Mabiki

Infanticide and Population Growth in Eastern Japan, 1660-1950

Nonfiction, History, Asian, Asia
Cover of the book Mabiki by Fabian Drixler, University of California Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Fabian Drixler ISBN: 9780520953611
Publisher: University of California Press Publication: May 29, 2013
Imprint: University of California Press Language: English
Author: Fabian Drixler
ISBN: 9780520953611
Publisher: University of California Press
Publication: May 29, 2013
Imprint: University of California Press
Language: English

This book tells the story of a society reversing deeply held worldviews and revolutionizing its demography. In parts of eighteenth-century Japan, couples raised only two or three children. As villages shrank and domain headcounts dwindled, posters of child-murdering she-devils began to appear, and governments offered to pay their subjects to have more children. In these pages, the long conflict over the meaning of infanticide comes to life once again. Those who killed babies saw themselves as responsible parents to their chosen children. Those who opposed infanticide redrew the boundaries of humanity so as to encompass newborn infants and exclude those who would not raise them. In Eastern Japan, the focus of this book, population growth resumed in the nineteenth century. According to its village registers, more and more parents reared all their children. Others persisted in the old ways, leaving traces of hundreds of thousands of infanticides in the statistics of the modern Japanese state. Nonetheless, by 1925, total fertility rates approached six children per women in the very lands where raising four had once been considered profligate. This reverse fertility transition suggests that the demographic history of the world is more interesting than paradigms of unidirectional change would have us believe, and that the future of fertility and population growth may yet hold many surprises.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

This book tells the story of a society reversing deeply held worldviews and revolutionizing its demography. In parts of eighteenth-century Japan, couples raised only two or three children. As villages shrank and domain headcounts dwindled, posters of child-murdering she-devils began to appear, and governments offered to pay their subjects to have more children. In these pages, the long conflict over the meaning of infanticide comes to life once again. Those who killed babies saw themselves as responsible parents to their chosen children. Those who opposed infanticide redrew the boundaries of humanity so as to encompass newborn infants and exclude those who would not raise them. In Eastern Japan, the focus of this book, population growth resumed in the nineteenth century. According to its village registers, more and more parents reared all their children. Others persisted in the old ways, leaving traces of hundreds of thousands of infanticides in the statistics of the modern Japanese state. Nonetheless, by 1925, total fertility rates approached six children per women in the very lands where raising four had once been considered profligate. This reverse fertility transition suggests that the demographic history of the world is more interesting than paradigms of unidirectional change would have us believe, and that the future of fertility and population growth may yet hold many surprises.

More books from University of California Press

Cover of the book The Devil behind the Mirror by Fabian Drixler
Cover of the book The New Food Activism by Fabian Drixler
Cover of the book We Are Amphibians by Fabian Drixler
Cover of the book From Fascism to Populism in History by Fabian Drixler
Cover of the book Dao De Jing by Fabian Drixler
Cover of the book Chokepoints by Fabian Drixler
Cover of the book Serpentine by Fabian Drixler
Cover of the book Argentina's Missing Bones by Fabian Drixler
Cover of the book Working Hard, Drinking Hard by Fabian Drixler
Cover of the book Song Loves the Masses by Fabian Drixler
Cover of the book California Crackup by Fabian Drixler
Cover of the book The Zero Trimester by Fabian Drixler
Cover of the book Video Surveillance of Nesting Birds by Fabian Drixler
Cover of the book The Global Edge by Fabian Drixler
Cover of the book Women's Empowerment and Global Health by Fabian Drixler
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy