It concentrates on the cultivation practices the Trobriand Islanders used to grow yams, taro, bananas and palms[1] which Malinowski's more famous ethnography Argonauts of the Western Pacific briefly mentioned in passing.
[2] It describes the gardens in which the Trobrianders grew food as more than merely utilitarian spaces, even as works of art.
[3] 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Gell called the book "still the best account of any primitive technological-cum-magical system, and unlikely ever to be superseded in this respect".
[9] Malinowski was also praised for his serious engagement with the realities of Trobriand agriculture, its emphasis on its ceremonial aspects notwithstanding, in favour of a simpler, romanticized view.
Its analysis of the context and contents of Trobriand spells was one of the first to bring ethnography to bear on the subject of language.