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Research Note The Skewed Sex Ratio in a Medieval Population: A Reinterpretation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Michael Siegfried
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Extract

Recent studies in social history suggest that the practice of female infanticide was widespread in early medieval society. While much of the work on female infanticide is sound, particularly the anthropological studies which observed the practice first hand, the interpretations of historical data are much less certain. In particular, data from the ninth-century French monastic tax rolls known as the Carolingian polyptychs are assumed to reflect female infanticide (Coleman, 1971; 1974; 1976; de Mause, 1974; Guttentag and Secord, 1983). The data recorded on the Polyptychs are biased in a manner reflecting the Church’s teachings and social functions, giving the impression of a skewed sex ratio favoring males in this population. Anthropological studies lead us to doubt that female infanticide was practiced to the extent suggested by the sex ratio on the polyptychs.

Type
Research Article
Information
Social Science History , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , Summer 1986 , pp. 195 - 204
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 1986 

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