Coral Gardens and Their Magic - A Study of the Methods of Tilling the Soil and of Agricultural Rites in the Trobriand Islands

The Trobriand Islands are a 450-square-kilometre archipelago of coral atolls off the east coast of New Guinea. They are part of the nation of Papua New Guinea and are in Milne Bay Province. Most of the population of 12,000 indigenous inhabitants live on the main island of Kiriwina, which is also the location of the government station, Losuia. Other major islands in the group are Kaileuna, Vakuta, and Kitava. The group is considered to be an important tropical rainforest ecoregion in need of conservation. This book concentrates on the cultivation practices the Trobriand Islanders used to grow yams, taro, bananas and palms. It describes the gardens in which the Trobrianders grow food as more than merely utilitarian spaces, even as works of art. In 1988 Alfred Gell called the book "still the best account of any primitive technological-cum-magical system, and unlikely ever to be superseded in this respect". This book has been described as Malinowski's magnum opus.