While female infanticide was looked down on socially in Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, in Asia, it has always had a historical mark. However, this does not mean those religions were okay with infanticide. Hinduism, Sikhism, and Buddhism also condemn infanticide. It just so happens that the countries who practice those religions are among the poorest, so the female infanticide was mainly to help provide for the family.

The main reason for female infanticide, especially in India, is because the family must provide her with a dowry for marriage. If the family is in poverty, then, to them, the obvious thing to do is to do away with the child.

China viewed female children as only consumers, and having no real place on their farm to produce food. So because of this, the family usually would kill their girls. (Which, when you think of it, what is the mother considered then?)

Historical Infanticide

For my next few posts, I'm going to look into infanticide throughout history. It is good to understand where this comes from in out society.

First off, we have to look at our ancestors. Infanticide is found as far back as hunters and gatherers. It was needed to prevent starvation and keep the population in check. As this article puts it: "One way to control the lethal effects of starvation was to restrict the number of children allowed to survive to adulthood. Darwin believed that infanticide, "especially of female infants," was the most important restraint on the proliferation of early man.", thus beginning the start of female infanticide. While female infanticide may have been necessary at times for the community at large's survival, it became something much worse.

First to try to ban infantcide?

Now, interestingly enough, I have learned through my studies, particularly in my Origins of Great Traditions class, that one person, long ago, tried to stop infanticide. This person was Muhammad. Now, while Muslims get a bad rap because of the whole terrorist attacks and let us not forget 9/11, Muhammad was on to something. He was one of the first to give women more rights, including those who had just begun life. We always see them as being covered up, and that must mean we, as westerners, have more rights and freedoms then they do. Yet, during Muhammad's life in the 600's A.D., Christian women did not have the right to their dowry if divorced, while Muslim women did. Amazing. Just a little piece of information to chew on. :)

Gendercide in Asia

 

(sorry about the kinda creepy picture... It freaks me out too, but gets the point across)

 

 

Oh, we have all heard of China being notorious for this, so this post will deal with China, India, and other parts of Asia.

According to studies, the ratio for male vs female births is so drastic, that it can only be because of human intervention. The natural swing of this ratio is 103/106 boys for every 100 girls. However, there has been a notice to a change in this ratio. All of a sudden, between the years 2000-2004, the ratio was 124 boys to 100 girls.

If this continues, everyone can already see how this will harm the overall population of Asia. While it is already horribly over populated, China's one child policy will hurt them in the long run, especially if there aren't any girls for the boys. You cannot produce babies with one of the parts missing.

On the forum that I am part of at babycenter.com, a lot of discussion goes on about what we "feel" like we are having. While those are gut feelings, a lot of the time they are based off of what you WANT to have. From what I could tell, it is pretty well split down the middle. I believe that in American society, we really do not have a prefrence as to what gender baby we have, or which gender comes first. Of course, we all like the "older brother" idea, but really, we don't care.

Of course, myself, I want a girl first. This is only because I want to dress her in cute little dresses and girl clothes are so much cuter than boy clothes. Eh, just my opinion though.

http://community.babycenter.com/post/a37989751/are_you_finding_out_the_sex_poll_included?cpg=2&csi=2402180313&pd=1

http://community.babycenter.com/post/a38217556/boy_or_girl_what_does_your_gut_say?cpg=3&csi=2404036974&pd=1

So, to begin this post, I am going to tell you a little about why I am doing a post about baby gender. I found out about a month ago that my husband and I are expecting our first child. Now, while that is a complete shock and not planned at all, we are now really excited about it. I am 8 weeks a long and have my first appointment tomorrow to hear the heart beat, so fingers crossed all goes well!

Also, after discovering I am pregnant, I joined a forum on babycenter.com for first time mothers, as well as a 'birthing club' online for my due date. Curious as we all are, we stared a "what do you think/want it to be" thread. It is truely amazing how people have prefances as to what their baby is going to be, so I wanted to do a little more digging into how the world views what gender their baby, especially firstborn, should be.

Hopefully you find this blog interesting!