PugJesusFucked cultural practices are often... resistant to attempts of technology to work around them
Explanation From Original OP:
In India like in most cultures it was considered preferable to have a son, however in India, having a daughter meant a heavy financial burden for the family since it is a custom to give a dowry (goods or lump sum of money) to the husband of the daughter when she got married
This lead to many poor families to simply kill their infant daughters if they had any since the family did not want to commit to a hefty dowry.
Ultrasound Technology became first available in the 1980s in India and then became widespread in the 1990s which slightly curbed the infanticide problem. However, ultrasound technology now caused a massive increase in Feticide (removal of fetus) since now parents could use ultrasounds to find out if their unborn child was male or female, and if it was the latter, the fetus would be removed
This prompted the Indian government to ban the usage of ultrasound technologies for the purpose of finding out the sex of the fetus in 1996 because their demographic shifted massively with there being more men then women
Sources
ddplfJesus Christ, India…
That is by far the dumbest matrimonial tradition I’ve ever heard about. Not only do you give away your daughter to the other family, you also have to bribe them to take her?
Who the fuck figured this will work.
It’s fairly common across cultures, due to the highly transactional nature of pre-modern family formation, for families to pay either dowry or bride-price. The former usually when labor is plentiful in society ("I have enough people already; you want me to take another mouth to feed? Pay me"); the latter when labor is at a premium ("My son needs a work-partner-I mean, wife! I’ll give you a good price to give up a pair of hands from your own farm-I mean, family!")
That makes sense but then why do these things remain even when the labour supply/demand changes
Traditions take generations to change, and change this past century has been… very rapid.
Ek-Hou-Van-BraaiThankfully it seems like traditions like this will snuff themselves out over a few generations.
Edit: nope, I’m wrong, the ratio is still 40%+ women
Things will only get worse over time, as the elites solidify their hold over humanity permanently, creating a world that is more similar to that Saint Row’s hell, than any Star Trek series.
This is the first time you hear about dowries, a tradition existing all across Eurasia for millennia?
Appearently so, would that be a problem to you?
Just kidding, no worries - but really, you sound super judgemental about a thing that is absolutely not an elementary knowledge outside scholastic circles - which this is not.
I’m absolutely sorry but to hear that the concept of a dowry is not elementary knowledge sounds absurd. It is a matrimonial tradition that has spanned numerous cultures across the globe and has played important role in the political negotiations across history.
It is kinda base level knowledge for having an understanding of historical contexts.
Idk, I’m with the other commenter that it is surprising to hear of anyone who doesn’t know about it, unless you’re, like, still a teenager in middle/high school.
Not as a topic of their own right but it is something that should come up during discussion of different periods where the dowry played a key part of the culture of those times, such as the feudal age.
Many of the political happenings were negotiated with the dowry being a key tool for nobility vying for power and favor through marriage between families.
Yes I am a fucking academic for knowing about dowries, a fundamental part of most societies, most likely including yours, till well into the 20th century.
But what really was a problem for me was not your ignorance but your prejudice in assuming its a strictly Indian thing.
The end result is very few women, and men becoming incels because “boo-hoo no women”.
Damn, sorry you were aborted. But at least you got better
Because of this there is a law in India where the doctors are not allowed to reveal the gender of the child until late stages of pregnancy.
This is my most hated thing about India. I have two sisters and my parents paid an hefty-ass dowry for both of their marriages. And their marriages weren’t even that great or good. One of my sisters tried to commit suicide because she couldn’t conceive a child. At least, she is good now and her marriage has improved.
From a sociological perspective I am finding myself surprisingly uncomfortable with the use of “feticide” here over something more neutral, like “abortion rate.”
“Feticide” smacks of Christofascist (or equivalent) rhetoric.
It still leads to bias towards only having males in India, or mostly males.
If there is a shortage of women in your society, have your society considered treating women as equals?
Make the families of both the bride and the groom exchange gifts with each other, in order to make it fun instead of a burden.
This is an easily solvable problem but as is often the case, religion and tradition stands in the way of progress.