Denatured Mothers or socialization of violence? Abandonment, maltreatment and infanticide in Concepción, 1840-1870?

Abstract

The present article analyzes the violence exerted against the childhood in the popular world, considering the social phenomena of the abandonment and the infanticide as keys of the question. Thus, the traditional triad of poverty, illegitimacy and disaffection is confronted respect to a deeper interpretation into the practices of the community, placing violence against children on a learning cultural context, that is, the socialization level of violent responses from the lower class. The sources used correspond to judicial records and written press of the epoch, which was reviewed intensively in order to find, not only the transgression itself, but also the senses and meanings present on it.