The story of infanticide and how it continues to occur in males and primates all over the world.
Written in 2008; 2,936 words; 2 sources; MLA; $ 86.95
Paper Summary:
In this article, the writer discusses that in many parts of the world, infanticide is still practiced as a safeguard against unwanted pregnancies. Although one still looks at infanticide as an awful occurrence, it is important to recognize, as Sarah Blaffer Hrdy notes, that many instances of infanticide are the unfortunate results of a mistimed pregnancy in unacceptable social conditions. The writer argues that even though infanticide evolved as an adaptive behavior among humans and primates, there are several adaptive practices, like female circumcision, that because of their primitive, ancient reasons for its practice can easily be remedied through education and mutual freedom. The writer maintains that despite the economical and evolutionary value to infanticide, there are alternatives that through medical science make the brutish infanticide of past cultures obsolete.
From the Paper:
"In most cases, it seems that daughters cost more to rear than sons, in countries where sex-selective infanticide occurs. In countries like India, daughters needed to be married off with a dowry, paid for by the family of the bride-to-be. Obviously, then, there was a perverse incentive system in place, favoring the rearing of wealth-generating males over wealth-dispersing females. However, this practice could be a form of trade, and might have allowed women to move up in their castes whereas men would more than likely have remained in the same general cultural category.
"This bias toward male offspring is long-standing and an ancient practice. In many of the world's patrilineal societies, males are preferred because they are able to carry on and defend the land passed down to them and are afforded more economic opportunities generally than are women. But like many cultural constructions, these economic opportunities for men are arbitrary. Inheritance systems were set up to favor male descendants."
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