Killing male babies to end war

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- Cheetah
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Killing male babies to end war
OP - December 03, 2008, 07:34 PM

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WOMEN in Papua New Guinea's Highland region are killing their male babies to end a tribal war that has gone on for more than 20 years.

Two women from the Eastern Highlands spoke of the slaughter to PNG's National newspaper during a three-day peace and reconciliation course in the region's capital of Goroka.

Rona Luke and Kipiyona Belas, from two warring tribes, said male infanticide reduced the cyclical payback violence infamous in Highlands tribal fights.

If women stopped producing males, their tribe's stock would go down and this would force the men to end their fight, the women said.

"All the womenfolk agreed to have all babies born killed because they have had enough of men engaging in tribal conflicts and bringing misery to them," Ms Luke said.

The women could not give a figure on how many male babies had been killed.

Ms Belas said getting food was hard as husbands kept fighting and mothers and children were left to fend for themselves.
Related Coverage

The Salvation Army is working with various tribes to bring peace to the warring groups, one particular fight continues after starting in 1986 over sorcery claims.

The Salvation Army told the Australian Associated Press that women were so fed up with the ongoing violence that they were taking drastic steps.

"This situation shows the extreme frustration the women have with the men in these areas," a spokesman said.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24732391-401,00.html?from=public_rss

A bit drastic.

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- sojournerlumus
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Re: Killing male babies to end war
Reply #1 - December 03, 2008, 07:57 PM

Of course, the supernatural is behind the fighting, note.
I suppose it's easy for us to judge the extreme measures taken by these women. Sounds like an intra- tribal conflict to me, possibly with different clans involved.
The females of lots of mammalian species go in for infanticide when child-rearing conditions are adverse. It's usually a case of cutting your losses and trying reproduction again when resources are more readily available.
Some female mammals even reabsorb quite well advanced foetuses father than continue a pregnancy where the survival of newborns would be very uncertain.
Reading between the lines it sounds like recent child-rearing attempts have been consistently iffy, post 1985, and the women have decided they've got nothing to lose by making the ultimate statement. Probably the emotional strain of seeing newborns die of hunger is worse than giving them a quick death.
It pays to remember that as short a time ago as the 1950s the people there used to cannibalise dead relatives and it was only by tracking the course of Kuru Kuru that that was discovered.
Anyway, it makes a change from the killing off of female babies.

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Re: Killing male babies to end war
Reply #2 - December 03, 2008, 08:15 PM

Quote from: sojournerlumus
Of course, the supernatural is behind the fighting, note.

It says that for one particular fight - not for all of them. I suspect you don't need the supernatural (or even the claim of it) for a tribal fight to start.
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Re: Killing male babies to end war
Reply #3 - December 03, 2008, 11:51 PM

What fucked up women, how you can do that is byond me. How is that less worse then,then the babies growing up and killing each other. I mean would you have murder hitler when he was born or try to fucking educate him if you had the knowable of hindsight

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