Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!jarthur!usc!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!bryans
From: bryans@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Bryan Siegfried)
Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio
Subject: Re: Sex ratio, Chinese village
Message-ID: <1990Dec10.225812.29155@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 10 Dec 90 22:58:12 GMT
References: <9012101021.AA28930@genbank.bio.net>
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Lines: 18

ODONNELL@arcb.afrc.ac.uk writes:

>I haven't yet seen any comment on the likelihood, or otherwise, of the
>existence of infanticide to skew the ratios. The economic pressure seems
>quite strong to do this, so should be examined before invoking genetic
>explanations.

	Although I have heard that infanticide does occur in China, I doubt 
that it has a significant effect on the sex ration in your basic village.
Just think about infanticide for a moment.  The mere act is just too much
to comprehend.  Although the extraordinary situation of the Chinese pushes
them closer to infanticide, I can hardly imagine it is common practice.  Of 
course, this is all conjecture.  Have the Chinese released any believable
studies on sex ratios and infanticide?

__
Bryan Siegfried
Biology and Economics at UIUC