Cultural Anthropology of Bronisław Malinowski and Reflection on the Economic Crisis

Abstract

The paper presents two theories from the area of cultural anthropology. The first is B. Malinowski, who criticized economism and moralism. I present further stages of this criticism, with special importance placed on the concept of homo oeconomicus. Malinowski also showed how moral norms are implemented in primitive cultures by means of magic, cults, customs and rituals and rites. Another important section is devoted to Malinowski’s analysis of how cultural institutions were important for stable functioning of primitive communities. They sheltered those communities form crisis of the kind that we experience today. The second theory is economical ethics of K. Hofman, one of the newest achievements of German business ethics. So works of cultural anthropology are worth being read again.