Freedom and civilization / by Bronislaw Malinowski.

  • Bronisław Malinowski
Date:
1944
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Freedom and civilization / by Bronislaw Malinowski. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    160/360 page 142
    motives and purposes effective. He can transform every one of his culturally determined motives into some action or system of behavior which will lead him to the results desired, unless he is deprived by constraint or by legal trammels from access to these results, such as occurs in the case of a slave, serf, caste mem¬ ber or unemployed pauper. We see therefore that in any form choice is the result of a long process, essentially social, where from infancy the individual depends on others, learns from them and co-operates with them. Projecting this on a typical career of an individual, primitive or civilized, we see that earlier or later he has to make the choice of his career. Even in a primitive society there is a certain range within which choice can be taken. The man or woman may excel in physical strength. This will predispose him or her to devote more time to economic activities than to the cultivation of magical or religious interests. To specialize in these latter, intelligence, memory, and at times even certain abnormal characteristics are desirable. Some men become naturally tribal leaders in the or¬ ganization of enterprise or in the direction of ceremonies. As civilization develops and institutions multiply and crystallize on definite purposes, the range of choice widens. There is a choice of becoming an artisan or craftsman, or a trader and merchant, or in higher cultures a member of a profession, a politician, clergyman, artist, or intellectual. From the point of view of education it is important to note here that most of it takes the form of apprenticeship, except in very highly differentiated cultures where professional schooling precedes apprenticeship. Education as apprenticeship means that a man has to translate the choice of his career or interest into a social act: he has to join the institution in which his chosen type of activity is embodied. Freedom of choice thus is always
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