What I've gathered today.

I've found a wonderful new place to hang out in Chicago.  I've known it was there for a while.  But as I went in for my first time today, I was taken away into a little used book land, a land that I haven't really felt so comfortable to sit and read in since the library by my parent's house.  

I began to read some excerpts from a couple of really great books.  I've begun to read a bit by Malinowski, who is an anthropologist famous for his writings about primitive and savage societies in Malanesia.  I read mainly about women being widows and their social standpoint in a savage society (mainly just in New Guinea).  I think it is a bit silly to think that even savage societies gave women a higher level of respect back when Malinowski was doing field studies (early 20th century) even more so than most western cultures during that time.  I also read an excerpt from the beginning chapters about the roles of fathers in the Trobriand society, and how the term (which escapes from my head at the moment) that they use for the fathers stands for a "stranger".  If only in America, we referred to our father's as 'strangers' and the term 'father' wasn't used.  Or if only our mothers were more reliable like those in savage societies.