Malinowski pioneered a new method that no one else had dared to attempt before him. Even if it was the accidental result of him not being allowed to leave Papua New Guinea due to his status as the citizen of an enemy nation in WWI, he single-handedly ushered in the new paradigm of long-term participant-observation based research.

In the early 20th century, Malinowski was not the only or even the first anthropologist to conduct participant-observation based research while living alongside his informants in the village he was studying. Nonetheless his eloquence and talent for self-promotion have ensured that he remains its most famous first proponent.