ABSTRACT

At the beginning of the twentieth century in South Africa, the sex ratio for black children under five years was one of the lowest ever recorded. Sex ratios also differed markedly by racial group. Those for white children remained almost invariable, with more boys than girls, while black children had a clear majority of girls, a situation that the literature has almost completely overlooked. The reasons are still not completely clear. Although sex ratios at birth show more births of boys than girls, boys’ mortality was higher than girls’ mortality. Why boys’ mortality was so high and why, as a consequence, the twentieth-century under-five sex ratio for black children was so skewed towards girls, a ratio much lower, for example, than the sex ratios of pre-industrial European countries, remains unanswered. We suggest several possible explanations. The most likely explanation, we argue, was a preference for girls.

摘要

在二十世纪初的南非，五岁以下黑人儿童的性别比例是有记录以来最低的之一。性别比例也因种族而显着不同。白人儿童的情况几乎没有变化，男孩多于女孩，而黑人儿童的女孩明显占多数，文学几乎完全忽视了这一情况。原因仍然不完全清楚。尽管出生性别比显示男孩的出生率高于女孩，但男孩的死亡率高于女孩的死亡率。为什么男孩的死亡率如此之高，以及为什么 20 世纪 5 岁以下黑人儿童的性别比例如此偏向于女孩，例如，这一比例远低于工业化前欧洲国家的性别比例，仍未得到答复。我们提出了几种可能的解释。