Reply #13: Cannibalism is an "age old practice" in some places too, but no

[McCamy Taylor]

one advocates letting those people continue their traditional way of life. Face it, some traditional practices suck a rat's ass. Northern Europe had its share of atrocious behaviors before it got civilized. There are some customs that may have served a purpose at some time in history in some ecologic niche, but that does not mean that we have to honor and respect them now in order to give some group a sense of identity. Groups can change their behaviors and keep their identify just fine. Look at Northern Europe. There is no lack of self esteem there.

The real solution in West Africa is to approach the problem by regulating male behavior. Apparently this was not done in this distant past, maybe because men had to be very aggressive, masculine, fertile for some reasons related to the local ecology and economy. Maybe men got killed a lot in battle or hunting so the few who were left were allowed to do what they wanted. But times have changed. People are mobile. Their jobs are different. Men need to acquire different skills and different values.

Moms, instead of raising ugly daughters, you need to be raising civilized sons who can hold down civilized jobs.