people well, Crime and Custom offers the social scientist a fascinating and scholarly study in the sociology of law.- --Leslie A. White, American Journal of Sociology -[A] stimulating contribution to the study of law and order in a primitive society.- --I. Schapera, Man -Rarely has such a little book had such a big intellectual influence... Until well after World War II almost every work of legal anthropology felt the need to cite it and take it on. Even now, it remains a core element of the legal anthropologist's basic literacy.- --John M. Conley and William M. O'Barr, Law & Social Inquiry "Malinowski has said a great deal for so small a book. This little treatise is destined to be widely read and oft referred to." --Frank H. Hankins, Social Forces "Brilliant, weighted with many concrete facts, illustrated with graphic accounts of Melanesian crimes and tragedies, and illuminated with the clear insight of one who knows these people well, Crime and Custom offers the social scientist a fascinating and scholarly study in the sociology of law." --Leslie A. White, American Journal of Sociology "[A] stimulating contribution to the study of law and order in a primitive society." --I. Schapera, Man "Rarely has such a little book had such a big intellectual influence... Until well after World War II almost every work of legal anthropology felt the need to cite it and take it on. Even now, it remains a core element of the legal anthropologist's basic literacy." --John M. Conley and William M. O'Barr, Law & Social Inquiry

Crime and Custom in Savage Society represents Bronislaw Malinowski's major discussion of the relationship between law and society. Throughout his career he constructed a coherent science of anthropology, one modeled on the highest standards of practice and theory. Methodology steps forward as a core element of the refashioned anthropology, one that stipulates the manner in which anthropological data should be acquired. Malinowski's choice of law was not inevitable, but neither was it unmotivated. Anyone interested in understanding the social structure and organization of societies cannot avoid dealing with the concept of "law," even if it is to deny its presence. Law and anthropology have shown a natural affinity for one another, sharing a beneficial history of using the methods and viewpoints of one to inform and advance the other. The best lesson Malinowski provides us with comes in the last paragraphs of Crime and Custom in Savage Society: "The true problem is not to study how human life submits to rules; the real problem is how the rules become adapted to life." On that question, he has left us richly inspired to continue the quest.