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Politics | 12/02/2008 4:30 pm

Male Infanticide on Rise as Papua New Guinea's Women Attempt to End War

By The Staff at wowOwow.com
© iStock

War makes people do crazy things.

Don’t believe us? Well, look no further than Papau New Guinea, where women have taken to killing their newborn baby boys to stem a tribal war that’s raged for more than two decades.

According to one of the women, Rona Luke, she and her peers believe that offing their little men will deplete both sides’ ranks and thus end the bloodshed: "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."

So, basically, is this a more gruesome, real-life version of Lysistrata, the play in which women withhold sex to end the Trojan War? That play, however, was a comedy. This situation most certainly is not.

Read more about: Infanticide, News, Papua New Guinea, War

23 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

rocky rocky
G.C.: “Perhaps they might want to swap the Chinese for the girls.” Nice thought. A global village response. I don’t suppose the Chinese — as numerous as they are — would lack for the aggressive gene, so at least those unwanted boys would have a shot (oops, I mean a chance) for a decent life.
By rocky rocky on 12/03/2008 11:11 am
g c
I wish it was as simple as that. From what I have read though the Chinese boys now outnumber the girls 4or 5 to 1 and now that type of imbalance is causing worry about how to find wives for these boys now becoming men and that the competition in some villages is getting very fierce. Then you factor in the fact that in their culture it is the duty of the sons wife to care for the husbands aging parents now they are all worried if the son doesn’t get married who will take care of them, from my understanding that is why sons are so much more desirable in their culture.
By g c on 12/03/2008 12:47 pm
Patrice Baldwin
Perhaps they might want to swap the Chinese for the girls. ” GC, that’s the best resolution I’ve heard on this subject yet. Perhaps it could be suggested in other cultures too. It makes me laugh, but I like it.
By Patrice Baldwin on 12/03/2008 5:47 pm
Oh! My Favorite
How can these women “convince” the men NOT to grow up and engage in warfare? They don’t bother any longer. In a culture where women cannot control the male populations’ behavior women are controlling the male population itself. Sooner or later, with no little boys to be influenced by the older males, the old men die and so does warfare. I get it. Tribal brilliance.
By Oh! My Favorite on 12/02/2008 9:39 pm
Tina Walden
How sad that a portion of our society must resort to such extreme measures. Unfortunately, this will not stop the fighting. When the factions decide they do not have enough men they will find a reason to recruit the women. Take the middle east as an example. Yo lo creo!
By Tina Walden on 12/02/2008 10:17 pm
HA BIBI
Tina, My very thoughts exactly and especially so, as the leaders get wind of what they are up to. Other countries around the world do not bother caring about the differences between women and men, They use both. Looking at all the violence in the middle east, the new face of terrorism is strapping explosives on to women and young girls, because the mind set has always been one of never thinking that the life giver would be the one to take it.
By HA BIBI on 12/03/2008 11:13 am
Michelle Petit-Sumrall
Dab-a do, all you have to do is Google the story. Fox News is covering it with a tad bit more information. It makes a horrible kind of sense. If you can’t convince the men to stop this stupidity, AND you have minimal control over your reproductive rights, then you simply get rid of the men. It’s simple, effective, and long term. I shudder at the thought. I can’t imagine it’s been an easy decision or process. How do you make a rational decision to kill your own child? These women are not insane in a clinical sense, just driven to insane behavior by the insanity of their men. The only alternative I can think of is to separate from the men altogether and move away. I can also appreciate the strength of these women to band together at all. Still, it boggles the mind…
By Michelle Petit-Sumrall on 12/02/2008 10:39 pm
Joshua Smith
This has nothing to do with theories of evolution; moreover, Darwin never said ‘survival of the fittest’ (thats not how it works), but Spencer did. This whole story has been grossly taken out of context and completely distorted. What is more disturbing is how quickly we accept it, judge it and incorporate into our assumed moral upper hand as ‘civilized people’ versus ‘non-civilized’; a notion that is tied up with all kinds of racist currents that our (western) liberal standpoint towards the ‘other’ needs to be questioned.
By Joshua Smith on 12/05/2008 9:14 am