Country United States Pages 200 Originally published 1982 Page count 200 | Language English ISBN 978-1560006275 Subject Oedipus complex | |
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Media type Print (Hardcover and Paperback) Works by Melford Spiro Culture and human nature, Anthropological other or Burmese, Gender and culture, Buddhism and society, Burmese supernaturalism | ||
Oedipus in the Trobriands is a 1982 book about the Oedipus complex by anthropologist Melford Spiro, in which Spiro criticizes the research of Bronislaw Malinowski on the Trobriand Islanders. Oedipus in the Trobriands received positive reviews, and Spiro's criticism of Malinowski was compared to Derek Freeman's criticism of Margaret Mead in Margaret Mead and Samoa (1983).
Contents
Summary
Spiro discusses the Oedipus complex; he notes that there is already a vast literature on the topic. Influenced by psychoanalysis, he attempts to refute Malinowski's skepticism about the applicability of Sigmund Freud's ideas to the Trobriand Islanders, using Malinowski's own materials.
Mainstream media
Ruth Solie gave Oedipus in the Trobriands a mixed review in Library Journal, writing that while the book "will appeal to those interested in incest and psychological universals, interpreting the unconscious meanings of symbolic forms is a delicate, and often controversial, task."
Scientific and academic journals
Oedipus in the Trobriands received positive reviews from C. R. Badcock in the British Journal of Sociology, and John S. Matthiasson in the Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology. Badcock compared Spiro's criticism of Malinowski in Oedipus in the Trobriands to anthropologist Freeman's criticism of Mead in Margaret Mead and Samoa (1983), crediting Spiro with exposing the "glaring contradictions, obvious fallacies and supported assertions" in Malinowski's work. Badcock wrote that while Spiro's conclusions would come as a surprise to many anthropologists, Spiro fully authenticated them. Badcock praised Spiro's discussion of the "universality of the Oedipus complex". Matthiasson called Oedipus in the Trobriands "tightly reasoned" and an "important book" that forces the reader to re-examine Malinowski's position on the Oedipus complex, and a "brilliant exercise in both methodology and theory construction." He praised Spiro's "re-working of Malinowski's own data on the Trobrianders to reach contrary conclusions", and wrote that Spiro presents "a theory of cultural integration which goes far beyond Malinowski's functionalism", but predicted that Oedipus in the Trobriands would be controversial.
Oedipus in the Trobriands also received reviews from Mary Hawkins in Mankind, Richard L. Brubaker in History of Religions, K. O. L. Burridge in Pacific Affairs, anthropologist Gilbert Herdt in American Anthropologist, Annette B. Weiner in American Ethnologist, and H. A. Powell in Man.
Evaluations in books
Historian Peter Gay, writing in Freud: A Life for Our Time (1988), called Oedipus in the Trobriands "brilliant". Anthropologist Donald Brown, writing in Human Universals (1991), compared the book to Freeman's Margaret Mead and Samoa (1983) and linguist Ekkehart Malotki's Hopi Time (1983). Brown suggested that these books form part of a larger reaction against "anthropological relativism". He described Spiro's arguments as persuasive, and credited him with showing many deficiencies in Malinowski's reasoning. According to Brown, Weiner, although critical of Spiro, nevertheless concluded that his arguments for the universality of the Oedipus complex appear convincing.