News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Viking Age triggered by shortage of wives? by emmett on Tuesday October 07, 2008 @06:36PM (#326141)
Actually, that's incorrect. There's a strong social prestige incentive for your one child to be a boy rather than a girl. There's a strong economic incentive for you to have a girl: there's a tradition of reversed dowries in China, and girls are rare, so the benefits are high.
Re:Viking Age triggered by shortage of wives? by arockwell on Tuesday October 07, 2008 @06:43PM (#326147)
I thought the reason they wanted boys was that they were the ones who had the means to support their parents in old age?
Re:Viking Age triggered by shortage of wives? by emmett on Wednesday October 08, 2008 @12:28PM (#326682)
Perhaps that was the historical reason boys are high prestige, but modern China has huge opportunities for women (who "Hold up half the sky", as Mao put it).

China was a society of prima genitor, like Europe; boys are high prestige because they carry on your family name. All praise to the eldest son!