Sex and Repression in Savage Society

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Part of a series on the
Anthropology of kinship
Basic concepts
Descent
Linealities
Household forms and residence
Terminology
By group
Case studies
Feminist
Sexuality
Major theorists
Related articles
Social anthropology
Cultural anthropology

Sex and Repression in Savage Society is a 1927 book by

Freud is not universal."[1] Malinowski gives a partial explanation of the role of sex in social organization through the synthesis of psychoanalysis and anthropology, considered competing academic disciplines at the time.[2] The book is considered an important contribution to psychoanalysis, which Malinowski acknowledged was a "popular craze of the day."[3]

I have never been in any sense a follower of psycho-analytic practice, or an adherent of psycho-analytic theory; and now, while impatient of the exorbitant claims of psycho-analysis, of its chaotic arguments and tangled terminology, I must yet acknowledge a deep sense of indebtedness to it for stimulation as well for valuable instruction in some aspects of human psychology.[3]

The book is divided into four parts. In Part 1 (The Formation of a Complex), he lays out the issues related to

maternal roles. In Part 2 (The Mirror of Tradition) he examines myth and taboo related to family dynamics. In Part 3 (Psycho-analysis and Anthropology), he examines the rift between the two disciplines and looks at the role parricide may have as a foundation of culture. In Part 4 (Instinct and Culture), he examines how humans made the transition from animalistic instincts to organized society, situating the family as "the cradle of nascent culture." He describes how taboos that develop within a society must then be enforced through authority and repression
.

Malinowski's studies of the

non–Western societies
.

In a brief passage in his 1979 book Broca's Brain, the late science populariser Carl Sagan criticised Malinowski for thinking that "he had discovered a people in the Trobriand Islands who had not worked out the connection between sexual intercourse and childbirth", arguing that it was more likely that the islanders were simply making fun of Malinowski.[6] Mark Mosko wrote in 2014 that further research on Trobriand people affirmed some of Malinowski's claims about their beliefs on procreation, adding that the dogmas are tied to a complicated system of belief encapsulating magic into beliefs about human and plant procreation, but he also stated that "the preponderance of ethnographic evidence ... refutes Malinowski’s notorious claims of Islanders’ supposed “ignorance of physiological paternity”".[7]

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-7456-2716-8
  2. ^ Young, D. (1928). Malinowski's Sex and Repression in Savage Society (review). Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 25, p. 490.
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-0-415-25554-7
  4. ^ Doniger, Gertrude (1930. The Oedipus complex in savage society. In Sanger, Margaret (Ed.). Birth Control Review, p. 288.
  5. ISBN 978-1-56308-131-6
    .
  6. ISBN 0-340-24424-0
    .
  7. S2CID 144815484
    . Notes ... 21. This version of Trobriand cosmology, of itself, is consistent with the preponderance of ethnographic evidence which refutes Malinowski's notorious claims of Islanders' supposed "ignorance of physiological paternity"

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sex_and_Repression_in_Savage_Society&oldid=1131108607"