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In this article, which is part of a larger publication on The Sexual Life of Savages, Malinowski outlines the nuclear complex in a matrilineal society hitherto unexplored. It is not correct to assume that the Oedipus complex is found in every savage or barbarous society, it must vary with the constitution of the family. The patriarchal family of modern civilization is compared with the matrilineal family of certain island communities in Melanesia. The Trobriand Islanders live in a social order in which kinship is reckoned through the mother, succession and inheritance only descending through the maternal line. The boy succeeds to the social position of the mother's brother, inheriting possessions from the maternal uncle instead of from the father. Owing to a strict taboo the boys and girls of the same mother are separated at an early age. The sexual development of the child differs from that present in civilized communities, and Malinowski failed to find any traces of sexual indecencies, interest in excretory functions or exhibitionism. There is no moral reprobation of infantile sexuality; small children play together in a sort of juvenile