This book is based on extensive field work in various parts of the world. It is both a summing up and a reformulation of Professor Malinowski’s fuctional theory of culture. Hi was convinced that cultural phenomena were determined by basic needs and the possibilities of satisfying them. This functional concept accounted for the variety of differentiation , as well as for the common measure in the variety. The three essays- ‘A Scientific Theory of Culture’, ‘Functional Theory’, and ‘The Last of the British Classical Anthropologists’ (a tribute to Sir James Frazer), written in Malinowski’s concise, deceptively simple style-are an excellent statement of his approach to culture.