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Sex-specific mortality and economic opportunities: Massachusetts, 1860–1899

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Caren A. Ginsberg  and
Alan C. Swedlund
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Continuity and Change , Volume 1 , Issue 3 , December 1986 , pp. 415 - 445
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

ENDNOTES

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15 We should not ignore the fact that parents may hold future perceptions of their child's value, and may choose to act upon these perceptions. One might argue that female infanticide would be an expected practice in an agricultural community. Although infanticide and discriminatory acts against children at older ages may produce the same net effect, the mechanisms leading to these practices may be different. In this study, we argue for subtle discrimination with a measurable effect in teenage years. Infanticide is an immediate response to an economic and social situation, and it may be easier for a parent to accept and to justify this act without the benefit of time in forming attachments to their children. Discriminatory behaviour (or ‘benign neglect’) directed at older children involves repeated decisions over a longer period of time regarding differential allocation of resources. Parents may neglect benignly their children based on either the potential or the realised value of the child. However, in either case, this act implies cultural acceptance of the idea that some children either require or deserve fewer resources. Consequently, infanticide and discriminatory acts against older children are distinct phenomena and need not be examined jointly.

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