This was the first modern ethnography of the Murik, a relatively large and important community settled on the Sepik River estuary in Papua New Guinea.

1. Introduction; Part I. Dialogics of the Maternal Schema and the Uterine Body: 2. A predicament in space; 3. The maternal schema and the uterine body; 4. The heraldic body; 5. Who succeeded Ginau?; Part II. Dialogics of the Maternal Schema and the Cosmic Body of Man: 6. A body more carnal; 7. The sexuality and aggression of the cosmic body; Part III. Dialogics of the Maternal Schema in Social Control: 8. Conflict and reproduction of society; 9. Social control and law.