Infanticide: Difference between revisions
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'''Infanticide''' is the practice of someone intentionally causing the death of an [[infant]]. Often it is the mother who commits the act, but [[criminology]] recognizes various forms of non-maternal child murder. In many past societies, certain forms of infanticide were considered permissible, whereas in most modern societies the practice is considered [[immoral]] and [[Crime|criminal]]. Nonetheless, it still takes place — in the [[Western world]] usually because of the parent's [[mental illness]] or violent behavior, and in some poor countries as a form of [[population control]], sometimes with tacit societal acceptance. Female infanticide is more common than the killing of male offspring due to sex-selective infanticide. | '''Infanticide''' is the practice of someone intentionally causing the death of an [[infant]]. Often it is the mother who commits the act, but [[criminology]] recognizes various forms of non-maternal child murder. In many past societies, certain forms of infanticide were considered permissible, whereas in most modern societies the practice is considered [[immoral]] and [[Crime|criminal]]. Nonetheless, it still takes place — in the [[Western world]] usually because of the parent's [[mental illness]] or violent behavior, and in some poor countries as a form of [[population control]], sometimes with tacit societal acceptance. Female infanticide is more common than the killing of male offspring due to sex-selective infanticide. | ||
In the [[United Kingdom]], the Infanticide Act defines "infanticide" as a specific crime equivalent to manslaughter that can only be committed by the mother intentionally killing her own baby during the first twelve months of its life outside the womb. The broader notion of infanticide, as described below, is the subject matter of this article. | In the [[United Kingdom]], the Infanticide Act defines "infanticide" as a specific crime equivalent to manslaughter that can only be committed by the mother intentionally killing her own baby during the first twelve months of its life outside the womb. The broader notion of infanticide, as described below, is the subject matter of this article. | ||
==Infanticide throughout history and pre-history== | ==Infanticide throughout history and pre-history== | ||
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| year = 1978}}</ref><!--p. 61--></blockquote> | | year = 1978}}</ref><!--p. 61--></blockquote> | ||
A frequent method of infanticide in ancient Europe and Asia was simply to abandon the infant, leaving it to die by [[exposure]].<ref name = "Justin Martyr">[[Justin Martyr]], ''First Apology.''</ref><ref name="Ex&Ob">{{cite journal | last = Boswell| first = John Eastburn| authorlink = | A frequent method of infanticide in ancient Europe and Asia was simply to abandon the infant, leaving it to die by [[exposure]].<ref name = "Justin Martyr">[[Justin Martyr]], ''First Apology.''</ref><ref name="Ex&Ob">{{cite journal | last = Boswell| first = John Eastburn| authorlink = | title = Exposition and oblation: the abandonment of children and the ancient and medieval family| journal= American Historical Review| volume = 89 | pages = 10–33 | date = 1984| doi = 10.2307/1855916}}</ref> In the Oceania tribes infanticide was carried out by suffocating the infant,<ref name="Collapse"> Diamond, Jared (2005). ''Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed''. ISBN 0-14-303655-6.</ref> while in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and in the Inca Empire it was carried out by sacrifice (see below). | ||
===Paleolithic and Neolithic=== | ===Paleolithic and Neolithic=== | ||
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| publisher =Aldine Publishing Co. | | publisher =Aldine Publishing Co. | ||
| place = | | place = | ||
| year = 1986}}</ref> Williamson estimated a lower rate ranging from 15-20%.<ref name="InfAnAn"/><!--p. 66--> Both believe that high rates of infanticide persisted until the development of [[agriculture]].<ref name="Hardness" /><!-- p. 19 --> Comparative anthropologists have calculated that 50% of female newborn babies were killed by their parents in the [[Paleolithic]].<ref>{{cite book| last= Hoffer|first = Peter| authorlink = | | year = 1986}}</ref> Williamson estimated a lower rate ranging from 15-20%.<ref name="InfAnAn"/><!--p. 66--> Both believe that high rates of infanticide persisted until the development of [[agriculture]].<ref name="Hardness">{{cite book | last = Milner | first = Larry S. | title = Hardness of Heart / Hardness of Life: The Stain of Human Infanticide | publisher = University Press of America | location = Lanham/New York/Oxford| year = 2000| url = | doi = | id = |isbn=0-7618-1578-3}}</ref><!-- p. 19 --> Comparative anthropologists have calculated that 50% of female newborn babies were killed by their parents in the [[Paleolithic]].<ref>{{cite book| last= Hoffer|first = Peter| authorlink = | coauthors =N.E.H. Hull|title = Murdering Mothers: Infanticide in England and America, 1558-1803| publisher = New York University Press|date = 1981|location = NY|pages = 3|url =| }}</ref> | ||
===In ancient history=== | ===In ancient history=== | ||
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====In the New World==== | ====In the New World==== | ||
Archaeologists have uncovered physical evidence of child sacrifice at several locations.<ref name="Hardness"/><!-- pp. 16-22 --> Some of the best attested examples are the diverse rites which were part of the religious practices in [[Mesoamerica]] and the [[Inca Empire]].<ref> {{cite journal | last = Reinhard | first = Johan | authorlink = | Archaeologists have uncovered physical evidence of child sacrifice at several locations.<ref name="Hardness"/><!-- pp. 16-22 --> Some of the best attested examples are the diverse rites which were part of the religious practices in [[Mesoamerica]] and the [[Inca Empire]]. | ||
Skeletons of the newborn, associated with sacrificial offerings, have been found at El Manatí in [[Mexico]], presumably an [[Olmec]] ritual. In 2005 a mass grave of newborn children was found in the [[Maya]] region of Comalcalco. There are also skulls suggestive of child sacrifice dating the classic Maya periods. Child sacrifice was performed as well in the [[Teotihuacan]] culture, including the famous [[Pyramid of the Sun]]. The [[Toltec]]s also sacrificed children: in 2007 archaeologists analyzed the remains of decapitated children found buried together with a figurine of [[Tlaloc]], dated 950 to 1150 CE. According to Bernardino de Sahagún, Tlaloc required the tears of young children to wet the earth. Children cried before the [[Aztec]] infanticidal ritual. Archaeologists have found the remains of 42 children in the [[Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan]], located at the center of what now is [[Mexico City]]. The [[Inca]]s also practiced sacrifice of young children. They killed them by strangulation or by a blow to the head. | |||
In North America, the [[Pawnee]] sacrificed a young girl.<ref> {{cite journal | last = Reinhard | first = Johan | authorlink = |coauthors = Maria Stenzel | |||
| title = A 6,700 metros niños incas sacrificados quedaron congelados en el tiempo | journal = [[National Geographic]] | pages = 36–55 |date=November 1999}} </ref><ref>[http://www.exn.ca/mummies/story.asp?id=1999041452 Discovery Channel: The mystery of Inca child sacrifice]</ref><ref>{{cite book | | title = A 6,700 metros niños incas sacrificados quedaron congelados en el tiempo | journal = [[National Geographic]] | pages = 36–55 |date=November 1999}} </ref><ref>[http://www.exn.ca/mummies/story.asp?id=1999041452 Discovery Channel: The mystery of Inca child sacrifice]</ref><ref>{{cite book | ||
| last = de Sahagún | first = Bernardino | authorlink = Bernardino de Sahagún | title = ''Florentine Codex: History of the Things of New Spain''| publisher = University of Utah Press| date = 1950-1982 | location = Utah | pages = | url = | doi = | id =}}</ref> | | last = de Sahagún | first = Bernardino | authorlink = Bernardino de Sahagún | title = ''Florentine Codex: History of the Things of New Spain''| publisher = University of Utah Press| date = 1950-1982 | location = Utah | pages = | url = | doi = | id =}}</ref> | ||
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=====Carthage ===== | =====Carthage ===== | ||
Phoenicians and Carthaginians sacrificed infants to their gods. Charred bones of thousands of infants have been found in Carthaginian archaeological sites in modern times. One such area harbored as many as 20,000 burial urns. It is estimated that child sacrifice was practiced for centuries in the region. [[Plutarch]] (ca. 46–120 [[Common Era|CE]]) mentions the practice, as do [[Tertullian]], Orosius, Diodorus Siculus and [[Philo]]. The [[Hebrew Bible]] also mentions what appears to be child sacrifice practiced at a place called the [[Tophet]] (from the Hebrew ''taph'' or ''toph'', to burn) by the Canaanites, ancestors of the Carthaginians, and by some Israelites. Writing in the 3rd century | Phoenicians and Carthaginians sacrificed infants to their gods. Charred bones of thousands of infants have been found in Carthaginian archaeological sites in modern times. One such area harbored as many as 20,000 burial urns. It is estimated that child sacrifice was practiced for centuries in the region. [[Plutarch]] (ca. 46–120 [[Common Era|CE]]) mentions the practice, as do [[Tertullian]], Orosius, Diodorus Siculus and [[Philo]]. The [[Hebrew Bible]] also mentions what appears to be child sacrifice practiced at a place called the [[Tophet]] (from the Hebrew ''taph'' or ''toph'', to burn) by the Canaanites, ancestors of the Carthaginians, and by some Israelites. Writing in the 3rd century BCE, Kleitarchos, one of the historians of [[Alexander the Great]], described that the infants rolled into the flaming pit. [[Diodorus Siculus]] wrote that babies were roasted to death inside the burning pit of the god Baal Hamon, a bronze statue.<ref>{{cite book | last = Brown | first = Shelby | title = Late Carthaginian Child Sacrifice and Sacrificial Monuments in their Mediterranean Context| publisher = Sheffield Academic Press| date = 1991| location = Sheffield | pages = 22-23|}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last = Stager| first = Lawrence| authorlink = | coauthors = Samuel R. Wolff| title = Child sacrifice at Carthage — religious rite or population control?| journal = Biblical Archaeology Review| volume = 10| issue = Jan/Feb| pages = 31–51| publisher = | location = | date = 1984| url= }}</ref> | ||
=====Greece and Rome===== | =====Greece and Rome===== | ||
The historical Greeks considered barbarous the practice of adult and child sacrifice.<ref>{{cite book| last= Hughes|first = Dennis D.| authorlink = | coauthors =|title = Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece | publisher = Routledge|date = 1991|location = |pages = 187|url =| isbn=0-415-03483-3 }}</ref> However, exposure of newborns was widely practiced in [[ancient Greece]] and [[ancient Rome]]. [[Philo]] was the first philosopher to speak out against it.<ref>{{cite book | last = Philo| first = | authorlink = Philo| title = The Special Laws| publisher = Harvard University Press| date = 1950| location = Cambridge| pages = III, XX.117, Volume VII, pp. 118, 551, 549| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> A letter from a Roman citizen to his wife, dating from 1 | The historical Greeks considered barbarous the practice of adult and child sacrifice.<ref>{{cite book| last= Hughes|first = Dennis D.| authorlink = | coauthors =|title = Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece | publisher = Routledge|date = 1991|location = |pages = 187|url =| isbn=0-415-03483-3 }}</ref> However, exposure of newborns was widely practiced in [[ancient Greece]] and [[ancient Rome]]. [[Philo]] was the first philosopher to speak out against it.<ref>{{cite book | last = Philo| first = | authorlink = Philo| title = The Special Laws| publisher = Harvard University Press| date = 1950| location = Cambridge| pages = III, XX.117, Volume VII, pp. 118, 551, 549| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> A letter from a Roman citizen to his wife, dating from 1 BCE, demonstrates the casual nature with which infanticide was often viewed: | ||
:"Know that I am still in [[Alexandria]]. [...] I ask and beg you to take good care of our baby son, and as soon as I received payment I shall send it up to you. If you are delivered [before I come home], if it is a boy, keep it, if a girl, discard it."<ref>{{Citation | :"Know that I am still in [[Alexandria]]. [...] I ask and beg you to take good care of our baby son, and as soon as I received payment I shall send it up to you. If you are delivered [before I come home], if it is a boy, keep it, if a girl, discard it."<ref>{{Citation | ||
| last = | | last = | ||
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=====Judaism===== | =====Judaism===== | ||
Although there are many instances in the [[Bible]] of ancient Hebrews sacrificing their children to heathen gods (e.g., [[Deuteronomy]] 12:30-31, 18:10; 2 Kings 16:3 & 17:17, 30-31 & 21:6 & 23:4, 10; [[Jeremiah]] 7:31-32 & 19:5 & 32:35; [[Ezekiel]] 16: 20-21, 36; | Although there are many instances in the [[Bible]] of ancient Hebrews sacrificing their children to heathen gods (e.g., [[Deuteronomy]] 12:30-31, 18:10; 2 Kings 16:3 & 17:17, 30-31 & 21:6 & 23:4, 10; [[Jeremiah]] 7:31-32 & 19:5 & 32:35; [[Ezekiel]] 16: 20-21, 36; Judges 11:31), [[Judaism]] prohibits infanticide. Roman historians wrote about the ideas and customs of other peoples, which often diverged from their own. [[Tacitus]] recorded that the Jews "regard it as a crime to kill any late-born children."<ref name="Histories">{{cite book | last = Tacitus| first = | authorlink = Tacitus| title = The Histories| publisher = William Heinemann| date = 1931| location = London| pages= Volume II, 183|url = | doi | id = }}</ref> [[Josephus]], whose works give an important insight into first-century Judaism, wrote that God "forbids women to cause abortion of what is begotten, or to destroy it afterward."<ref>{{cite book | last = Josephus| first = | authorlink = Josephus| title = The Works of Flavius Josephus, "Against Apion"| publisher = Harvard University Press| date = 1976| location = Cambridge| pages = II.25, p. 597| url = | doi | id = }}</ref> | ||
The Mosaic laws expressly forbade the Jews to offer sacrifices to [[Moloch]]. "You shall not give any of your children to devote them by fire to Moloch, and so profane the name of your God" (Lev. 18:21).<ref>{{cite encyclopedia| title = Moloch| encyclopedia = Encyclopædia Britannica| publisher = Encyclopædia Britannica Online | date = 2008 | url = http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9053271/Moloch| accessdate = 2008-03-22 }}</ref>. | The Mosaic laws expressly forbade the Jews to offer sacrifices to [[Moloch]]. "You shall not give any of your children to devote them by fire to Moloch, and so profane the name of your God" (Lev. 18:21).<ref>{{cite encyclopedia| title = Moloch| encyclopedia = Encyclopædia Britannica| publisher = Encyclopædia Britannica Online | date = 2008 | url = http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9053271/Moloch| accessdate = 2008-03-22 }}</ref>. | ||
Years later, the practice existed among the Jews as reported by the prophet, [[Jeremiah]], | Years later, the practice existed among the Jews as reported by the prophet, [[Jeremiah]], whose writings date to the period around 629 - 585 B.C. | ||
<blockquote>And they built the high places of the Ba’al, which are in the valley of Ben-hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to ''Molech''; which I did not command them, nor did it come into my mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin. (Jeremiah, 32:35)</blockquote> | <blockquote>And they built the high places of the Ba’al, which are in the valley of Ben-hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to ''Molech''; which I did not command them, nor did it come into my mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin. (Jeremiah, 32:35)</blockquote> | ||
=====Pagan European tribes===== | =====Pagan European tribes===== | ||
In his book ''Germania'', [[Tacitus]] wrote that the ancient Germanic tribes enforced a similar prohibition. He found such mores remarkable and commented: ''"[The Germani] hold it shameful to kill any unwanted child."'' Modern scholarship differs. John Boswell believed that in ancient Germanic tribes unwanted children were exposed, usually in the forest.<ref name="KofS">{{cite book | last = Boswell| first = John| authorlink = | In his book ''Germania'', [[Tacitus]] wrote that the ancient Germanic tribes enforced a similar prohibition. He found such mores remarkable and commented: ''"[The Germani] hold it shameful to kill any unwanted child."'' Modern scholarship differs. John Boswell believed that in ancient Germanic tribes unwanted children were exposed, usually in the forest.<ref name="KofS">{{cite book | last = Boswell| first = John| authorlink = | title = The Kindness of Strangers| publisher = Vintage Books| date = 1988| location = NY| pages = | url =| doi| id =}}</ref><!-- p. 218 --> "It was the custom of the [Teutonic] pagans, that if they wanted to kill a son or daughter, they would be killed before they had been given any food."<ref name="KofS"/><!-- p. 211 --> | ||
In his highly influential ''Pre-historic Times'', John Lubbock described burnt bones indicating the practice of child sacrifice in pagan Britain.<ref name="Pre-historic Times">{{cite book | last = Lubbock| first = John| authorlink = | In his highly influential ''Pre-historic Times'', John Lubbock described burnt bones indicating the practice of child sacrifice in pagan Britain.<ref name="Pre-historic Times">{{cite book | last = Lubbock| first = John| authorlink = | title = Pre-historic Times, as Illustrated by Ancient Remains, and the Manners and Customs of Modern Savages| publisher = Williams and Norgate | date = 1865| location = London| pages = 176| url = | doi | id = | isbn = }}</ref> | ||
===Christianity=== | ===Christianity=== | ||
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====Middle Ages==== | ====Middle Ages==== | ||
Whereas theologians and clerics preached sparing their lives, newborn abandonment continued as registered in both the literature record and in legal documents.<ref name="Ex&Ob"/><!-- p. 16 --> According to William L. Langer, exposure in the [[Middle Ages]] "was practiced on gigantic scale with absolute impunity, noticed by writers with most frigid indifference".<ref name="InfHisSu"> {{cite journal | last = Langer| first = William L.| authorlink = | Whereas theologians and clerics preached sparing their lives, newborn abandonment continued as registered in both the literature record and in legal documents.<ref name="Ex&Ob"/><!-- p. 16 --> According to William L. Langer, exposure in the [[Middle Ages]] "was practiced on gigantic scale with absolute impunity, noticed by writers with most frigid indifference".<ref name="InfHisSu"> {{cite journal | last = Langer| first = William L.| authorlink = |title = Infanticide: a historical survey| journal = History of Childhood Quarterly| volume = 1 | pages = 353–366 | date = 1974}}</ref><!--p. 355-356--> At the end of the 12th century, notes Richard Trexler, Roman women threw their newborns into the [[Tiber river]] even in day light.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Trexler| first = Richard| authorlink = |title = Infanticide in Florence: new sources and first results| journal = History of Childhood quarterly| volume = 1 | pages = 99 | date = 1973}}</ref> | ||
Child sacrifice was practiced by the Gauls, Celts and the Irish. ''"They would kill their piteous wretched offspring with much wailing and peril, to pour their blood around Crom Cruaich"'', a deity of pre-Christian Ireland.<ref>{{cite book| last= Dorson |first = Richard| authorlink = | Child sacrifice was practiced by the Gauls, Celts and the Irish. ''"They would kill their piteous wretched offspring with much wailing and peril, to pour their blood around Crom Cruaich"'', a deity of pre-Christian Ireland.<ref>{{cite book| last= Dorson |first = Richard| authorlink = |title = Peasant Customs and Savage Myths: Selections from the British Folklorists| publisher = University of Chicago Press|date = 1968 |location = Chicago |pages = 351|url =| }}</ref> | ||
Unlike other European regions, in the Middle Ages the German mother had the right to expose the newborn.<ref>{{cite book | last = Westrup| first = C.W.| authorlink = | title = Introduction to Roman Law| publisher = [[Oxford University Press]]| date = 1944| location = London| pages = 249| url = | doi|id =}}</ref> In [[Gotland]], [[Sweden]], children were also sacrificed.<ref>{{cite book| last= Turville-Petre|first = Gabriel | authorlink = | Unlike other European regions, in the Middle Ages the German mother had the right to expose the newborn.<ref>{{cite book | last = Westrup| first = C.W.| authorlink = | title = Introduction to Roman Law| publisher = [[Oxford University Press]]| date = 1944| location = London| pages = 249| url = | doi|id =}}</ref> In [[Gotland]], [[Sweden]], children were also sacrificed.<ref>{{cite book| last= Turville-Petre|first = Gabriel | authorlink = | title =Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia | publisher = Holt, Rinehart & Winston|date = 1964|location =NY |pages = 253|url =| }}</ref> | ||
===Russia=== | ===Russia=== | ||
In [[Russia]], peasants sacrificed their sons and daughters to the pagan god Perun. Although Church law forbid infanticide, it used to be practiced. Some rural people threw children to the [[swine]]. In Medieval Russia secular laws did not deal with what, for the church, was a crime.<ref name="">{{cite book | last = Ransel| first = David| authorlink = | title = Mothers of Misery| publisher = Princeton University Press| date = 1988| location = Princeton | pages = 10-12| url =|}}</ref> The Svans killed the newborn females by filling their mouths with hot ashes.<ref name="StAnHist"/> <!--p. 106--> | In [[Russia]], peasants sacrificed their sons and daughters to the pagan god Perun. Although Church law forbid infanticide, it used to be practiced. Some rural people threw children to the [[swine]]. In Medieval Russia secular laws did not deal with what, for the church, was a crime.<ref name="">{{cite book | last = Ransel| first = David| authorlink = | title = Mothers of Misery| publisher = Princeton University Press| date = 1988| location = Princeton | pages = 10-12| url =|}}</ref> The Svans killed the newborn females by filling their mouths with hot ashes.<ref name="StAnHist">{{cite book | last = McLennan| first = J.F.| authorlink = John Ferguson McLennan| title = Studies in Ancient History, The Second Series| publisher = Macmillan & Co., Ltd.| year = 1886| location = NY| pages = | url =| doi| id =}}</ref> <!--p. 106--> | ||
In Kamchatka, babies were killed and thrown to the dogs.<ref name="StAnHist"/ | In Kamchatka, babies were killed and thrown to the dogs.<ref name="StAnHist"/> American explorer George Kennan noted that among the Koryaks, a [[Mongoloid]] people of north-eastern [[Siberia]], infanticide was still common in the 19th century. One of the twins was always sacrificed.<ref>{{cite book | last = Kennan| first = George | authorlink = |title = Tent Life in Siberia | publisher = Gibbs Smith | date = 1986 (originally published in 1871 | location = NY| url =|}}</ref> | ||
===China=== | ===China=== | ||
[[Marco Polo]], the famed explorer, saw newborns exposed in Manzi.<ref>{{cite book| last= Polo|first = Marco| authorlink = Marco Polo|title = The Travels| publisher = [[Penguin Books]]|date = 1965|location = Middlesex|pages = 174|url =| }}</ref> China's society promoted gendercide. Philosopher Han Fei Tzu, a member of the ruling aristocracy of the 3rd century | [[Marco Polo]], the famed explorer, saw newborns exposed in Manzi.<ref>{{cite book| last= Polo|first = Marco| authorlink = Marco Polo|title = The Travels| publisher = [[Penguin Books]]|date = 1965|location = Middlesex|pages = 174|url =| }}</ref> China's society promoted gendercide. Philosopher Han Fei Tzu, a member of the ruling aristocracy of the 3rd century BCE, who developed a school of law, wrote: ''"As to children, a father and mother when they produce a boy congratulate one another, but when they produce a girl they put it to death."''<ref>{{cite book| last= Yu-Lan|first = Fung| authorlink = |title = A History of Chinese Philosophy| publisher = Princeton University Press|date = 1952|location = Princeton|pages = 327|url =| }}</ref> Among the Hakka people, and in Yunnan, Anhwei, Szechwan, Jiangxi and Fukien a method of killing the baby was to put her into a bucket of cold water, which was called "baby water".<ref>{{cite book| last= Yao |first = Esther S. Lee| authorlink = |title = Chinese Women: Past and Present| publisher = Ide House|date = 1983|location = Mesquite|pages = 75|url =| }}</ref> | ||
===Japan=== | ===Japan=== | ||
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===India and Pakistan=== | ===India and Pakistan=== | ||
Female infanticide of newborn girls was systematic in feudatory Rajputs in [[India]]. According to Firishta, as soon as a female child was born she was hold "in one hand, and a knife in the other, that any person who wanted a wife might take her now, otherwise she was immediately put to death".<ref>{{cite book | last = Westermarck| first = Edward| authorlink = | Female infanticide of newborn girls was systematic in feudatory Rajputs in [[India]]. According to Firishta, as soon as a female child was born she was hold "in one hand, and a knife in the other, that any person who wanted a wife might take her now, otherwise she was immediately put to death".<ref>{{cite book | last = Westermarck| first = Edward| authorlink = | title = A Short History of Marriage| publisher = Humanities Press| date = 1968| location = NY| pages = Vol. III, 162| url = | doi | id =}}</ref> The practice of female infanticide was also common among the Kutch, Kehtri, Nagar, Gujarat, Miazed, Kalowries in India inhabitants, and also among the Sind in Pakistan.<ref>{{cite book | last = Panigrahi| first = Lalita |title = British Social Policy and Female Infanticidein India| publisher = Munshiram Manoharlal| date = 1972| location = New Delhi| pages = 18| url = | doi | id = }}</ref> | ||
It was not uncommon that parents threw a child to the sharks in the [[Ganges River]] as a sacrificial offering. The British colonists were unable to outlaw the custom until the beginnings of the 19th century.<ref name="HumSac"/><!--p. 78--> | It was not uncommon that parents threw a child to the sharks in the [[Ganges River]] as a sacrificial offering. The British colonists were unable to outlaw the custom until the beginnings of the 19th century.<ref name="HumSac">{{cite book| last=Davies|first = Nigel| authorlink =| title =Human Sacrifice |publisher= William Morrow & Co|year = 1981| location= NY|pages = |url =|isbn=0333223845}}</ref> <!--p. 78--> | ||
===Arabia === | ===Arabia === | ||
Some authors believe that there is little evidence that infanticide was prevalent in pre-Islamic Arabia or early Muslim history, except for the case of the Tamim tribe, | Some authors believe that there is little evidence that infanticide was prevalent in pre-Islamic Arabia or early Muslim history, except for the case of the Tamim tribe, which practiced it during severe famine.<ref>{{cite book| last= Lammens|first = Henri| authorlink = | title = Islam. Belief and Institutions| publisher = Methuen & Co. Ltd.|date = 1929/1987| location = London|pages = 21|url =| }}</ref> Others state that "female infanticide was common all over Arabia during this period of time" (pre-Islamic Arabia), especially by burying alive a female newborn.<ref name="Hardness" /><!-- p. 59--><ref>{{cite book | last = Smith| first = William Robertson| authorlink = | title = Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia| publisher = Adam & Charles Block| date = 1903| location = London| pages = 293| url = | doi | id = }}</ref> | ||
=== Islam === | === Islam === | ||
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==Tribes== | ==Tribes== | ||
Infanticide in [[tribal societies]] was more frequent than infanticide in both Western and Eastern | Infanticide in [[tribal societies]] was more frequent than infanticide in both Western and Eastern civilizations.<ref name="The AbVic">{{cite book | last = Smyth| first = Brough| authorlink = | title = The Aborigines of Victoria| publisher = John Ferres| year = 1878| location = London| pages = | url =| doi| id =}}</ref><!--p. 51--> | ||
===Africa=== | ===Africa=== | ||
In [[Africa]] some children were killed because of fear that they were an evil omen or because they were considered unlucky. Twins were usually put to death in Arebo; as well as by the Nama Hottentots of South West Africa; in the Lake Victoria Nyanza region; by the Tswana | In [[Africa]] some children were killed because of fear that they were an evil omen or because they were considered unlucky. Twins were usually put to death in Arebo; as well as by the Nama Hottentots of South West Africa; in the Lake Victoria Nyanza region; by the Tswana in Portuguese East Africa; among the Ilso and Ibo people of [[Nigeria]]; and by the !Kung Bushmen of the [[Kalahari Desert]].<ref name="Hardness"/><!--pp. 160-161 --> The Kikuyu, [[Kenya]]'s most populous ethnic group, practiced [[Ritual abuse|ritual killing of twins]].<ref>{{Citation | ||
| last = LeVine | | last = LeVine | ||
| first = Sarah and Robert LeVine | | first = Sarah and Robert LeVine | ||
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| publisher = University of California Press | | publisher = University of California Press | ||
| place = Berkeley | | place = Berkeley | ||
| year = 1981}}</ref> Lucien Lévy-Brühl noted that, because of fear of a [[drought]], if a baby was born feet first in British East Africa, she or he was smothered.<ref>{{cite book| last=Lévy-Brühl |first = Lucien| authorlink = | | year = 1981}}</ref> Lucien Lévy-Brühl noted that, because of fear of a [[drought]], if a baby was born feet first in British East Africa, she or he was smothered.<ref>{{cite book| last=Lévy-Brühl |first = Lucien| authorlink = |title =Primitive Mentality|publisher=George Allen & Unwin Ltd.|date =1923|location=London|pages =150|url =|doi|id =}}</ref> The Tswana people did the same since they feared the newborn would bring ill fortune to the parents.<ref>{{cite book| last=Schapera|first = I.A.| authorlink =| title =A Handbook of Tswana Law and Custom|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|date =1955|location=London|pages =261|url =|doi|id =}}</ref> Similarly, William Sumner noted that the Vadshagga killed children whose upper incisors came first.<ref>{{cite book| last= Sumner|first = William | authorlink = | title = Folkways: A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals |publisher= [[Oxford University Press]]| date = 1956 [originally published in 1906]|location= London|pages =274|url =|doi|id =}}</ref> If a mother died in childbirth among the Ibo people of Nigeria, the newborn was buried alive. It suffered a similar fate if the father died.<ref>{{cite book| last= Basden|first =G.T. | authorlink =| title = Niger Ibos|publisher= Barnes & Noble|date =1996 |location= NY|pages =180-184, 262-263|url =|doi|id =}}</ref> | ||
In ''The Child in Primitive Society'', Nathan Miller wrote in the 1920s that among the Kuni tribe every mother had killed at least one of her children.<ref>{{cite book| last=Miller|first = Nathan| authorlink =| title =The Child in Primitive Society| publisher= Bretano's |date =1928|location= NY|pages = 37|url =|doi|id =}}</ref> Child sacrifice was practiced as late as 1929 in [[Zimbabwe]], where a daughter of the tribal chief used to be sacrificed as a petition of rain.<ref name="HumSac" | In ''The Child in Primitive Society'', Nathan Miller wrote in the 1920s that among the Kuni tribe every mother had killed at least one of her children.<ref>{{cite book| last=Miller|first = Nathan| authorlink =| title =The Child in Primitive Society| publisher= Bretano's |date =1928|location= NY|pages = 37|url =|doi|id =}}</ref> Child sacrifice was practiced as late as 1929 in [[Zimbabwe]], where a daughter of the tribal chief used to be sacrificed as a petition of rain.<ref name="HumSac"/> | ||
===Oceania=== | ===Oceania=== | ||
Infanticide among the autochthone people in the [[Oceania]] islands is widespread. | Infanticide among the autochthone people in the [[Oceania]] islands is widespread. | ||
In some areas of the [[Fiji]] islands up to 50% of newborn infants were killed.<ref name="StAnHist" | In some areas of the [[Fiji]] islands up to 50% of newborn infants were killed.<ref name="StAnHist"/> In the 19th century Ugi, in the [[Solomon Islands]] almost 75% of the indigenous children had been brought from adjoining tribes due to the high incidence rate of infanticide, a unique feature of these tribal societies.<ref>{{cite book | last = Guppy| first = H.B.| authorlink = | title = The Solomon Islands and Their Natives| publisher = Swan Sonnenschein| date = 1887| location = London| pages = 42| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> In another Solomon island, San Cristóbal, the firstborn was considered "ahubweu" and often buried alive.<ref>{{cite book | last = Frazer | first = J.G. | authorlink = | title = The Golden Bough| publisher = Macmillan Co.| date = 1935| location = NY| pages = 332-333| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> In 1888, Lieut. F. Elton reported that Ugi beach people in the Solomon Islands killed their infants at birth by burying them, and women were also said to practice abortion. They reported that it was too much trouble to raise a child, and instead preferred to buy one from the bush people.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Elton| first = Lieut. F.| authorlink = | title = Notes on Natives of the Solomon Islands | journal = The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland| volume = 17| issue = | pages = 90–99| location = | date = 1988| url =| doi = 10.2307/2841588 }}</ref> As a rationale for their behavior, some parents in [[British New Guinea]] complained: ''"Girls [...] don't become warriors, and they don't stay to look for us in our old age."''<ref>{{Citation | ||
| last = Langness | | last = Langness | ||
| first = L.L. | | first = L.L. | ||
Line 208: | Line 207: | ||
| year = 1984}}</ref> | | year = 1984}}</ref> | ||
====Australia==== | ====Australia==== | ||
According to | According to Bronislaw Malinowski, who wrote a book on indigenous Australians in the early 1960s, "infanticide is practiced among all Australian natives."<ref>{{cite book | last = Malinowski| first = Bronislaw | authorlink = | title = The Family Among the Australian Aborigines| publisher = Scocken Books| date = 1963| location = NY| pages = 235| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> The practice has been reported in [[Tasmania]], Western Australia, Central Australia, South Australia, in the Northern Territory, [[Queensland]], [[New South Wales]] and Victoria. Anthropologist Géza Róheim wrote: | ||
<blockquote>When the Yumu, Pindupi, Ngali, or Nambutji were hungry, they ate small children with neither ceremonial nor animistic motives. Among the southern tribes, the Matuntara, Mularatara, or Pitjentara, every second child was eaten in the belief that the strength of the first child would be doubled by such a procedure.<ref> {{cite journal | last = Róheim| first = Géza |authorlink = | <blockquote>When the Yumu, Pindupi, Ngali, or Nambutji were hungry, they ate small children with neither ceremonial nor animistic motives. Among the southern tribes, the Matuntara, Mularatara, or Pitjentara, every second child was eaten in the belief that the strength of the first child would be doubled by such a procedure.<ref> {{cite journal | last = Róheim| first = Géza |authorlink = |title = The Western tribes of Central Australia: childhood| journal =The Psychoanalytic Study of Society| volume = 2| pages = 200| date = 1962}}</ref></blockquote> | ||
Family units usually consisted of three children. Brough Smyth, a 19th century researcher, estimated that in Victoria about 30% of the births resulted in infanticide.<ref name="The AbVic" | Family units usually consisted of three children. Brough Smyth, a 19th century researcher, estimated that in Victoria about 30% of the births resulted in infanticide.<ref name="The AbVic"/> Mildred Dickeman concurs that that figure is accurate in other Australia tribes as a result of a surplus of the birthrate.<ref> {{cite journal | last = Dickeman| first = Mildred| authorlink = |title = Demographic consequences of infanticide in man|journal = Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics| volume = 6| pages = 121| date = 1975}}</ref> [[Cannibalism]] was observed in Victoria at the beginning of the 20th century. The Wotjo tribe, as well as the tribes of the lower [[Murray River]], sometimes killed a newborn to feed an older sibling.<ref>{{cite book | last =Howitt | first = A.W.| authorlink = | title = The Native Tribes of South-East Australia| publisher = Macmillan & Co., Ltd.| date = 1904| location = | pages = 749-750| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> | ||
[[Thomas Robert Malthus]] wrote that, in the New South Wales region, when the mother died sucking infants were buried alive with her.<ref>{{cite book | last = Malthus| first = T.R.| authorlink = Thomas Robert Malthus| coauthors =| title = On Population| publisher = The Modern Library| date = 1963| location = NY| pages = I.III, 170| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> In the [[Darling River]] region, infanticide was practiced "by a blow on the back of the head, by strangling with a rope, or chocking with [[sand]]".<ref> {{cite journal | last = Bonney| first = Frederic| authorlink = |title = On some customs of the aborigines of the River Darling| journal = Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland| volume = 13| pages = 125| date = 1884}}</ref> | [[Thomas Robert Malthus]] wrote that, in the New South Wales region, when the mother died sucking infants were buried alive with her.<ref>{{cite book | last = Malthus| first = T.R.| authorlink = Thomas Robert Malthus| coauthors =| title = On Population| publisher = The Modern Library| date = 1963| location = NY| pages = I.III, 170| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> In the [[Darling River]] region, infanticide was practiced "by a blow on the back of the head, by strangling with a rope, or chocking with [[sand]]".<ref> {{cite journal | last = Bonney| first = Frederic| authorlink = |title = On some customs of the aborigines of the River Darling| journal = Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland| volume = 13| pages = 125| date = 1884}}</ref> | ||
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In Queensland a tribal woman could have children after the age of thirty. Otherwise babies would be killed.<ref> {{cite journal | last = Cowlishaw| first = Gillian | authorlink = |title = Infanticide in aboriginal Australia| journal = Oceania| volume = 48| pages = 267| date = 1978}}</ref> | In Queensland a tribal woman could have children after the age of thirty. Otherwise babies would be killed.<ref> {{cite journal | last = Cowlishaw| first = Gillian | authorlink = |title = Infanticide in aboriginal Australia| journal = Oceania| volume = 48| pages = 267| date = 1978}}</ref> | ||
The Australian Aranda tribes in the Northern Territory used the method of choking the newborn with [[coal]], sand or kill her with a stick.<ref name="OurPC">{{cite book | last = Murdock| first = G.P.| authorlink = | The Australian Aranda tribes in the Northern Territory used the method of choking the newborn with [[coal]], sand or kill her with a stick.<ref name="OurPC">{{cite book | last = Murdock| first = G.P.| authorlink = | title = Our Primitive Contemporaries| publisher = MacMillan| date = 1971| location = NY| pages = | url =| doi| id =}}</ref><!-- p. 34 --> | ||
According to James George Frazer, in the Beltana tribes in South Australia it was customary to kill the first-born.<ref>{{cite book | last = Frazer| first = James George | authorlink = | According to [[James George Frazer]], in the Beltana tribes in South Australia it was customary to kill the first-born.<ref>{{cite book | last = Frazer| first = James George | authorlink = | title = The Dying God| publisher = Macmillan | date = 1963| location = NY| pages = 180| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> | ||
[[Twins]] were always killed by the Arrernte in central Australia.<ref name="OurPC"/><!--p. 34--> In the Luritcha tribe occasional cannibalism of young children occurred.<ref>{{cite book | last = Spencer| first = Baldwin| authorlink = | coauthors =F.J. Gillen| title = The Northern Tribes of Central Australia| publisher = MacMillan & Co.| date = 1904| location = London| pages = 475| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> | [[Twins]] were always killed by the Arrernte in central Australia.<ref name="OurPC"/><!--p. 34--> In the Luritcha tribe occasional cannibalism of young children occurred.<ref>{{cite book | last = Spencer| first = Baldwin| authorlink = | coauthors =F.J. Gillen| title = The Northern Tribes of Central Australia| publisher = MacMillan & Co.| date = 1904| location = London| pages = 475| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> | ||
Aram Yengoyan calculated that, in Western Australia, the Pitjandjara people killed 19% of their newborns.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Yengoyan| first = Aram| authorlink = | Aram Yengoyan calculated that, in Western Australia, the Pitjandjara people killed 19% of their newborns.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Yengoyan| first = Aram| authorlink = |title = Biological and demographic components in aboriginal Australian socio-economic organization| journal = Oceania| volume = 43| pages = 88|date=1972}}</ref> | ||
In the 19th century the native Tasmanians were exterminated by the colonists, who regarded them as a degenerate race. Richard H. Davies (fl. 1830s - 1887), a brother of Archdeacon Davies, wrote that Tasmanian "females have been known to desert their infants for the sake of suckling the puppies", which were later used for hunting.<ref>{{cite book| last=Roth|first=H. Ling| authorlink =| title =The Aborigines of Tasmania|publisher=King & Sons|date =1899|location=Halifax|pages =162-163|url =|doi|id =}}</ref> Like other tribal Australians, when the mother died the child was buried as well.<ref name="OurPC"/><!--p. 7--> | In the 19th century the native Tasmanians were exterminated by the colonists, who regarded them as a degenerate race. Richard H. Davies (fl. 1830s - 1887), a brother of Archdeacon Davies, wrote that Tasmanian "females have been known to desert their infants for the sake of suckling the puppies", which were later used for hunting.<ref>{{cite book| last=Roth|first=H. Ling| authorlink =| title =The Aborigines of Tasmania|publisher=King & Sons|date =1899|location=Halifax|pages =162-163|url =|doi|id =}}</ref> Like other tribal Australians, when the mother died the child was buried as well.<ref name="OurPC"/><!--p. 7--> | ||
===Polynesia=== | ===Polynesia=== | ||
In ancient Polynesian societies infanticide was common.<ref name="GrUpinP"> {{cite book | last = Ritchie | first = Jane| authorlink = | coauthors = James Ritchie | title = Growing Up in Polynesia| publisher = George Allen & Unwin| date = 1979| location = Sydney| pages = | url =| doi| id =}}</ref><!-- p. 39 --> Families were supposed to rear no more than two children. Writing about the natives, Raymond Firth noted: "If another child is born, it is buried in the earth and covered with stones".<ref>{{cite book | last = Firth| first = Raymond| authorlink = | In ancient Polynesian societies infanticide was common.<ref name="GrUpinP"> {{cite book | last = Ritchie | first = Jane| authorlink = | coauthors = James Ritchie | title = Growing Up in Polynesia| publisher = George Allen & Unwin| date = 1979| location = Sydney| pages = | url =| doi| id =}}</ref><!-- p. 39 --> Families were supposed to rear no more than two children. Writing about the natives, Raymond Firth noted: "If another child is born, it is buried in the earth and covered with stones".<ref>{{cite book | last = Firth| first = Raymond| authorlink = | title = Primitive Polynesian Economy| publisher = [[Routledge]]| date = 1983| location = London| pages = 44| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> | ||
====Hawaii==== | ====Hawaii==== | ||
In [[Hawaii]] infanticide was a socially sanctioned practice before the Christian missions.<ref>{{cite book | last = Dibble| first = Sheldon| authorlink = | title = History and General Views of the Sandwich Islands Mission| publisher = Taylor & Dodd| date = 1839 | location = NY| pages = 123| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> Infanticidal methods included strangling the children or, more frequently, burying them alive.<ref>{{cite book | last =Handy | first = E.S.| authorlink = | coauthors = Mary Kawena Pukui| title = The Polynesian Family System in Ka-'U, Hawaii| publisher = Avery Press| date = 1958| location = New Plymouth, New Zealand| pages = 327| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> | In [[Hawaii (U.S. state)]] infanticide was a socially sanctioned practice before the Christian missions.<ref>{{cite book | last = Dibble| first = Sheldon| authorlink = | title = History and General Views of the Sandwich Islands Mission| publisher = Taylor & Dodd| date = 1839 | location = NY| pages = 123| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> Infanticidal methods included strangling the children or, more frequently, burying them alive.<ref>{{cite book | last =Handy | first = E.S.| authorlink = | coauthors = Mary Kawena Pukui| title = The Polynesian Family System in Ka-'U, Hawaii| publisher = Avery Press| date = 1958| location = New Plymouth, New Zealand| pages = 327| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> | ||
====Tahiti==== | ====Tahiti==== | ||
Infanticide was quite intense in [[Tahiti]].<ref name="GrUpinP"/><!-- p. 189 --> Methods included [[suffocation]], neck breaking and [[strangulation]].<ref>{{cite book | last = Oliver| first = Douglas| authorlink = | | title = Ancient Tahitan Society| publisher =University Press of Hawii| date = 1974| location = Honolulu| pages = Volume I, 425| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> | Infanticide was quite intense in [[Tahiti]].<ref name="GrUpinP"/><!-- p. 189 --> Methods included [[suffocation]], neck breaking and [[strangulation]].<ref>{{cite book | last = Oliver| first = Douglas| authorlink = | | title = Ancient Tahitan Society| publisher =University Press of Hawii| date = 1974| location = Honolulu| pages = Volume I, 425| url =| doi| id =}}</ref> | ||
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| last = Schrire | | last = Schrire | ||
| first = Carmel | | first = Carmel | ||
| authorlink = | | authorlink = | ||
| coauthors = William Lee Steiger | | coauthors = William Lee Steiger | ||
| title = A matter of life and death: an investigation into the practice of female infanticide in the Artic | | title = A matter of life and death: an investigation into the practice of female infanticide in the Artic | ||
Line 249: | Line 248: | ||
| date = 1974}}</ref> | | date = 1974}}</ref> | ||
Polar Eskimos killed the child by throwing him or her into the sea.<ref>{{cite book| last=Fridtjof|first = Nansen| authorlink = | Polar Eskimos killed the child by throwing him or her into the sea.<ref>{{cite book| last=Fridtjof|first = Nansen| authorlink = |title =Eskimo Life|publisher=Longmans, Green & Co.|date = 1894|location=London|pages =152 |url =|doi|id =}}</ref> There is even a legend in Eskimo folklore, "The Unwanted Child", where a mother throws her child into the [[fjord]]. | ||
The [[Yukon]] and the Mahlemuit tribes of [[Alaska]] exposed the female newborns by first stuffing their mouths with grass before leaving them to die.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Garber| first = Clark| authorlink = | title = Eskimo Infanticide| journal = Scientific monthly| volume = 64| issue = | pages = 98| date = 1947| url = }}</ref> In [[Arctic]] [[Canada]] the Eskimos exposed their babies on the ice and left to die.<ref name="InfHisSu"/><!--p. 354--> | The [[Yukon]] and the Mahlemuit tribes of [[Alaska (U.S. state)|Alaska]] exposed the female newborns by first stuffing their mouths with grass before leaving them to die.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Garber| first = Clark| authorlink = | title = Eskimo Infanticide| journal = Scientific monthly| volume = 64| issue = | pages = 98| date = 1947| url = }}</ref> In [[Arctic]] [[Canada]] the Eskimos exposed their babies on the ice and left to die.<ref name="InfHisSu"/><!--p. 354--> | ||
Female Eskimo infanticide disappeared in the 1930s and 1940s after contact with the Western cultures from the South.<ref>{{Citation | Female Eskimo infanticide disappeared in the 1930s and 1940s after contact with the Western cultures from the South.<ref>{{Citation | ||
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| publisher=Smithsonian Institution | | publisher=Smithsonian Institution | ||
| place = Washington DC | | place = Washington DC | ||
| year = 1978}}</ref> In the region known today as southern [[Texas]], the Mariame Indians practiced infanticide of females on a large scale. Wives had to be obtained from neighboring groups.<ref>{{Citation | | year = 1978}}</ref> In the region known today as southern [[Texas (U.S. state)|Texas]], the Mariame Indians practiced infanticide of females on a large scale. Wives had to be obtained from neighboring groups.<ref>{{Citation | ||
| last = Campbell | | last = Campbell | ||
| first = T.N. | | first = T.N. | ||
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===South America=== | ===South America=== | ||
Although academic data of infanticides among the indigenous people in [[South America]] is not as abundant as | Although academic data of infanticides among the indigenous people in [[South America]] is not as abundant as data on North America, the estimates seem to be similar. | ||
====Brazil==== | ====Brazil==== | ||
The Tapirapé indigenous people of [[Brazil]] allowed no more than three children per woman. Furthermore, no more than two had to be of the same sex. If the rule was broken infanticide was practiced.<ref>{{Citation | The Tapirapé indigenous people of [[Brazil]] allowed no more than three children per woman. Furthermore, no more than two had to be of the same sex. If the rule was broken infanticide was practiced.<ref>{{Citation | ||
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====Peru, Paraguay and Bolivia==== | ====Peru, Paraguay and Bolivia==== | ||
While [[Capacocha]] sacrifice was practiced in the [[Peru]]vian large cities, child sacrifice in the pre-Columbian tribes of the region is less documented. However, even today studies on the Aymara Indians reveal high incidences of mortality among the newborn, especially female deaths, suggesting infanticide.<ref>{{cite journal | last = de Meer| first = Kees| authorlink = | coauthors = Roland Bergman & John S. Kushner| title = Socio-cultural determinations of child mortality in Southern Peru: including some methodological considerations | journal = Social Science and Medicine | volume = 36| pages = 323, 328| date = 1993| url = }}</ref> The Abipones, a small tribe of Guaycuran stock, of about 5,000 by the end of the 18th century in [[Paraguay]], practiced systematic infanticide; with never more than two children being reared in one family. Infanticide among the Chaco in Paraguay was estimated as high as 50% of all newborns in that tribe, who were usually buried.<ref>{{cite book| last=Hastings |first = James| authorlink = | While [[Capacocha]] sacrifice was practiced in the [[Peru]]vian large cities, child sacrifice in the pre-Columbian tribes of the region is less documented. However, even today studies on the Aymara Indians reveal high incidences of mortality among the newborn, especially female deaths, suggesting infanticide.<ref>{{cite journal | last = de Meer| first = Kees| authorlink = | coauthors = Roland Bergman & John S. Kushner| title = Socio-cultural determinations of child mortality in Southern Peru: including some methodological considerations | journal = Social Science and Medicine | volume = 36| pages = 323, 328| date = 1993| url = }}</ref> The Abipones, a small tribe of Guaycuran stock, of about 5,000 by the end of the 18th century in [[Paraguay]], practiced systematic infanticide; with never more than two children being reared in one family. Infanticide among the Chaco in Paraguay was estimated as high as 50% of all newborns in that tribe, who were usually buried.<ref>{{cite book| last=Hastings |first = James| authorlink = | title =Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics |publisher= Scribner's Sons|date = 1955| location= NY| pages = Vol. I, 6|url =| }}</ref> The infanticidal custom had such roots among the Ayoreo in [[Bolivia]] and Paraguay that it persisted until the late 20th century.<ref>{{Citation | ||
| last = Bugos | | last = Bugos | ||
| first = Paul E. & Lorraine M. McCarthy | | first = Paul E. & Lorraine M. McCarthy | ||
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==Present day== | ==Present day== | ||
Infant abandonment occurs in modern societies. Abandonment places infants at risk of becoming indirect victims of infanticide. Abandoned infants are essentially orphans and many receive care through [[Orphanage|orphanages]] or [[Adoption|adoption]]. Infanticide, per se, has become less common in the [[Western world]], but continues today in areas of extremely high [[poverty]] and [[overpopulation]], such as parts of China and [[India]].<ref>[http://www.gendercide.org/case_infanticide.html Gendercide Watch: Female Infanticide<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Female infants, then and even now, are particularly vulnerable, a factor in gendercide. | |||
===In Africa=== | ===In Africa=== | ||
Line 391: | Line 390: | ||
| url = }}.</ref> | | url = }}.</ref> | ||
According to a recent report by the United Nations Children's Fund ([[UNICEF]]) up to 50 million girls and women are missing in [[India]]'s population as a result of systematic gender discrimination. In India there are less than 93 women for every 100 men in the population. The accepted reason for such a disparity is the practice of female foeticide | According to a recent report by the United Nations Children's Fund ([[UNICEF]]) up to 50 million girls and women are missing in [[India]]'s population as a result of systematic gender discrimination. In India there are less than 93 women for every 100 men in the population. The accepted reason for such a disparity is the practice of female foeticide and female infanticide, prompted by the existence of a dowry system which requires the family to pay out a great amount of money when a female child is married. For a poor family, the birth of a girl child can signal the beginning of financial ruin and extreme hardship.<ref>[http://www.indianchild.com/abortion_infanticide_foeticide_india.htm Abortion, Female Infanticide, Foeticide, Son preference in India]</ref> | ||
===The situation in China=== | ===The situation in China=== | ||
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==Explanations for the practice== | ==Explanations for the practice== | ||
Present-day infanticide aside, diverse and often contradictory explanations have been proposed to account for the ancient practice in tribal societies. | |||
===Customs, taboos and genetics=== | ===Customs, taboos and genetics=== | ||
Larry S. Milner, author of ''Hardness of Heart/Hardness of Life'', a treatise on infanticide, believes that superstition has always reigned supreme in tribal religion. In chapters 9 through 21 Milner explores diverse beliefs as possible causes of infanticide, from punishment and shame to poverty, famine, revenge, depression and insanity and superstitious omens. Curiously, besides his "customs and taboos" viewpoint, Milner also writes in the concluding chapter of his study of infanticide: | |||
<blockquote>So with this strata of support, I have concluded that it is a normal — a "natural"— trait for a human being to be willing to kill his or her own child, especially during the first year of life, and that there are [[Genetics|genetic factors]] which are determinative of this compulsion.<ref name="Hardness"/><!-- p. 547 --></blockquote> | <blockquote>So with this strata of support, I have concluded that it is a normal — a "natural"— trait for a human being to be willing to kill his or her own child, especially during the first year of life, and that there are [[Genetics|genetic factors]] which are determinative of this compulsion.<ref name="Hardness"/><!-- p. 547 --></blockquote> | ||
However, Milner's treatise includes at the same time cultural hypotheses for the practice, and his approach to the subject has been criticized as | However, Milner's treatise includes at the same time cultural hypotheses for the practice, and his approach to the subject has been criticized as an idealized view of infanticide.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Tort| first = Cesar| authorlink = | title = A schizophrenic yet very useful monograph on infanticide| journal = Journal of Psychohistory| volume = 30| issue = 2| pages = 186-189| publisher = | location = NY| date = 2008| url = http://www.amazon.com/review/R3SUDKIDV50BA8/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm}}</ref> | ||
===Psycho-pathological=== | ===Psycho-pathological=== | ||
A minority of academics subscribe to an alternate school of thought, considering the practice as "early infanticidal childrearing".<ref name="EMOL">{{cite book | last = deMause | first = Lloyd | authorlink = | A minority of academics subscribe to an alternate school of thought, considering the ancient tribal practice as "early infanticidal childrearing".<ref name="EMOL">{{cite book | last = deMause | first = Lloyd | authorlink = | title = The Emotional Life of Nations | ||
| publisher = Karnak | date = 2002 | location = NY, London | pages = 258-262}}</ref><!-- pp. 246-247--> They attribute parental infanticidal wishes to massive projection | | publisher = Karnak | date = 2002 | location = NY, London | pages = 258-262}}</ref><!-- pp. 246-247--> They attribute parental infanticidal wishes to massive projection of the parents' psychological dissociation onto the child, because of intergenerational, ancestral abuse by their own parents.<ref>{{cite book | last = Godwin | first = Robert W. | title = One cosmos under God | publisher = Paragon House | ||
| date = 2004 | location = Minnesota | pages = 124-176}}</ref> | | date = 2004 | location = Minnesota | pages = 124-176}}</ref> | ||
In addition to debates over the morality of infanticide itself, there is some debate over the effects of infanticide on surviving children, and the effects of childrearing in societies that also sanction infanticide. Some argue that the practice of infanticide in any widespread form causes enormous psychological damage in children.<ref name="EMOL"/><!-- p. 261-262--> Conversely, studying societies that practice infanticide Géza Róheim reported that even infanticidal mothers in [[New Guinea]], who ate a child, did not affect the personality development of the surviving children; that "these are good mothers who eat their own children".<ref>{{cite book | last = Róheim| first = Géza| authorlink = | In addition to debates over the morality of infanticide itself, there is some debate over the effects of infanticide on surviving children, and the effects of childrearing in societies that also sanction infanticide. Some argue that the practice of infanticide in any widespread form causes enormous psychological damage in children.<ref name="EMOL"/><!-- p. 261-262--> Conversely, studying societies that practice infanticide Géza Róheim reported that even infanticidal mothers in [[New Guinea]], who ate a child, did not affect the personality development of the surviving children; that "these are good mothers who eat their own children".<ref>{{cite book | last = Róheim| first = Géza| authorlink = | title = Psychoanalysis and Anthropology| publisher = International Universities Press | date = 1950 | location = NY | pages = 60-62}}</ref> Marvin Harris and William Divale's work on the relationship between female infanticide and warfare suggests that there are, however, extensive negative effects. | ||
==Notes== | ==Notes== | ||
{{reflist|2}} | {{reflist|2}} | ||
Latest revision as of 13:52, 14 August 2024
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Infanticide is the practice of someone intentionally causing the death of an infant. Often it is the mother who commits the act, but criminology recognizes various forms of non-maternal child murder. In many past societies, certain forms of infanticide were considered permissible, whereas in most modern societies the practice is considered immoral and criminal. Nonetheless, it still takes place — in the Western world usually because of the parent's mental illness or violent behavior, and in some poor countries as a form of population control, sometimes with tacit societal acceptance. Female infanticide is more common than the killing of male offspring due to sex-selective infanticide.
In the United Kingdom, the Infanticide Act defines "infanticide" as a specific crime equivalent to manslaughter that can only be committed by the mother intentionally killing her own baby during the first twelve months of its life outside the womb. The broader notion of infanticide, as described below, is the subject matter of this article.
Infanticide throughout history and pre-history
The practice of infanticide has taken many forms. Child sacrifice to supernatural figures or forces, such as the one practiced in ancient Carthage, may be only the most notorious example in the ancient world. Regardless of the cause, throughout history infanticide has been common. Anthropologist Laila Williamson noted:
Infanticide has been practiced on every continent and by people on every level of cultural complexity, from hunter gatherers to high civilizations, including our own ancestors. Rather than being an exception, then, it has been the rule.[1]
A frequent method of infanticide in ancient Europe and Asia was simply to abandon the infant, leaving it to die by exposure.[2][3] In the Oceania tribes infanticide was carried out by suffocating the infant,[4] while in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and in the Inca Empire it was carried out by sacrifice (see below).
Paleolithic and Neolithic
Decapitated skeletons of hominid children have been found with evidence of cannibalism.[5] Joseph Birdsell believes in infanticide rates of 15-50% of the total number of births in prehistoric times.[6] Williamson estimated a lower rate ranging from 15-20%.[1] Both believe that high rates of infanticide persisted until the development of agriculture.[7] Comparative anthropologists have calculated that 50% of female newborn babies were killed by their parents in the Paleolithic.[8]
In ancient history
Child sacrifice, the ritualistic killing of children in order to please supernatural beings, was far more common in ancient history than in present times.
In the New World
Archaeologists have uncovered physical evidence of child sacrifice at several locations.[7] Some of the best attested examples are the diverse rites which were part of the religious practices in Mesoamerica and the Inca Empire.
Skeletons of the newborn, associated with sacrificial offerings, have been found at El Manatí in Mexico, presumably an Olmec ritual. In 2005 a mass grave of newborn children was found in the Maya region of Comalcalco. There are also skulls suggestive of child sacrifice dating the classic Maya periods. Child sacrifice was performed as well in the Teotihuacan culture, including the famous Pyramid of the Sun. The Toltecs also sacrificed children: in 2007 archaeologists analyzed the remains of decapitated children found buried together with a figurine of Tlaloc, dated 950 to 1150 CE. According to Bernardino de Sahagún, Tlaloc required the tears of young children to wet the earth. Children cried before the Aztec infanticidal ritual. Archaeologists have found the remains of 42 children in the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan, located at the center of what now is Mexico City. The Incas also practiced sacrifice of young children. They killed them by strangulation or by a blow to the head. In North America, the Pawnee sacrificed a young girl.[9][10][11]
In the Old World
Three thousand bones of young children, with evidence of sacrificial rituals, have been found in Sardinia. Infants were offered to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar. Pelasgians offered a sacrifice of every tenth child during difficult times. Syrians sacrificed children to Jupiter and Juno. Many remains of children have been found in Gezer excavations with signs of sacrifice. Child skeletons with the marks of sacrifice have been found also in Egypt dating 950-720 BCE. In Carthage "[child] sacrifice in the ancient world reached its infamous zenith."[7] Besides the Carthaginians, other Phoenicians, and the Canaanites, Moabites and Sepharvites offered their first-born as a sacrifice to their gods.
Carthage
Phoenicians and Carthaginians sacrificed infants to their gods. Charred bones of thousands of infants have been found in Carthaginian archaeological sites in modern times. One such area harbored as many as 20,000 burial urns. It is estimated that child sacrifice was practiced for centuries in the region. Plutarch (ca. 46–120 CE) mentions the practice, as do Tertullian, Orosius, Diodorus Siculus and Philo. The Hebrew Bible also mentions what appears to be child sacrifice practiced at a place called the Tophet (from the Hebrew taph or toph, to burn) by the Canaanites, ancestors of the Carthaginians, and by some Israelites. Writing in the 3rd century BCE, Kleitarchos, one of the historians of Alexander the Great, described that the infants rolled into the flaming pit. Diodorus Siculus wrote that babies were roasted to death inside the burning pit of the god Baal Hamon, a bronze statue.[12][13]
Greece and Rome
The historical Greeks considered barbarous the practice of adult and child sacrifice.[14] However, exposure of newborns was widely practiced in ancient Greece and ancient Rome. Philo was the first philosopher to speak out against it.[15] A letter from a Roman citizen to his wife, dating from 1 BCE, demonstrates the casual nature with which infanticide was often viewed:
- "Know that I am still in Alexandria. [...] I ask and beg you to take good care of our baby son, and as soon as I received payment I shall send it up to you. If you are delivered [before I come home], if it is a boy, keep it, if a girl, discard it."[16]
In some periods of Roman history it was traditional for a newborn to be brought to the pater familias, the family patriarch, who would then decide whether the child was to be kept and raised, or left to death by exposure. The Twelve Tables of Roman law obliged him to put to death a child that was visibly deformed. Infanticide became a capital offense in Roman law in 374 CE, but offenders were rarely if ever prosecuted.[17]
According to mythological legend, Romulus and Remus, twin infant sons of the war god, Mars, survived near-infanticide after being tossed into the Tiber River. According to the mythology, they were raised by wolves and later founded the city of Rome.
Among the Greeks, in Sophocles' play, Oedipus Rex, Oedipus is abandoned as a baby in the fields, leaving his fate to the gods.
Judaism
Although there are many instances in the Bible of ancient Hebrews sacrificing their children to heathen gods (e.g., Deuteronomy 12:30-31, 18:10; 2 Kings 16:3 & 17:17, 30-31 & 21:6 & 23:4, 10; Jeremiah 7:31-32 & 19:5 & 32:35; Ezekiel 16: 20-21, 36; Judges 11:31), Judaism prohibits infanticide. Roman historians wrote about the ideas and customs of other peoples, which often diverged from their own. Tacitus recorded that the Jews "regard it as a crime to kill any late-born children."[18] Josephus, whose works give an important insight into first-century Judaism, wrote that God "forbids women to cause abortion of what is begotten, or to destroy it afterward."[19]
The Mosaic laws expressly forbade the Jews to offer sacrifices to Moloch. "You shall not give any of your children to devote them by fire to Moloch, and so profane the name of your God" (Lev. 18:21).[20].
Years later, the practice existed among the Jews as reported by the prophet, Jeremiah, whose writings date to the period around 629 - 585 B.C.
And they built the high places of the Ba’al, which are in the valley of Ben-hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech; which I did not command them, nor did it come into my mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin. (Jeremiah, 32:35)
Pagan European tribes
In his book Germania, Tacitus wrote that the ancient Germanic tribes enforced a similar prohibition. He found such mores remarkable and commented: "[The Germani] hold it shameful to kill any unwanted child." Modern scholarship differs. John Boswell believed that in ancient Germanic tribes unwanted children were exposed, usually in the forest.[21] "It was the custom of the [Teutonic] pagans, that if they wanted to kill a son or daughter, they would be killed before they had been given any food."[21]
In his highly influential Pre-historic Times, John Lubbock described burnt bones indicating the practice of child sacrifice in pagan Britain.[22]
Christianity
Christianity rejected infanticide. The Teachings of the Apostles or Didache said "You shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is born."[23] The Epistle of Barnabas stated an identical command.[24] So widely accepted was this teaching in Christendom that apologists Tertullian, Athenagoras, Minucius Felix, Justin Martyr and Lactantius also maintained that exposing a baby to death was a wicked act.[2] In 318 CE Constantine I considered infanticide a crime, and in 374 CE Valentinian I mandated to rear all children (exposing babies, especially girls, was still common). The Council of Constantinople declared that infanticide was homicide, and in 589 CE the Third Council of Toledo took measures against the Spanish custom of killing their own children.[25]
Middle Ages
Whereas theologians and clerics preached sparing their lives, newborn abandonment continued as registered in both the literature record and in legal documents.[3] According to William L. Langer, exposure in the Middle Ages "was practiced on gigantic scale with absolute impunity, noticed by writers with most frigid indifference".[26] At the end of the 12th century, notes Richard Trexler, Roman women threw their newborns into the Tiber river even in day light.[27]
Child sacrifice was practiced by the Gauls, Celts and the Irish. "They would kill their piteous wretched offspring with much wailing and peril, to pour their blood around Crom Cruaich", a deity of pre-Christian Ireland.[28]
Unlike other European regions, in the Middle Ages the German mother had the right to expose the newborn.[29] In Gotland, Sweden, children were also sacrificed.[30]
Russia
In Russia, peasants sacrificed their sons and daughters to the pagan god Perun. Although Church law forbid infanticide, it used to be practiced. Some rural people threw children to the swine. In Medieval Russia secular laws did not deal with what, for the church, was a crime.[31] The Svans killed the newborn females by filling their mouths with hot ashes.[32]
In Kamchatka, babies were killed and thrown to the dogs.[32] American explorer George Kennan noted that among the Koryaks, a Mongoloid people of north-eastern Siberia, infanticide was still common in the 19th century. One of the twins was always sacrificed.[33]
China
Marco Polo, the famed explorer, saw newborns exposed in Manzi.[34] China's society promoted gendercide. Philosopher Han Fei Tzu, a member of the ruling aristocracy of the 3rd century BCE, who developed a school of law, wrote: "As to children, a father and mother when they produce a boy congratulate one another, but when they produce a girl they put it to death."[35] Among the Hakka people, and in Yunnan, Anhwei, Szechwan, Jiangxi and Fukien a method of killing the baby was to put her into a bucket of cold water, which was called "baby water".[36]
Japan
Since feudal Japan the common slang for infanticide was "mabiki" which means to pull plants from an overcrowded garden. It has been estimated that 40% of newborn babies were killed in Kyushu.[37] A typical method in Japan was smothering through wet paper on the baby's mouth and nose.[38] Mabiki persisted in the 19th and early 20th centuries.[39]
India and Pakistan
Female infanticide of newborn girls was systematic in feudatory Rajputs in India. According to Firishta, as soon as a female child was born she was hold "in one hand, and a knife in the other, that any person who wanted a wife might take her now, otherwise she was immediately put to death".[40] The practice of female infanticide was also common among the Kutch, Kehtri, Nagar, Gujarat, Miazed, Kalowries in India inhabitants, and also among the Sind in Pakistan.[41]
It was not uncommon that parents threw a child to the sharks in the Ganges River as a sacrificial offering. The British colonists were unable to outlaw the custom until the beginnings of the 19th century.[42]
Arabia
Some authors believe that there is little evidence that infanticide was prevalent in pre-Islamic Arabia or early Muslim history, except for the case of the Tamim tribe, which practiced it during severe famine.[43] Others state that "female infanticide was common all over Arabia during this period of time" (pre-Islamic Arabia), especially by burying alive a female newborn.[7][44]
Islam
Infanticide is explicitly prohibited by the Qur'an.[45] "And do not kill your children for fear of poverty; We give them sustenance and yourselves too; surely to kill them is a great wrong." [46]
On the other hand, a manual of Islamic law certified by Al-Azhar as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy says that "retaliation is obligatory against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right." However, "not subject to retaliation" is "a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring's offspring."[47]
Tribes
Infanticide in tribal societies was more frequent than infanticide in both Western and Eastern civilizations.[48]
Africa
In Africa some children were killed because of fear that they were an evil omen or because they were considered unlucky. Twins were usually put to death in Arebo; as well as by the Nama Hottentots of South West Africa; in the Lake Victoria Nyanza region; by the Tswana in Portuguese East Africa; among the Ilso and Ibo people of Nigeria; and by the !Kung Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert.[7] The Kikuyu, Kenya's most populous ethnic group, practiced ritual killing of twins.[49] Lucien Lévy-Brühl noted that, because of fear of a drought, if a baby was born feet first in British East Africa, she or he was smothered.[50] The Tswana people did the same since they feared the newborn would bring ill fortune to the parents.[51] Similarly, William Sumner noted that the Vadshagga killed children whose upper incisors came first.[52] If a mother died in childbirth among the Ibo people of Nigeria, the newborn was buried alive. It suffered a similar fate if the father died.[53]
In The Child in Primitive Society, Nathan Miller wrote in the 1920s that among the Kuni tribe every mother had killed at least one of her children.[54] Child sacrifice was practiced as late as 1929 in Zimbabwe, where a daughter of the tribal chief used to be sacrificed as a petition of rain.[42]
Oceania
Infanticide among the autochthone people in the Oceania islands is widespread. In some areas of the Fiji islands up to 50% of newborn infants were killed.[32] In the 19th century Ugi, in the Solomon Islands almost 75% of the indigenous children had been brought from adjoining tribes due to the high incidence rate of infanticide, a unique feature of these tribal societies.[55] In another Solomon island, San Cristóbal, the firstborn was considered "ahubweu" and often buried alive.[56] In 1888, Lieut. F. Elton reported that Ugi beach people in the Solomon Islands killed their infants at birth by burying them, and women were also said to practice abortion. They reported that it was too much trouble to raise a child, and instead preferred to buy one from the bush people.[57] As a rationale for their behavior, some parents in British New Guinea complained: "Girls [...] don't become warriors, and they don't stay to look for us in our old age."[58]
Australia
According to Bronislaw Malinowski, who wrote a book on indigenous Australians in the early 1960s, "infanticide is practiced among all Australian natives."[59] The practice has been reported in Tasmania, Western Australia, Central Australia, South Australia, in the Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. Anthropologist Géza Róheim wrote:
When the Yumu, Pindupi, Ngali, or Nambutji were hungry, they ate small children with neither ceremonial nor animistic motives. Among the southern tribes, the Matuntara, Mularatara, or Pitjentara, every second child was eaten in the belief that the strength of the first child would be doubled by such a procedure.[60]
Family units usually consisted of three children. Brough Smyth, a 19th century researcher, estimated that in Victoria about 30% of the births resulted in infanticide.[48] Mildred Dickeman concurs that that figure is accurate in other Australia tribes as a result of a surplus of the birthrate.[61] Cannibalism was observed in Victoria at the beginning of the 20th century. The Wotjo tribe, as well as the tribes of the lower Murray River, sometimes killed a newborn to feed an older sibling.[62]
Thomas Robert Malthus wrote that, in the New South Wales region, when the mother died sucking infants were buried alive with her.[63] In the Darling River region, infanticide was practiced "by a blow on the back of the head, by strangling with a rope, or chocking with sand".[64]
In Queensland a tribal woman could have children after the age of thirty. Otherwise babies would be killed.[65]
The Australian Aranda tribes in the Northern Territory used the method of choking the newborn with coal, sand or kill her with a stick.[66]
According to James George Frazer, in the Beltana tribes in South Australia it was customary to kill the first-born.[67]
Twins were always killed by the Arrernte in central Australia.[66] In the Luritcha tribe occasional cannibalism of young children occurred.[68]
Aram Yengoyan calculated that, in Western Australia, the Pitjandjara people killed 19% of their newborns.[69]
In the 19th century the native Tasmanians were exterminated by the colonists, who regarded them as a degenerate race. Richard H. Davies (fl. 1830s - 1887), a brother of Archdeacon Davies, wrote that Tasmanian "females have been known to desert their infants for the sake of suckling the puppies", which were later used for hunting.[70] Like other tribal Australians, when the mother died the child was buried as well.[66]
Polynesia
In ancient Polynesian societies infanticide was common.[71] Families were supposed to rear no more than two children. Writing about the natives, Raymond Firth noted: "If another child is born, it is buried in the earth and covered with stones".[72]
Hawaii
In Hawaii (U.S. state) infanticide was a socially sanctioned practice before the Christian missions.[73] Infanticidal methods included strangling the children or, more frequently, burying them alive.[74]
Tahiti
Infanticide was quite intense in Tahiti.[71] Methods included suffocation, neck breaking and strangulation.[75]
North America
Infanticide and child sacrifice was practiced in the New World at times when in Western Europe it was largely abandoned.
Inuit
There is no agreement about the actual estimates of the frequency of newborn female infanticide in the Eskimo population. Carmel Schrire mentions diverse studies ranging from 15-50% to 80%.[76]
Polar Eskimos killed the child by throwing him or her into the sea.[77] There is even a legend in Eskimo folklore, "The Unwanted Child", where a mother throws her child into the fjord.
The Yukon and the Mahlemuit tribes of Alaska exposed the female newborns by first stuffing their mouths with grass before leaving them to die.[78] In Arctic Canada the Eskimos exposed their babies on the ice and left to die.[26]
Female Eskimo infanticide disappeared in the 1930s and 1940s after contact with the Western cultures from the South.[79]
Canada
The Handbook of North American Indians reports infanticide and cannibalism among the Dene Indians and those of the Mackenzie Mountains.[80][81]
Native Americans
In the Eastern Shoshone there was a scarcity of Indian women as a result of female infanticide.[82] For the Maidu Native Americans in the United States twins were so dangerous that they not only killed them, but the mother as well.[83] In the region known today as southern Texas, the Mariame Indians practiced infanticide of females on a large scale. Wives had to be obtained from neighboring groups.[84]
Mexico
Bernal Díaz del Castillo recounted that, after landing on the Veracruz coast, they came across a temple dedicated to Tezcatlipoca. "That day they had sacrificed two boys, cutting open their chests and offering their blood and hearts to that accursed idol".[85] In The Conquest of New Spain Díaz describes more child sacrifices in the towns before the Spaniards reached the large Aztec city Tenochtitlan.
South America
Although academic data of infanticides among the indigenous people in South America is not as abundant as data on North America, the estimates seem to be similar.
Brazil
The Tapirapé indigenous people of Brazil allowed no more than three children per woman. Furthermore, no more than two had to be of the same sex. If the rule was broken infanticide was practiced.[86] The people in the Bororo tribe killed all the newborns that did not appear healthy enough. Infanticide is also documented in the case of the Korubo people in the Amazon.[87]
Peru, Paraguay and Bolivia
While Capacocha sacrifice was practiced in the Peruvian large cities, child sacrifice in the pre-Columbian tribes of the region is less documented. However, even today studies on the Aymara Indians reveal high incidences of mortality among the newborn, especially female deaths, suggesting infanticide.[88] The Abipones, a small tribe of Guaycuran stock, of about 5,000 by the end of the 18th century in Paraguay, practiced systematic infanticide; with never more than two children being reared in one family. Infanticide among the Chaco in Paraguay was estimated as high as 50% of all newborns in that tribe, who were usually buried.[89] The infanticidal custom had such roots among the Ayoreo in Bolivia and Paraguay that it persisted until the late 20th century.[90]
Present day
Infant abandonment occurs in modern societies. Abandonment places infants at risk of becoming indirect victims of infanticide. Abandoned infants are essentially orphans and many receive care through orphanages or adoption. Infanticide, per se, has become less common in the Western world, but continues today in areas of extremely high poverty and overpopulation, such as parts of China and India.[91] Female infants, then and even now, are particularly vulnerable, a factor in gendercide.
In Africa
In spite of the fact that it is illegal, in Benin, West Africa, parents secretly continue with infanticidal customs.[92]
In India
The practice has continued in some rural areas of India.[93]
According to a recent report by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) up to 50 million girls and women are missing in India's population as a result of systematic gender discrimination. In India there are less than 93 women for every 100 men in the population. The accepted reason for such a disparity is the practice of female foeticide and female infanticide, prompted by the existence of a dowry system which requires the family to pay out a great amount of money when a female child is married. For a poor family, the birth of a girl child can signal the beginning of financial ruin and extreme hardship.[94]
The situation in China
There have been some accusations that infanticide occurs in the People's Republic of China due to the one-child policy, although most demographers do not believe that the practice is widespread. In the 1990s, a certain stretch of the Yangtze River was known to be a common site of infanticide by drowning, until government projects made access to it more difficult. Others assert that China has twenty-five million fewer girl children than expected, but sex selective abortion can partially be to blame. The illegal use of ultrasound is widespread in China, and itinerant sonographers with plain vans in parking lots offer inexpensive sonographs to determine the sex of a fetus.[95][96]
"100 million missing women"
The idea of there being "100 million missing women", largely in Asia, originated with or was popularised by an influential 1990 essay by Amartya Sen.[97] This gender gap may indeed be partly explained by female infanticide and sex-selective abortion.
Explanations for the practice
Present-day infanticide aside, diverse and often contradictory explanations have been proposed to account for the ancient practice in tribal societies.
Customs, taboos and genetics
Larry S. Milner, author of Hardness of Heart/Hardness of Life, a treatise on infanticide, believes that superstition has always reigned supreme in tribal religion. In chapters 9 through 21 Milner explores diverse beliefs as possible causes of infanticide, from punishment and shame to poverty, famine, revenge, depression and insanity and superstitious omens. Curiously, besides his "customs and taboos" viewpoint, Milner also writes in the concluding chapter of his study of infanticide:
So with this strata of support, I have concluded that it is a normal — a "natural"— trait for a human being to be willing to kill his or her own child, especially during the first year of life, and that there are genetic factors which are determinative of this compulsion.[7]
However, Milner's treatise includes at the same time cultural hypotheses for the practice, and his approach to the subject has been criticized as an idealized view of infanticide.[98]
Psycho-pathological
A minority of academics subscribe to an alternate school of thought, considering the ancient tribal practice as "early infanticidal childrearing".[99] They attribute parental infanticidal wishes to massive projection of the parents' psychological dissociation onto the child, because of intergenerational, ancestral abuse by their own parents.[100]
In addition to debates over the morality of infanticide itself, there is some debate over the effects of infanticide on surviving children, and the effects of childrearing in societies that also sanction infanticide. Some argue that the practice of infanticide in any widespread form causes enormous psychological damage in children.[99] Conversely, studying societies that practice infanticide Géza Róheim reported that even infanticidal mothers in New Guinea, who ate a child, did not affect the personality development of the surviving children; that "these are good mothers who eat their own children".[101] Marvin Harris and William Divale's work on the relationship between female infanticide and warfare suggests that there are, however, extensive negative effects.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Williamson, Laila (1978), Infanticide: an anthropological analysis, in Kohl, Marvin, Infanticide and the Value of Life, NY: Prometheus Books, at 61–75.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Justin Martyr, First Apology.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Boswell, John Eastburn (1984). "Exposition and oblation: the abandonment of children and the ancient and medieval family". American Historical Review 89: 10–33. DOI:10.2307/1855916. Research Blogging.
- ↑ Diamond, Jared (2005). Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. ISBN 0-14-303655-6.
- ↑ Simons, E.L. (1989). "Human origins". Science 245: 1344.
- ↑ Birdsell, Joseph, B. (1986), Some predictions for the Pleistocene based on equilibrium systems among recent hunter gatherers, in Lee, Richard & Irven DeVore, Man the Hunter, Aldine Publishing Co., at 239.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 Milner, Larry S. (2000). Hardness of Heart / Hardness of Life: The Stain of Human Infanticide. Lanham/New York/Oxford: University Press of America. ISBN 0-7618-1578-3.
- ↑ Hoffer, Peter; N.E.H. Hull (1981). Murdering Mothers: Infanticide in England and America, 1558-1803. NY: New York University Press, 3.
- ↑ Reinhard, Johan; Maria Stenzel (November 1999). "A 6,700 metros niños incas sacrificados quedaron congelados en el tiempo". National Geographic: 36–55.
- ↑ Discovery Channel: The mystery of Inca child sacrifice
- ↑ de Sahagún, Bernardino (1950-1982). Florentine Codex: History of the Things of New Spain. Utah: University of Utah Press.
- ↑ Brown, Shelby (1991). Late Carthaginian Child Sacrifice and Sacrificial Monuments in their Mediterranean Context. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 22-23.
- ↑ Stager, Lawrence; Samuel R. Wolff (1984). "Child sacrifice at Carthage — religious rite or population control?". Biblical Archaeology Review 10 (Jan/Feb): 31–51.
- ↑ Hughes, Dennis D. (1991). Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece. Routledge, 187. ISBN 0-415-03483-3.
- ↑ Philo (1950). The Special Laws. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, III, XX.117, Volume VII, pp. 118, 551, 549.
- ↑ Naphtali, Lewis, ed. (1985), Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 744, Life in Egypt Under Roman Rule, Oxford: Oxford University Press, at 54.
- ↑ Radville, Samuel X. (1974), A history of child abuse and infanticide, in Steinmetz, Suzanne K. and Murray A. Strauss, Violence in the Family, NY: Dodd, Mead & Co., at 173–179.
- ↑ Tacitus (1931). The Histories. London: William Heinemann, Volume II, 183.
- ↑ Josephus (1976). The Works of Flavius Josephus, "Against Apion". Cambridge: Harvard University Press, II.25, p. 597.
- ↑ Moloch. Encyclopædia Britannica. (2008). Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved on 2008-03-22.
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 Boswell, John (1988). The Kindness of Strangers. NY: Vintage Books.
- ↑ Lubbock, John (1865). Pre-historic Times, as Illustrated by Ancient Remains, and the Manners and Customs of Modern Savages. London: Williams and Norgate, 176.
- ↑ Robinson, J. Armitage (translator), ed. (1920), Didache, Barnabas, Hermar and the Didache, vol. D.ii.2c, NY: The MacMillan Co., at 112.
- ↑ Ibid., Epistle of Barnabas, xix.5d.
- ↑ Radbill, Samuel X. (1974), A history of child abuse and infanticide, in Steinmetz, Suzanne K. & Murray A. Straus, Violence in the Family, NY: Dodd, Mead & Co., at 173–179.
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 Langer, William L. (1974). "Infanticide: a historical survey". History of Childhood Quarterly 1: 353–366.
- ↑ Trexler, Richard (1973). "Infanticide in Florence: new sources and first results". History of Childhood quarterly 1: 99.
- ↑ Dorson, Richard (1968). Peasant Customs and Savage Myths: Selections from the British Folklorists. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 351.
- ↑ Westrup, C.W. (1944). Introduction to Roman Law. London: Oxford University Press, 249.
- ↑ Turville-Petre, Gabriel (1964). Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia. NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 253.
- ↑ Ransel, David (1988). Mothers of Misery. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 10-12.
- ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2 McLennan, J.F. (1886). Studies in Ancient History, The Second Series. NY: Macmillan & Co., Ltd..
- ↑ Kennan, George (1986 (originally published in 1871). Tent Life in Siberia. NY: Gibbs Smith.
- ↑ Polo, Marco (1965). The Travels. Middlesex: Penguin Books, 174.
- ↑ Yu-Lan, Fung (1952). A History of Chinese Philosophy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 327.
- ↑ Yao, Esther S. Lee (1983). Chinese Women: Past and Present. Mesquite: Ide House, 75.
- ↑ Kushe, Helga; Peter Singer (1985). Should the Baby Live?. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 106.
- ↑ Shiono, Hiroshi; Atoyo Maya, Noriko Tabata, Masataka Fujiwara, Jun-ich Azumi and Mashahiko Morita (1986). "Medicolegal aspects of infanticide in Hokkaido District, Japan". American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology 7: 104.
- ↑ Vaux, Kenneth (1989). Birth Ethics. NY: Crossroad, 12.
- ↑ Westermarck, Edward (1968). A Short History of Marriage. NY: Humanities Press, Vol. III, 162.
- ↑ Panigrahi, Lalita (1972). British Social Policy and Female Infanticidein India. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 18.
- ↑ 42.0 42.1 Davies, Nigel (1981). Human Sacrifice. NY: William Morrow & Co. ISBN 0333223845.
- ↑ Lammens, Henri (1929/1987). Islam. Belief and Institutions. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 21.
- ↑ Smith, William Robertson (1903). Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia. London: Adam & Charles Block, 293.
- ↑ Esposito, John L. (editor) (2004). The Oxford Dictionary of Islam. NY: Oxford University Press, USA, 138.
- ↑ Qur'an, XVII:31. Other passages condemning infanticide in the Qur'an appear in LXXXI:8-9, XVI:60-62, XVII:42 and XLII:48.
- ↑ Umdat al-Salik wa Uddat al-Nasik o1.1-2.
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