It was widely regarded as a masterpiece and significantly boosted Malinowski's reputation in the world of academia.[3][4][5]: 7 [6]: 72 It has been described as an "instant classic"; already James George Frazer in his preface to the first edition compared Malinowski's impact on ethnography to that of Shakespeare on literature.[7]: 9–10
Considered the first modern ethnography,[8] Argonauts of the Western Pacific redefined the ethnographic genre.[9] Adam Kuper, in his seminal 1973 book on British social anthropology, begins his analysis with Malinowski's status as the founder of the discipline:
Malinowski has a strong claim to being the founder of the profession of social anthropology in Britain, for he established its distinctive apprenticeship -- intensive fieldwork in an exotic community.[10]
Many other anthropologists also trace the fieldwork mandate back to Malinowski, including Murray Wax:
In the final analysis, the major credit for discovering the technique of intensive personal fieldwork among a single people must go to Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942). His researches among the Trobriand Islanders during the years 1916-18 yielded a series of epochal volumes which revolutionized the content and practice of anthropology.[11]
Today, Argonauts of the Western Pacific is the archetypal account of anthropologists' "following the people" method of collecting information for a multi-sited ethnography.[12]
