Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942) was a founder of modern social anthropology. He held the first chair in social anthropology at the London School of Economics from 1927. In 1938 he moved to the United States, where he taught at Yale and conducted field research in Mexico.

Part 1 The Formation of a Complex; Chapter 1 THE PROBLEM; Chapter 2 THE FAMILY IN FATHER-RIGHT AND MOTHER-RIGHT; Chapter 3 THE FIRST STAGE OF THE FAMILY DRAMA; Chapter 4 FATHERHOOD IN MOTHER-RIGHT; Chapter 5 INFANTILE SEXUALITY; Chapter 6 APPRENTICESHIP TO LIFE; Chapter 7 THE SEXUALITY OF LATER CHILDHOOD; Chapter 8 PUBERTY; Chapter 9 THE COMPLEX OF MOTHER-RIGHT; Part 2 The Mirror of Tradition; Chapter 10 COMPLEX AND MYTH IN MOTHER-RIGHT; Chapter 11 DISEASE AND PERVERSION; Chapter 12 DREAMS AND DEEDS; Chapter 13 OBSCENITY AND MYTH; Part 3 Psycho-analysis and Anthropology; Chapter 14 THE RIFT BETWEEN PSYCHO-ANALYSIS AND SOCIAL SCIENCE; Chapter 15 A 'REPRESSED COMPLEX'; Chapter 16 'THE PRIMORDIAL CAUSE OF CULTURE'; Chapter 17 THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE PARRICIDE; Chapter 18 5 THE ORIGINAL PARRICIDE ANALYSED; Chapter 19 COMPLEX OR SENTIMENT?; Part 4 Instinct and Culture; Chapter 20 THE TRANSITION FROM NATURE TO CULTURE; Chapter 21 THE FAMILY AS THE CRADLE OF NASCENT CULTURE; Chapter 22 RUT AND MATING IN ANIMAL AND MAN; Chapter 23 MARITAL RELATIONS; Chapter 24 PARENTAL LOVE; Chapter 25 THE PERSISTENCE OF FAMILY TIES IN MAN; Chapter 26 THE PLASTICITY OF HUMAN INSTINCTS; Chapter 27 FROM INSTINCT TO SENTIMENT; Chapter 28 MOTHERHOOD AND THE TEMPTATIONS OF INCEST; Chapter 29 AUTHORITY AND REPRESSION; Chapter 30 FATHER-RIGHT AND MOTHER-RIGHT; Chapter 31 CULTURE AND THE 'COMPLEX'; Index;

During the First World War the pioneer anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski found himself stranded on the Trobriand Islands, off the eastern coast of New Guinea. By living among the people he studied there, speaking their language and participating in their activities, he invented what became known as 'participant-observation'. This new type of ethnographic study was to have a huge impact on the emerging discipline of anthropology. In Sex and Repression in Savage Society Malinowski applied his experiences on the Trobriand Islands to the study of sexuality, and the attendant issues of eroticism, obscenity, incest, oppression, power and parenthood. In so doing, he both utilized and challenged the psychoanalytical methods being popularized at the time in Europe by Freud and others. The result is a unique and brilliant book that, though revolutionary when first published, has since become a standard work on the psychology of sex.