The sexual life of savages in North-western Melanesia
Subtitle: an ethnographic account of courtship, marriage, and family life among the natives of the Trobriand Islands, British New Guinea
By: Bronislaw Malinowski ; introduction by Annette B. Weiner, with a preface by Havelock Ellis.
Publisher: Beacon Press
Published: 1987
Place of publication: Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 505
Subjects: Ethnology -- Papua New Guinea -- Trobriand Islands; Sex customs -- Papua New Guinea -- Trobriand Islands; Family -- Papua New Guinea -- Trobriand Islands; Trobriand Islands (Papua New Guinea) -- Social life and customs
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Reprint. Originally published: London : G. Routledge, 1929. With new introd.
Table of contents: title: The relations between the sexes in tribal life. The principle of mother-right -- A Trobriand village -- Family life -- The division of property and duties according to sex -- The status of woman in native society. The privileges and burdens of rank -- Mortuary rites and festivities -- Woman’s share in magic -- Prenuptial intercourse. The sexual life of children -- Age divisions -- The amorous life of adolescence -- The bachelor’s house -- The avenues to marriage. Motives for marrying -- The consent of the wife’s family -- Marriage gifts -- Infant betrothal and cross-cousin marriage -- Matrimonial alliances in a chief’s family -- Ceremonies of infant betrothal -- Marriage. Husband and wife as companions -- Adultery and sexual jealousy -- Economic tribute from the wife’s family -- The polygamy of chiefs -- The domestic aspect of polygamy -- Divorce and the dissolution of marriage by death. Divorce -- Death and the bereaved -- Funeral ceremonies and the obligations of mourning -- The ideology of mourning -- Procreation and pregnancy in native belief and custom. The male and female organism and the sexual impulse in native belief -- Reincarnation and the way to life through the spirit world -- Ignorance of physiological paternity -- Words and deeds in testimony -- Fatherless children in a matrilineal society -- The singular claims of sociological paternity -- Pregnancy and childbirth. Preparation for the first pregnancy rites -- Ceremonial of first pregnancy -- Customs of pregnancy and confinement -- Mother and child -- Customary forms of license. The erotic element in games -- Games involving physical contact -- Seasons of love and festivity -- Ceremonial gatherings : Kayasa -- Orgiastic festivals -- Ulatile : youth in search of amorous adventure -- Katuyousi : a ceremonial escapade of girls -- Yuasa : orgiastic assaults by women -- Actuality of orgiastic license -- Love-making and the psychology of erotic life. Erotic attraction -- Repulsion by ugliness, age, and disease -- Beauty of the human face and body -- The care of the body -- The course of an intrigue -- Cases of personal attachment -- The commercial aspect of love -- Jealousy -- Beauty, colour, and scent in love-making -- The conversation of two lovers -- Erotic approaches -- The act of sex -- The magic of love and beauty. The importance of beauty -- Ceremonial occasions of beauty magic -- Beauty magic : the ritual of washing -- Beauty magic : the ritual of adornment -- The magic of safety and renown at festivities -- The magic of love -- The rite and the spell in love magic  -- The realities of love magic -- The magic of oblivion -- Erotic dreams and fantasies.  Dreams -- Sex in folk-lore : string figures -- Sex in folk-lore : facetize -- Sex in folk-lore : legend and myth -- The erotic paradise of the Trobriander -- Morals and manners. Decency and decorum -- The morals of sex -- The censure of sexual aberrations -- Modesty in speech and behavior -- Exogamy and the prohibition of incest -- The supreme taboo -- Savage myth of incest. The source of love magic -- The original text of the myth -- Cases of actual incest.