"The Sexual Life of Savages in North-Western Melanesia" contains ethnographic data that attempts to establish that the Freudian Oedipus complex is not universal. This important work is his second in the trilogy on the Trobrianders, with the other two being "Argonauts of the Western Pacific" (1922), and "Coral Gardens and Their Magic" (1935). In the preface Malinowski says that sexuality "dominates in fact almost every aspect of culture". Malinowski provides a detailed description of the social organization of sexuality - social rites, partner choice, et al - "tracing the Trobriand lifecycle from birth through puberty, marriage, and death". In further chapters, the parent-child relationship of the Trobrianders is described with details of their complex matrilineal relationship structure in which the biological parentage is ignored. -- Publisher's website.