57. Compare the linguistic analysis of this spell in Chapter XVIII. [przypis autorski]
58. Cf. Chapter II, Divisions III and IV, and some of the following Divisions of this Chapter. [przypis redakcyjny]
59. eo ipso (Latin) — by that very act. [przypis edytorski]
60. status quo (Latin) — the current state of affairs. [przypis edytorski]
61. I am adducing these views not for any controversial purposes, but to justify and make clear why I stress certain general features of Trobriand Economic Sociology. My contentions might run the danger of appearing as gratuitous truisms if not thus justified. The opinion that primitive humanity and savages have no individual property is an old prejudice shared by many modern writers, especially in support of communistic theories, and the so-called materialistic view of history. The „communism of savages” is a phrase very often read, and needs no special quotation. The views of individual search for food and household economy are those of Karl Bűcher, and they have directly influenced all the best modern writings on Primitive Economics. Finally, the view that we have done with Primitive Economics if we have described the way in which the natives procure their food, is obviously a fundamental premise of all the naīve, evolutionary theories which construct the successive stages of economic development. This view is summarised in the following sentence : „...In many simple communities, the actual food quest, and operations immediately arising from it, occupy by far the greater part of the people’s time and energy, leaving little opportunity for the satisfaction of any lesser needs”. This sentence, quoted out of „Notes and Queries on Anthropology”, p. 160, article on the Economics of the Social Group, represents what may be called the official view of contemporary Ethnology on the subject, and in perusing the rest of the article, it can be easily seen that all the manifold economic problems, with which we are dealing in this book, have been so far more or less neglected. [przypis redakcyjny]
62. These views had to be adduced at length, although touched upon already in Chapter II, Division IV, because they imply a serious error with regard to human nature in one of its most fundamental aspects. We can show up their fallacy on one example only, that of the Trobriand Society, but even this is enough to shatter their universal validity and show that the problem must be re-stated. The criticised views contain very general propositions, which, however, can be answered only empirically. And it is the duty of the field Ethnographer to answer and correct them. Because a statement is very general, it can none the less be a statement of empirical fact. General views must not be mixed up with hypothetical ones. The latter must be banished from field work; the former cannot receive too much attention. [przypis redakcyjny]
63. As a matter of fact, this custom is not so prominent in the Trobnands as in other Massim districts and all over the Papuo-Melanesian world, cf. for instance Seligman, op. cit. p. 56 and Plate VI, Fig. 6. [przypis redakcyjny]
64. Again, in explaining value, I do not wish to trace its possible origins, but I try simply to show what are the actual and observable elements into which the natives’ attitude towards the object valued can be analysed. [przypis redakcyjny]
65. a limine (Latin) — from the threshold, from the beginning. [przypis edytorski]
66. These natives have no idea of physiological fatherhood. See Chapter II, Division VI. [przypis redakcyjny]