Posted on 07/04/2007 1:43:16 PM PDT by wagglebee
BRASILIA, July 4, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A Brazilian university professor claimed that the practice of infanticide by indigenous tribes should be respected as a cultural practice, the Telegraph reports.
Dr. Erwin Frank, an anthropology professor at the Federal University of Roraima, Brazil, is quoted in the Telegraph as having defended the violent practice, saying, "This is their way of life and we should not judge them on the basis of our values. The difference between the cultures should be respected."
Certain tribes believe that some babies are "cursed" and therefore do not have souls. Such children include those with physical disabilities, females (or any children of an undesired gender), babies born to unwed mothers, twins or triplets. These "cursed" children are sometimes smothered by leaves, poisoned, buried alive by parents or simply left to die of exposure.
Dr. Marcos Pelegrinia, a doctor working in the Yanomami tribe district, stated that 98 children were killed by their mothers in 2004, the Telegraph reports.
The non-profit anti-infanticide campaign group Atini, also known as "Voice for Life", noted, however, that the exact number of annual infanticides cannot be pinpointed. Official agencies do not step in and stop the abuse for fear of meddling in local customs. As a result, the deaths of many babies are officially recorded as death by "malnutrition" or "undetermined causes."
The Brazilian couple that founded Atini, Marcia and Edson Suzuki, worked for over 20 years with the Suruwahara Indians in the Amazon Basin of Brazil. Mr. Suzuki described their mission, saying, "We are fighting against doctors and anthropologists who say we must not interfere with the culture of the people."
Referring to those who defend infanticide as part of a cultural tradition, Marcia Suzuki states on the Atini blog, "We respect the cultures and the differences, but above all we respect the human beings with no distinction."
At present, a new law that would abolish infanticide, called Muwaji's law, is being debated in the Brazilian Congress, states the Telegraph. The law is based upon the fundamental right to life that is sanctioned in both The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Brazilian Federal Consitution.
In an address to the President and Brazilian Congress this March, Mr. Henry Afonso defended the law, saying, "The practice of infanticide is not justified, however much anthropologists wish to defend tradition and cultural practices of certain peoples. The number of sacrificed children per year in this country is far from few; victims of a cultural practice that many times is more important than the most fundamental human instinct: Preserving life itself."
Read story by the Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06...
Read full address to the Brazilian Congress on Muwaji's law:
http://voiceforlife.blogspot.com/2007/05/muwaji-honoured-in-...
Voice for Life blog:
http://voiceforlifewhoweare.blogspot.com/
I'm going to be sick.
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Why? Have you not heard of abortion in this country? That practice kills disabled and non-disabled, all.
Dr Frank would have been an admirer of Mollech ....
what’s not to respect about the required sacrifice of children?
That’s why they’re still just “indigenous tribes.”
There is nothing new under the sun......people have been helpless children since the beginning. It is sick and should not be tolerated.
“This is their way of life and we should not judge them on the basis of our values. The difference between the cultures should be respected.”
We don’t have to respect satanic possession. We didn’t have to respect it with the Carthaginians or the Aztecs, and we don’t have to respect it with any contemporary Brazilian tribes.
should have read killing helpless children
They tell us abortion should be respected... so hey, why not?
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Dr. Marcos Pelegrinia, a doctor working in the Yanomami tribe district, stated that 98 children were killed by their mothers in 2004, the Telegraph reports.
*************************************************************************************************************
Mothers and doctors here in America abort more than that in a day.
What "difference"?
I think we’re up to near an even 5,000 a day...4,700 was the last figure I read. A day. Every day. *SIGH*
Reacting to wife-burning in colonial India, General Sir Charles Napier was impeccably multicultural: “You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”
Sounds like the same political correctness that says Islam is a religion of peace.
In reality, this rhetoric supports a culture of death.
Margaret Sanger cackles joyously in hell.
Good ol’ “diversity.”
This is not confined to infants. Any tribal member unable to carry his or her weight is abandoned to die.
Should Anthropology professors be respected?
American abortuaries kill more babies than that in an hour. However, there are over 300 million Americans, but only between 1500 and 2000 Yanomami in Brazil (there are 12,000 to 14,000 more in Venezuela), so killing 98 babies is a huge number statistically.
http://www.dismalworld.com/minorities/indian_tribes_of_brazil.php
“A Brazilian university professor claimed that the practice of infanticide by primitive, sub-human, and uncivilized tribes should be respected as a cultural practice.”
That’s better!
100 babies murdered out of a population of 10 to 20 thousand is a pretty high rate.
I had to read a book a few years ago in college about an American professor who studied, moved into a group of the Yanomami tribe and married and had children by one. They used to be considered the last untouched by modern man untts but now they are not that pure. When anyone dies in their group they cremate them, and everyone there drinks the ashes and then the person is never spoken of again, as an example of how they live. The book is called “Into the Heart” by Kenneth Good, he now is divorced from her and teaches at a college in NJ, I think Jersey City State College.
Didn’t read your post before responding. My bad.
Dr. Erwin Frank? He doesn’t sound very Brazilian to me. Probably he is American or English, and was a fan of NARAL and Planned Parenthood while he was working on his degree in anthropology.
Actually, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if his parents were Nazis who fled to Brazil in the 1940s.
The world is full of well educated idiots without one shred of moral fiber.
hmmmmm
Canabalism should be respected as as a difference between cultures....
.....we should not judge.
“98 children were killed by their mothers in 2004, the Telegraph reports”
98? It’s sad, but, the US should be so lucky as to have such a low number. This is an atrocity. Screw the cultural differences, sorry.
NO kidding! How about we kill all the professors? That can become our cultural ‘way of life.’ Wonder what this prof would think of that?
I wonder why Americans executing rapists and murderers or killing Islamofascist terrorists is not considered a legitimate cultural practice.
LOVE IT!
You are right, ‘religion of peace - huh! Ever notice that most of those who say Isham is a relgion of peace aren’t Islamic?
See post #27, as a percentage of the population 98 is enormous.
And why shouldn’t this practice also make one sick?????
As the mother of a female, disabled, twin, this makes me sick also.
Anyone that automatically thinks this is a terrible practice is either missing a brain or is a coward and lacking the courage to use it.
The appropriate response to this new age PC relativism, this global regression to the cultural death cult of multiculturalism, is clear from Mark Steyn:
“In a more culturally confident age, the British in India were faced with the practice of `suttee’ - the tradition of burning widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands. Gen. Sir Charles Napier was impeccably multicultural: `You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: When men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks, and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.’”
We tolerate the stoning of adulteresses (not adulterers) within the societies ruled by the “religion of peace”. It is reported that over 4,000 homosexuals have been executed in Iran, another product of the “religion of peace”. Two hundred and thirty one years ago today, our Founders signed the Declaration that prioritizes our God given rights. “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” means that life is the paramount right which always trumps the “liberty” of anyone to take that life, and even more warped is abortion in the pursuit of happiness, yet we are closing in on 50 million aborted babies.
Oh, once there was a far more rational time when we understood God’s law and had the confidence in our faith and culture to build the gallows.
Or perhaps hasn't read Mein Kampf.
Great quote.
Some (many?) liberals say, with a straight face, that cultures can’t be superior to one another, or worse, some ludite cultures are superior to western or our culture.
Some (many?) liberals say, with a straight face, that cultures can’t be superior to one another, or worse, some ludite cultures are superior to western or our culture.
Some (many?) liberals say, with a straight face, that cultures can’t be superior to one another, or worse, some ludite cultures are superior to western or our culture.
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