The methods used by primitive people to prevent conception
\nwere many and varied, and were dependent on knowledge of the
\nrelationship between sex and pregnancy. The vast array of methods
\nreported in various parts of the world testifies to the universality and
\nthe intensity of the human desire to regulate reproductivity. These
\nmethods include abstinence, prolonged nursing of infants, coitus
\ninterruptus, the use of potions, herbs and extracts thought to have
\ncontraceptive powers, spermicidal douches, and, in one culture, the use
\nof a rope tied around a woman’s waist. These methods are characterized
\nby one or more disadvantages: they interfere with the sexual act, they
\nare harmful to womeen, or they are totally ineffective. If human couple
\ndid try to practice contraception Paleolithic, it is little wonder that
\nthey still resorted to infanticide.
\n Recent anthropological evidence suggests that both family
\nplanning and population control were very much a part of the
\npre-agricultural way of life. Many anthropologists believe that
\ninfanticide was a widely used method of family planning by the
\nhunter-gatherer. During this age, it may have involved as much as 50 per
\ncent of the total number of births. Infanticide spares the mother the
\nrisks to her health, which until recently, accompanied abortion. It
\nallowed for precision in family planning since the lives of sick
\noffspring and those of the wrong sex could be terminated while healthy
\noffspring of the right sex could be spared. As late as the present
\ncentury, the Bondei of West Africa strangled infants at birth is any of
\nthe numerous portents and omens for which they watch are unfavorable, or
\nif the infant’s upper teeth come in first. In Madagascar, all children
\nborn on certain unlucky days were killed to prevent them from bringing
\nbad luck to the parents.
\n The Rendille, a tribal of camel herders in the Kenya highlands,
\nuse a variety of methods to keep their population within the limits that
\ncan be supported by the camel herd. In addition to postponing the age of
\nmarriage of women and sending women to be married out of the tribe, they
\nkill off boys born after the next eldest son is old enough to have been
\ncircumcised, and boys born on Wednesdays. Among this tribe, Wednesday’s
\nchild is indeed full of woe.
\n In a number of cultures, abortion is practised among women at
\nthe extreme ends of the reproductive continuum. Some abort their first
\npregnancies out of a belief that subsequent pregnancies will be easier
\nto deliver. Fear of pregnancy at the upper end of the reproductive age
\nrange is apparent in other cultures which abort pregnancies taking place
\nafter a certain age. In one tribe a woman must not bear children after
\nher daughter’s puberty, which can be delayed, however, if the mother
\nwishes to wear an amulet.<\/p>\n
Various methods of terminating pregnancies:<\/p>\n
Throughout Melanesia the practice of jumping from high places
\nwhich was also a common method of suicide was widespread. Navaho women
\ncarried a log around, resting it on top of their abdomens. In New
\nBritain women clasped the waist on both sides, pressing and working
\ntheir fingers into their abdomen in an attmept to expel the foetus.
\nAmong the Crow and Assiniboine Indians, the unwillingly pregnant woman
\nlay on her back, a plank was placed across her stomach and several
\nwomen jumped up and down on the plank until blood spurted from her
\nvagina.
\n In one culture the woman lay on heated coconut husks, in another
\nshe lay on the coals of a fire that had been doused with water to
\nproduce steam. Irritating substances were also used, including ground up
\nblack beetles and irritating leaves. In one culture, ants were made to
\nbite the abdomen of the woman, who then ingested them by mouth.
\n Oral preparations thought to have abortifacient properties
\nabounded. The Jivaro woman was forced to take a raw egg, presumably in
\nthe hope that the foetus would be expelled in the vomiting that ensued.
\nThe Masai had a number of methods, one of which was the eating of goat
\ndung which acted as an emetic. The Menomini, a group of Algonquin
\nIndians who lived in what is now Wisconsin, chopped up the tail harirs
\nfrom the black tailed deer and administered it in bear fat, thus causing
\ngastric irritation and possibly uterine contractions.
\n The combination of magic, along with drugs or mechanical methods
\nwas common in primitive cultures, and represented a healthy commitment
\nto the belief that the gods can always use a helping human hand. Among
\nthe Hopi Indians there was a belief that a woman may abort simply by
\nwishing it. Among the Dahomeyan people in West Africa, if a pregnant
\nwoman was ill, the foetus was formally tried. If found guilty of causing
\nher illness, it was aborted.<\/p>\n
