Freud, Mead, and Malinowski Sexuality Essay

In contrast to both Mead and Freud: "The genius of Malinowski was to perceive, and substantiate, the fact that the mind of the 'primitive' man was essentially no different than that of 'civilized' peoples. That is, although beliefs, motives, and emotional responses to situations might vary markedly from one culture to the next (a fact which would disprove the universality of Freud's Oedipal Complex), the ability of the mind to perceive and process information and to formulate creative, intelligent responses was the same regardless of race or culture" (Bronislaw Malinowski, NNMD, 2009). Myths, irrational as they might be, were common to all cultures -- and all cultures had unique elements of such irrationality. Malinowski's attitudes and expressions prefigure modern postmodernism and its emphasis on subjectivity and irrationality, and its suggestion that sexuality is merely one impulse amongst many, as opposed to the most significant impulse, as believed by Freud and Mead, who were still subject to the need to resist Victorian sexual mores.

Works Cited

"Bronislaw Malinowski." NNDB, 2009. Accessed June 19, 2009 at http://www.nndb.com/people/320/000099023/

Freud, Sigmund. Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex. Translated by A.A. Brill.

Project Gutenberg, 1920. June 19, 2009.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14969/14969-h/14969-h.htm

Malinowski, Bronislaw. Sex and Repression in Savage Society. Harcourt, Brace, 1927.

Mead, Margaret. Coming of Age in Samoa. Harper Perennial, 1971.

Style guide for American Ethnologist. Accessed June 19, 2009 at http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/ANTH/pdfs/style_pdf/american_ethnologistv23n1_1.pdf

Samoa: the adolescent girl. The Library of Congress. 2006. Accessed June 19, 2009 at http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/mead/field-samoa.html