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.

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    led us to the recognition that human beings always organize for a purpose. The specific way in which this mobilization of human energies and resources on cultural lines occurs is through insti¬ tutions. The individual achieves his career, his maintenance, his emotional fulfillment and his ambition by participating in several institutions, and he enjoys his personal freedom insofar as the institution gives it to him. In this context we have seen that authority is indispensable in any form of organization; there must always be someone who takes the initiative, who gives orders, who resolves conflicts and acts as moderator in opposing claims. Such authority exists in every one of the component institutions within a community, where it becomes the distribution of power through initiative, control of the material and mechanical outfit, and control of re¬ sponsibility and loyalties. No individual, as against any other individual or all others, is ever free from trammels, restraints and temporarily unlimited submissions. In the narrowest sense, freedom is generated in the partial or total submission of individuals or groups to authority. In every instance we have found that freedom consists in a set of oppor¬ tunities in which individuals and groups can mature their pur¬ poses, enact them successfully, and enjoy the fruits of their labors. Freedom, therefore, is an attribute of action. At the same time, we have seen that all action is a temporary surrender of freedom. Perhaps the most important distinction in the problem of free¬ dom and bondage is between those intrinsic constraints which cannot ever be eliminated from purposeful human action, and those arbitrary constraints, on the other hand, which are imposed on human beings, groups and communities by the abuse of power, whether this be economic, legal or political. We have found that the essential distinction between the rules of freedom and rules
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