Infanticide--a historical review
Piers, M.W.
Psyche 30(5): 418-435
1976
ISSN/ISBN: 0033-2623 PMID: 778938 Document Number: 446460
A historical study of infanticide is presented. Infanticide has been known to occur from the oldest historical times to the present and is found in every culture. Infanticide victims are usually "superfluous" children whose mother is very poor or without rights; such children are usually girls. Infanticide is epidemic in times of a famine or great increases in population. Throughout history institutions have been founded to care for unwanted children, but such institutions employed wet nurses, who in turn practiced infanticide for the profit available in selling their milk. In this way, strong interrelationships develop between prostitution, wet nursing, and infanticide. Infanticide is one form of a type of violence which is directed against those who are not considered full human equals.