Scholars like Mr. M’Lennan, posited that “female infanticide”—the systematic killing of female children—was a universal practice among “primary hordes” of savages. However, the evidence from Australian tribes, particularly the Kamilaroi and Kurnai as discussed by Fison and Howitt, challenges this theory at its core. They argue that the motives for a preferential killing of female infants simply did not exist among the “lower savages.”
Baldwin Spencer and F.J. Gillen’s work with Northern tribes confirmed that infanticide was practised “in all of the tribes” but that “there is no difference made in respect of either sex.” The authors note that in Mota, male children were sometimes killed rather than female because the family line and inheritance passed through women.
However, a contradictory account from John Wrathall Bull, citing Dr. Wyatt, presents a clear case of gender-based infanticide, where a tribe was prepared to kill a female infant.
The overall conclusion from the primary analysis is that while infanticide was practised, the idea of a widespread, systematic preference for killing female infants among Australian tribes is not well-supported since the economic and social structures of these societies valued women highly. The reasons for infanticide were more often rooted in the immediate practical challenges of survival rather than a calculated devaluation of female life.