Note 27
Note from the chapter Appendix 2 in Sex In History

It should be noted that, in the period covered by this book, we have not seen an example of matrism in its purest form — that is, as the product of a maternal family, such as the Trobrianders have, where the mother is responsible for the children and calls on her brother for assistance when a male is needed, while the biological father has no paternal role at all. The matrism we have seen has always been based, nominally at least, on the paternal family; it would be interesting to explore how far children did, in fact, in such periods, see their male parent. Where the father was much engaged in politics or warfare, and especially if he was obliged to leave his wife for long Periods, children may have fallen much under the influence of women. It is also a noteworthy point that (as Malinowski reports) the Trobriantas suffered not at all from sexual guilt and displayed a permissive morality, but that they showed marked signs of incest fears. This, of course, is just what one would have predicted on the basis of the present theory.

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