Page:The sexual life of savages in north-western Melanesia.djvu/238

Rh narrow modes of thinking and feeling, and our own rigid structures of social and moral prejudice. Although I myself should have been on my guard against such traps, and though at that time I was already acquainted with the Trobrianders and their ways of thinking, yet, on realizing their disapproval of children out of wedlock, I went through all this false reasoning before a fuller acquaintance with the facts forced me to correct it.

Fecundity in unmarried girls is discreditable; sterility in married women is unfortunate. The same term nakarige {na, female prefix, karige, to die) is used of a childless woman as of a barren sow. But this condition brings no shame on the person concerned, and does not detract from the social status of such a woman. The oldest wife of To'uluwa, Bokuyoba, has no children, yet she ranks first among the wives as is the due of her age. Nor is the word nakarige considered to be indelicate; a sterile woman will use it when speaking of herself, and others will apply it to her in her presence. But fertility in married women is considered a good thing. Primarily it affects her maternal kinsmen, and is a matter of great importance to them (see ch. i, sec. i). "The kinsmen rejoice, for their bodies become stronger when one of their sisters or nieces has plenty of children." The wording of this statement expresses the interesting conception of collective clan unity, of the members being not only of the same flesh, but almost forming one body (see ch. vi and ch. xiii, sec. 5).

Returning again to the main trend of our argument, it must be noted that the scorn and disapproval levelled Rh