In a conversation the other day, a friend said that certain local populations whose name begins with a T, consider life to begin at conception. This was explained by two separate notions:
1) That members of this group say a child is one year old at birth, because of the nine months spent in the womb, and 2) Abortions and miscarriages are viewed as killing living beings. An acquaintance told me of a relative who even did a ritual to prevent future pregnancies after miscarriages. But abortions continue. This is an interesting phenomenon, in which religion and policy meet head on. At the same time, however, there are so many equal living beings that people participate (even indirectly) in killing over the course of their lives (ants, cockroaches, cattle, eating chicken eggs, etc.) that there's sin everywhere, and it makes me wonder, if for some, it's somewhat acceptable to, for example, save a living being a life of extreme hardship by being born to a girl who is in no way ready to be a mother. Interesting stuff.
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About TimAs you can see elsewhere on this webpage, I conduct research on ethnic minorities in western China. This blog offers semi-academic musings on the minutiae of daily life out here--the sort of information otherwise destined for footnotes. Categories |