Crime and Custom in Savage Society

"Crime and Custom in Savage Society" is a foundational work in legal anthropology that explores the complex systems of law, order, and social obligation within the Trobriand Islands of Melanesia. Written by the pioneering ethnographer Bronislaw Malinowski, this study challenges the then-prevailing notion that indigenous societies lived in a state of either lawless anarchy or blind adherence to custom. Instead, Malinowski demonstrates how social cohesion is maintained through a sophisticated...