One of his frist and most famous anthropological studies was with the Trobriand Islanders of New Guinea in the southwest Pacific from 1915 to 1918. He studieds their day-to-day lofe and learnt their language. He was particularly interested in their beliefs and one of their rituals called 'the Kula Ring'. The people on the different Trobriand islands gave and took two types of objects from each other: a neaklace or a bracelet. The islanders would sail long distances to exchange these gifts with people on other islands. Necklaces travelled clockwise and the arm bracelets travelled anti-clockwise. There were many rules to the Kula Ring and Mailnowski concluded that the ritual helped keep friendly relationships between the islanders and in particular show respect to the different kings, who exchanged the special gifts.