Page:The sexual life of savages in north-western Melanesia.djvu/199

Rh very important, it allays any suspicion of their complicity in his murder by black magic. To understand the last queer motive, one has to realize the extreme fear, the ever-vigilant suspicion of sorcery, and the unusual lack of trust in anyone at all with reference to it. The Trobrianders, in common with all races at their culture level, regard every death without exception as an act of sorcery, unless it is caused by suicide or by a visible accident, such as poisoning or a spear thrust. It is characteristic of their idea of the bonds of marriage and fatherhood—which they regard as artificial and untrustworthy under any strain—that the principal suspicion of sorcery attaches always to the wife and children. The real interest in a man's welfare, the real affection, the natural innocence of any attempt against him are, by the traditional system of ideas, attributed to his maternal kinsmen. His wife and children are mere strangers, and custom persists in ignoring any real identity of interest between them.

How utterly this traditional view is generally at variance with the economic and psychological reality, has been shown, and illustrated by many facts in chapter i, sections i and 2. For, apart from the personal attachment which always exists between husband and wife, father and children, it is clear that a man's children lose more at his death than do his kinsmen, who, as his heirs, always gain materially, especially in the case of a man of wealth, rank, and importance. And, in reality, the actual Rh