Page:The sexual life of savages in north-western Melanesia.djvu/33



chosen for this book the plainest, that is the most truthful title, partly to contribute towards the rehabilitation of the indispensable and often misused term sexual, partly to announce directly what the reader has to expect in the most outspoken paragraphs. Sex is not a mere physiological transaction to the primitive South Sea Islander any more than it is to us; it implies love and love-making; it becomes the nucleus of such venerable institutions as marriage and the family; it pervades art and it produces its spells and its magic. It dominates in fact almost every aspect of culture. Sex, in its widest meaning — and it is thus that I have used it in the title of this book — is rather a sociological and cultural force than a mere bodily relation of two individuals. But the scientific treatment of this subject obviously involves also a keen interest in the biological nucleus. The anthropologist must therefore give a description of the direct approaches between two lovers, as we find them in Oceania, shaped by their traditions, obeying their laws, following the customs of their tribe.

In Anthropology the essential facts of life must be stated simply and fully, though in scientific language, and such a plain statement cannot really offend the most delicately minded nor the most prejudiced reader; nor can it be of any use to the seeker after pornography; least of all Rh