Abstract
SAVAGES to use a popular term, are no more logical and consistent than civilised peoples. This is a point which ! s often overlooked and has been use fully emphasised by Prof. Malinowski on more than one occasion. Ever since it has been recorded that some primitive peoples are ignorant of the part of the male in procreation, certain obvious difficulties which it is thought should inevitably arise have caused some doubts as to the completeness of this alleged ignorance. In this book Prof. lVlaliriowski records the results of his inquiries on the subject among the people of the Trobriand Islands, with special reference to its bearing upon the position of the father as a purely sociological and not a biological factor in the family group. The results are extremely interesting, and if Prof. Malinowski has not been successful in disposing of all, he has at any rate solved some of the more serious difficulties, The case of the unmarried mother is still a stumblingblck and the author has to fall back upon the explanation that a birth is contrary to the custom of society, a force which, when evrything is taken into account, does not seem quite hdequate, strong as it undoubtedly is. Prof. Maliriowski has some illuminating remarks to make on the relation of this lack of physiological knowledge to the attitude of the natives towards Christianity.
The Father in Primitive Psychology.
By Prof. B. Malinowski. (Psyche Miniatures, General Series, No. 8.) Pp. 93. (London: Kegan Paul and Co., Ltd., 1927.) 2s.6d. net.
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The Father in Primitive Psychology . Nature 120, 764 (1927). https://doi.org/10.1038/120764a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/120764a0