From the study of seventeen Kagwahiv Indians, and particularly one family, the author shows how cultural differences are superficial, the oedipus complex ubiquitous, and the theories of psychoanalytic understanding of the psychic apparatus applicable to a culture quite different from our own. The author notes that his own convictions concerning psychoanalytic theory were solidified from the material he gathered. An analogy to this may be seen frequently in our experience with our own children and also dramatically from the analysis of children.