By studying several different tribes of the Western Pacific (employing the method of comparison, popular in ethnography), Malinowski gave confirmations of Lewis Morgan's idea that matriarchy (gyneocracy)[47] was a common feature of primitive societies at early stages, and that female rule needed matrilineality for its existence. He also confirmed that matrilineality often goes hand in hand with promiscuous free love (a fact that was discovered[citation needed] by Bachofen).
According to B. Malinowski:
"As a rule, amongst natives, a high position of women is associated with sex laxity."[48]
"The sexual life of these natives [the Southern Massim tribe] is extremely lax. Even when we remember the very free standard of sex morals in the Melanesian tribes of New Guinea, such as the Motu or the Mailu, we still find these natives exceedingly loose in such matters. Certain reserves and appearances which are usually kept up in other tribes, are here completely abandoned. As is probably the case in many communities where sex morals are lax, there is a complete absence of unnatural practices and sex perversions. Marriage is concluded as the natural end of a long and lasting liaison."[48]
"[The Trobrianders'] sexual life starts long before puberty arrives, and gradually shapes and develops as the organism matures… Chastity is an unknown virtue among these natives. At an incredibly early age they become initiated into sexual life… As they grow up, they live in promiscuous free-love, which gradually develops into more permanent attachments… Marriage is associated with hardly any public or private rite or ceremony. The woman simply joins her husband in his house… In her married life, the woman is supposed to remain faithful to her husband, but this rule is neither very strictly kept nor enforced. In all other ways, she retains a great measure of independence."[43]