Elsevier

Evolution and Human Behavior

Volume 28, Issue 5, September 2007, Pages 319-329
Evolution and Human Behavior

Original Article
Culture, ecology, and beliefs about gender in son preference caste groups

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2007.01.004Get rights and content

Abstract

Ethnographers have documented the prevalence of extreme forms of female neglect and female infanticide in Tamilnadu, India, among two caste groups: Thevars (a warrior caste) and Gounders (a landowning caste). Using a cultural ecological perspective, three field studies were conducted with Thevar, Gounder, and Brahmin participants to examine caste-specific psychological antecedents to female infanticide. Studies 1 and 2 investigated son bias using resource allocation tasks. Using a culture-of-honor task, Study 3 examined the relationship between honor and son preference. In general, Gounders' son bias was related to a desire to have more sons for patrilineal transfer of ancestral land, whereas Thevars' son preference was related to honor concerns. Furthermore, the relevance of cultural ecological perspective to study female neglect is discussed.

Introduction

Several cultures have practiced female infanticide to get rid of unwanted girls (Hrdy, 1999, Rousselle, 2001). Recent demographic data indicate that at least such a systemic willful killing of female infants is a thing of the past in many developed countries (Hrdy, 1999). However, extreme gender discrimination persists in countries such as India, China, and Korea. Although female infanticide is now a crime in India, census data of the last two decades show a persisting male bias in sex ratios in several parts of the country (Muthulakshmi, 1997, Natarajan, 1997).

Why does female infanticide persist in India even today? Several explanations have been proposed. Some researchers have argued that structural gender disparities and abject poverty are the causes of female neglect and infanticide. Hence, it was thought that women's empowerment would improve the status of women and subsequently result in better treatment of daughters. Das Gupta and Visaria (1996), however, found that in Punjab, more educated women invested more in their sons than in their daughters. Cultural and ethnographic reports suggest that the role of cultural practices, such as the high costs of dowry (payment to the bridegroom's family) and the prospect of old age care and protection by sons, are the main reasons for the prevalence of female neglect (Miller, 1981). Due to a patrilocal arranged marriage system, dowry for daughters and protection by sons in old age are generally the case for all caste groups; however, because documented evidence suggests that the practice of systemic female infanticide is caste specific (Natarajan, 1997), further research is necessary to determine differences among caste groups.

As noted by Miller (1981), “One fact clearly emerges from the welter of reports and secondary studies from British India: that is, female infanticide was not practiced in every region of India, and not everyone in those areas was involved” (p. 53). Only in certain geographic locations and among certain caste groups that favor male children do people engage in various forms of female neglect, including female feticide and female infanticide. For instance, female neglect in Tamilnadu is reported to be prevalent among Thevars, a warrior caste (Krishnaswamy, 1988, Muthulakshmi, 1997), and among Gounders, a landowning caste (Venkatachalam & Srinivasan, 1993). Sex ratios for children aged 0–6 years in villages predominantly inhabited by these caste groups range from 625 to 750 girls for every 1000 boys (Harriss-White, 2001).

Thevars, called the “warrior race” by the British (Thurston, 1909), are historically known for their valor and chivalry, and for their cavalier attitude and personal honor. Thevars served in the armies of various Tamil kings and in the British army in World Wars I and II. Even today, disproportionately more men from Usilampatti (a town with a high concentration of Thevars) serve in the Indian army than from any other district in Tamilnadu (Harriss-White, 2001). Gounders are a landowning caste. Gounder villages also have one of the most biased sex ratios in the country (625 girls for every 1000 boys aged 0–6 years; 1990 census). Government primary health centers within villages primarily inhabited by Thevars and Gounders have had to create a new category for the cause of death called “social causes” while recording the death of an infant who died from nonmedical reasons (Natarajan, 1997). Goldstein, 1971, Goldstein, 1976 has found that the limited availability of precious land resources and the practice of male inheritance also contributed to differential investment in sons and daughters (also see Levine, 1987, Levine & Silk, 1997). Not surprisingly, a disproportionately higher number of female infants in these villages die of “social causes” (11–27 times higher than male infants; Natarajan, 1997).

Behavioral ecologists point out that ecological factors influence parental investments. According to behavioral ecologists (e.g., Charnov, 1982, Fisher, 1958, Trivers & Willard, 1973), parents will do their best to allocate resources and expend effort for the reproductively most profitable sex. Thus, in polygynous societies, when resources and goods differentially affect men's success in marrying and raising children, inheritance is strongly patrilineal or male biased. Cross-culturally, among traditional societies, women's ability to control resources, inherit property, and hold political office indeed have ecological correlates (Divale & Harris, 1976, Low, 1990a, Low, 1990b, Low, 2000, Whyte, 1978, Whyte, 1979). When land is inherited along patrilineal lines, women control fewer resources and, as a result, have lower status (Low, 1990a).

Ecological constraints affect parental behavior and the differential treatment of sons and daughters. Cross-culturally, female infants and fetuses are at risk only under certain particular and predictable cultural–ecological conditions such as plow agriculture, herding, patrilineal inheritance, dowry, and low resource contribution by women (e.g., see Bugos & McCarthy, 1984, Dickemann, 1979, Dickemann, 1981, Hill & Low, 1991, Hrdy, 1999, Hughes, 1988, Low, 1993, Low, 2000, Torres & Forrest, 1988, Whyte, 1978, Whyte, 1979). These socioecological conditions shape son-biased investment decisions. Several historical findings are also consistent with these claims (e.g., Boswell, 1990, Clarke & Low, 1992, Fuchs, 1989, Ransel, 1988, Sherwood, 1988).

A behavioral ecological perspective sensitive to cultural practices, termed “cultural ecological perspective,” would help us to understand why Thevars and Gounders practice female infanticide. The cultural ecological histories of these caste groups provide some insights about their extreme son bias. Gounders prefer not to have many daughters because daughters take land resource in the form of dowry (paid by the bride's family as land or the land is sold to pay for elaborate wedding expenses; for ethnographic details, see Venkatachalam and Srinivasan, 1993) from the natal family. Since family lineages are patrilineal, having sons maximizes the inclusive fitness of the patrilineal side of the family. A daughter, who ultimately will move to her husband's family, is viewed as a “guest” of the house (Kakar, 1978).

Warrior groups in several cultures have a documented history of female infanticide (Divale & Harris, 1976, Weisfeld, 1993). They prefer to have more sons because they will stand up for the family and kin. Daughters are thus expensive for cultural and material reasons. In addition to requiring expensive marriage costs, daughters are viewed as repositories of family honor. Cross-cultural findings indicate that there is an asymmetry in expectations about male and female chaste behaviors (Broude, 1975, Broude, 1980, Frayser, 1985). Chastity expectations are particularly high among culture-of-honor groups. In intergroup conflict situations, the triumphant warring group can overpower women in the losing group and keep them captive. Such social anxieties are a dominant theme in Thevar cultural narratives (e.g., ballads and folk songs). They valorize women who preserve family and group honor by committing suicide to avoid capture by the warring group. The paucity of women also contributes to male–male competition, ensuring that only the most successful warriors can find a mate (Weisfeld, 1993).

In summary, Thevars and Gounders each have reasons predisposing them to son favoritism, but the reasons relate to their different cultural and ecological backgrounds. Both resource type and cultural attitudes correlate with treatment of women. For Thevars, caste and personal honor are important factors that often result in treating women as objects whose honor needs to be protected. In a cross-culturally typical pattern (Low, 1990b), the landowning Gounders try to avoid dividing land; they, therefore, prefer not to have many daughters, which would lead to the land resources leaving the family in the form of dowry. In both caste groups, however, having a daughter is thought to be better than having no child at all. Consequently, firstborn daughters are rarely killed (Muthulakshmi, 1997, Venkatachalam & Srinivasan, 1993).

So far, very few studies have examined cultural psychological antecedents to female infanticide. Most hypotheses about female neglect and infanticide are relatively “global” and do not predict differences in infanticide rates with varying cultural conditions (Hrdy, 1999, Keller et al., 2001). Furthermore, hypotheses tend to consider only one set of factors (e.g., cultural but not ecological, or ecological but not cultural); these hypotheses are not true alternatives (see Low, 2000). More than one set of factors could be operating. Until we understand the complex causes and consequences of female infanticide, we cannot successfully discourage its systemic practice.

The phenomenon of evoked culture described by Tooby and Cosmides (1992) is valuable in identifying caste-specific psychological correlates of female neglect. Evoked culture refers to the production of a psychological phenomenon that is shared by only some members of a culture as a result of the triggering of psychological mechanisms by environmental factors of differing degrees within a culture (also see Buss & Kenrick, 1998, Kenrick & Luce, 2000).

The need to transfer ancestral property to sons, in the case of Gounders, and a culture of honor, in the case of Thevars, perhaps act as triggers of an evoked culture of female neglect and infanticide (Cohen & Nisbett, 1994a, 1994b). However, the nature of evoked culture would be different for Thevars and Gounders. Since landowning groups favor sons, Gounders will allocate more resources to their sons than to their daughters and will invest preferentially in those sons who produce more grandsons (Jeffery & Jeffery, 1997). Quite specific predictions can follow from these expectations: for example, even in families with more than one son, the one who produces more grandsons is likely to get a proportionately larger share of the ancestral property.

Although typically unrecognized, scattered evidence suggests a strong relationship between chastity expectations and the prevalence of “cultures of honor,” in which men are quick to take offense and women are objectified (Cohen et al., 1998, Nisbett & Cohen, 1996). Nisbett (1993) has suggested that in pastoral “culture-of-honor” societies, women are likely to be seen as defensible property rather than resource producers. He identifies three major psychological factors that characterize honor cultures: (a) low tolerance of insults; (b) high value on honor and shame; and (c) salience of chastity. Men are expected to cultivate a habit of responding to insults aggressively. Lindisfarne (1998) also provides several cross-cultural examples of honor cultures, where boys are socialized to be “real men” and women are socialized to value chastity.

In a culture of honor, only aggressive men, who are proactive in asserting command over other men and resources, are likely to succeed (see also Chagnon, 1988). Evidence from folklore of warrior castes in India reflects a strong culture of honor in these caste groups (e.g., Miller, 1981). Treating women as objects whose honor must be protected also resonates strongly among Thevars. In their folklore, Thevar women preserve their honor by immolating themselves after a defeat in war (Ramamoorthy, 2002).

In summary, an integrated cultural ecological perspective identifies the following caste-specific psychological antecedents to female infanticide and female neglect. If Gounders' son preference is rooted in land resource concerns, then Gounders would favor sons in resource allocation tasks. If Thevars' son preference is embedded in their honor concerns, they should be higher on measures of culture of honor than Gounders.

To test these hypotheses, four field studies were conducted in villages with an extremely male-biased sex ratio that are predominantly inhabited by Thevars and Gounders from the South Indian state Tamilnadu from the districts of Madurai and Salem, respectively. Brahmins, a priestly caste from Madurai district, were included in the study as a comparison group. They are a dominant caste group reported to not have a history of female infanticide. Any study involving social distance measure (Bogardus, 1933) should reveal caste differences among Thevars, Gounders, and Brahmins. I predict that Thevars will have the strongest preference for within-group marriage or marrying up, and will strongly oppose marrying into a lower caste. All studies were conducted by trained research assistants who were native speakers of Tamil but not from the region. Instruments were translated from English to Tamil and backtranslated by two bilingual speakers. The field studies were conducted over a period of several months.

Section snippets

Study 1: son preference and land allocation

This study examined whether son preference influences land resource allocation. According to the cultural ecological perspective, son preference leads to differential allocation of land resources to sons. One of the main reasons for son preference among Gounders is to have a son who can take care of the land. In this study, participants were given a moral dilemma where the aging patriarch has to make a decision to distribute his lands among his daughters and sons.

I predict that in allocating

Study 2: son preference: land versus cash allocation

To verify whether the presence of equal distribution as an option might have influenced the response pattern, Study 2 presented a forced-choice moral dilemma that tested son bias in the allocation of land resources. This study presented a scenario in which a patriarch has to decide how to allocate resources between two sons: one of whom has three daughters and one of whom has three sons. The patriarch has assets in land resources and in cash that are of equal value. Participants were asked to

Study 3: culture-of-honor task

Studies 1 and 2 focused on examining the link between land resources and son bias. In Study 3, I developed a set of culture-of-honor tasks to identify caste-specific underlying psychological correlates between honor culture and female neglect. For Thevars, the warrior caste, honor culture was expected to be stronger than among Gounders and Brahmins. To test this hypothesis, I developed a culture-of-honor task involving four vignettes describing various (personal, family, village, and caste)

General discussion

The major goal of this paper has been to investigate the relationship between cultural ecological correlates of beliefs about gender that contribute to extreme forms of female neglect. The field studies addressed whether caste-specific cultural and ecological factors affect son preference in unique ways among Gounders and Thevars. Findings from the studies described above indicate that agricultural caste groups prefer sons to daughters because of concern that a daughter will take land resources

Conclusions

Extreme systemic female neglect has been reported in India for centuries. A cultural ecological perspective is valuable in identifying the complex relationship among ecology, caste history, and female neglect. An evolutionary psychology explanation of female infanticide should take into account the role of cultural practices and ecological pressures in shaping psychological antecedents to female neglect. This paper has contributed toward building a cultural ecological perspective that

Acknowledgments

I am extremely thankful for the thoughtful comments of two anonymous reviewers and the editors Martin Daly and Margo Wilson on an earlier version of this paper. I would like to thank Sundari Balan, Bobbi Low, and Viswanathan Ravishankar for their critical comments. I would also like to thank Quadir Ismail for his help with data collection.

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    The research was supported by a faculty seed grant from the Rackham School of Graduate Studies, University of Michigan.

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