Introduction.
Infanticide is the act of causing the death of very little or young children; deliberately,
this action was mostly done to archive some special by a concerned society. It was mostly
practiced in the past. Many societies permitted this exercise around the world, and it was spread
widely to many communities. It is true to say that Infanticide or this killing of younger children
was a pathological behavior that was being caused by the high increase of the human population.
This practice was mostly done by many communities to get rid of a very high population or to
get rid of a certain gender that can act as a threat to the society or the government or kingdom.
An infanticide is an act that goes against human rights and the right to life. Although this act was
mostly practiced in the past, today we can still see infanticide cases for many reasons,
particularly against the females. In the past, a lot of infanticide cases was practiced by to the
males who posed a lot of fear and troubles the society government or ruling due to their power of
conquering or taking over the seat of a certain ruler or taking over the government(Hausfater &
Hrdy, 2008).
Infanticide is the earliest known source form of sexual conflict, which was Infanticide by
males, which imposed a serious cost on the female reproductive cost. Two bodies show how
Infanticide practiced evolved around males and females. From the studies of captive and wild
primates see that Infanticide improved male mating by accelerating the return of female to the
fertilizable condition that has been supported by the primates(Hausfater & Hrdy, 2008).
In many primate families, Infanticide had many significances; for example, In males in
various taxa Infanticide it improved the breeding status or improved the female breeding
condition. Infanticide to its highest level is the murdering of the newborn individually by a
conspecific; this killing of the newborns has biological importance. This act came to be broadly
defined as any behavior makes a direct and significant contribution to the immediate death of an
embryo born member of the concerned species. Infanticide was practiced by parents of the
offspring or the kin, was also done by the kin of the baby, by the person that is unrelated to the
victim these actions was also were also being done under the influence of range aseasonal
breeding regimes and straddling primates(Engelhardt, 2004).
The best example of the adaptive form of Infanticide is the killing of infants by unrelated
males. By giving out an example in 450 BCE, Herodotus documented the behaviors of the
Egyptian cats, which explained the male trick to get sexual access to females to otherwise
preoccupied with maternal duties(Delibes et al. 2012).
Among the communities of the myriad in the sociobiology in the year 1970, the
Infanticide was a way of male strategy to improve reproductive success at the cost of the female
fitness ( Hrdy 1974). This was the 1 st example or evidence of the battle of all saxes developed by
Trivers (Trivers & Professor of Anthropology and Biological Sciences Robert Trivers, 1985).
The sexual conflict of Infanticide ( the male strategies).
Many hypotheses and shreds of evidence have been created through research. They all try
to explain the male Infanticide in the primate's history. The sexual selection hypothesis is the
best and special infanticide practice that was shown by the primates. In the primate families, the
Infanticide had a huge biological significance, which was originally said by Hrdy in 1974 and
1977. Hardy argued that the killing of the premature infant ended the locational amenorrhea,
which can be the ending of the ovulatory cycles during nursing in its mother; hence it was
important in the advancing time when the mother is present for fertilization by the perpetrator.
The potential benefit of such a strategy for male fitness depended on different and many
variables. The variables can be male to male completion of the reproductive life history of
females. In primates, it is observed that those living in animals, polygynous groups, male
Infanticide was seen to be in almost all the other forms of social systems located in mentioned
orders of the society in the primates communities(Schaik & Janson, 2000).
Infanticide in the female communities.
Female Infanticide is a very common form of Infanticide both in the present-day and in
the past in the primates life, mostly the humans. Infanticide in females was mostly practiced in
many communists because the male was considered to be valuable and very important in society
as compared to the females. Female Infanticide was related to a way of controlling the
population of the society; for example, women in India undergo violence which caused their
deaths at the rate of 41%, and in China, Infanticide is mostly practiced due to the reason being
everyone should have one child hence many women tend to have an abortion before the birth of
the child if they know that the child is a girl. Female Infanticide has caused a great imbalance of
sexes in many primate communities regions(Muthulakshmi, 1997).
Due to female Infanticide some regions have a very high population of the male gender
than the female gender. Approximately a hundred million girls worldwide disappear, and 80
million come from China and India. In 1978 the greatest anthropologist Laila Williamson she
vividly showed how there is a great widespread Infanticide; she showed how Infanticide of
females has taken place in every continent of the world and was all done by the hunters and
gatherers to the highest level of the society rather the primate societies. Laila shows us how
female Infanticide is common in many primate societies and such practices are among the
indigenous people of Australia, barbara miller, and south Asia. In 1990 Amartya sen wrote that
there are 100 million fewer women than men in Asian regions due to the high amount of missing
women in the societies(Bhatnagar & Dube, 2012).
Causes of Infanticide in humans.
In very many communities, mostly those communities that date back to the past, the
practice of Infanticide was routinely practiced as a way of controlling and regulating the
population of the concerned society. Infanticide was mostly done to women because they were
the source of children. By them becoming low in the population, the society could reduce its
population when needed to. Unwanted pregnancies were the main and common cause of the
Infanticide in the human life. Infanticide was caused when families do not have enough
resources to look after their children(Hausfater & Hrdy, 2008).
Abortion was done, which caused a lot of death for both the infant and the mother when
there are wrong or improper abortion treatments. Other infanticides due to pregnancies were
illegitimate births, which meant that the pregnancies were not the result of the marriage that is
recogniz3d by the girl; hence the embryo was supposed to be removed(Hausfater & Hrdy, 2008).
Conclusion.
Infanticide in male primate society is one of the best examples of sexual conflict. There is
a lot that we do not understand about the behavior of the system that practices male Infanticide.
The significance of the male Infanticide does not come clearly in many situations in the primate
life. The benefit of male Infanticide causes substantive fitness cost in the female's species in the
primates and all the captive societies, especially in slowly reproducing societies species. One
sexually selected sex is chosen to operate in solo. Female Infanticide relies not only on counter
strategy but also on an array of counterstrategies, and lions provide the best example of this
strategy(Smith, 2009).
Infanticide has helped many societies both in recent times and the history time to
manage population density and reducing overcrowding in very many communities. I can say that
Infanticide can be an advantage or disantavantege in many communities. The main disadvantage
of the Infanticide is the loss of the mother's life during an abortion and the cause of the sex
imbalance in some regions. Millions of female sex have lost their lives due to the female
Infanticide because women are not considered special in their communities. Rather, they are seen
as workers and not providers of their homes; hence many women are killed cause they are seen
as useless(Goswami, 2007).
REFERENCES.
Bhatnagar, R. D., & Dube, R. (2012). Female Infanticide in India: A feminist
cultural history. SUNY Press.
Engelhardt, A. (2004). The significance of male and female reproductive
strategies for male reproductive success in wild long-tailed macaques (Macaca
fascicularis). Cuvillier Verlag.
Goswami, S. (2007). Female Infanticide and child marriage.
Hausfater, G., & Hrdy, S. B. (2008). Infanticide: Comparative and
evolutionary perspectives. Transaction Publishers.
Hausfater, G., & Hrdy, S. B. (2008). Infanticide: Comparative and
evolutionary perspectives. Transaction Publishers.
Muthulakshmi, R. (1997). Female Infanticide, its causes, and solutions.
Discovery Publishing House.
Schaik, C. P., & Janson, C. H. (2000). Infanticide by males and its
implications. Cambridge University Press.
Smith, H. J. (2009). Parenting for primates. Harvard University Press.
Trivers, R., & Professor of Anthropology and Biological Sciences Robert
Trivers. (, 1985). Social evolution. Benjamin-Cummings Publishing Company.