Page:The sexual life of savages in north-western Melanesia.djvu/46

Rh the social ideas and sentiments of the native, is not, as a matter of fact, quite well adjusted in its working.

It has been necessary to emphasize the relationship between a Trobriander and his father, his mother, and his mother's brother, for this is the nucleus of the complex system of mother-right or matriliny, and this system governs the whole social life of these natives. The question is, moreover, specially related to the main theme of this book: love-making, marriage, and kinship are three aspects of the same subject; they are the three facets which it presents in turn to sociological analysis.

We have so far given the sociological definition of fatherhood, of the mother's brother's relation, and of the nature of the bond between mother and child; a bond founded on the biological facts of gestation and the extremely close psychological attachment which results from these. The best way to make this abstract statement clear will be to display the inter-working of the three relationships in an actual community in the Trobriands. Thus we can make our explanations concrete and get into touch with actual life instead of moving among abstractions; and, incidentally, too, we can introduce some personalities who will appear in the later parts of our narrative.

The village of Omarakana is, in a sense, the capital

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