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Archivio DI Antropologia Criminale
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Historical SummaryThe naïve and unquestioning compliance with patterns which have become group stereotypes may be seen to advantage in certain descriptions of their behavior by natives when brought into the courts of the white man. In the following testimony in an Italian court having jurisdiction over a Mohammedan population in North Africa it will be noted that neither father, mother, nor daughter raised any question as to the inevitability of the consequences of the violation of the code:
Osmar Assen . . . said to the judge who questioned him: "I was recently at the border buying giraffe skins to make shields. About a month ago I returned and my wife informed me that our daughter Fatma, still a young girl, was pregnant. I was greatly displeased and had no peace during a whole night and a whole day. In the evening I told my daughter to come and help me fetch some fodder and wood, and had her mount upon the ass. [In a retired spot] I made her dismount from the ass. I threw her on the ground first and tried to strangle her, then seeing that this did not succeed, with a quick pressure against her head I broke her neck. Before throwing her on the ground I said: ’Think on what you have done. I have brought you here to kill you.’ She answered, ’I know I have done wrong. I am in your hands and God’s.’ After killing my daughter I set about digging the grave, and two of my cousins joined me, whom I had asked to follow and assist with the burial. . . . Before killing her I asked my daughter who had seduced her, but she would not say. When I returned I informed my wife that I had done what I had said I would do, and what is prescribed in our customs to do. Now I am sorry for what I did."
[Questioned, the mother said:] "My daughter was killed by my husband because, marriageable, she became pregnant. When my husband returned I informed him of what had happened. He assured himself of the girl’s condition, and then decided to kill her, according to our custom."1
1 , 37: 71 (Unsigned).
Chicago:
Archivio DI Antropologia Criminale in Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, ed. Thomas, William I. (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1937), Original Sources, accessed July 1, 2025, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=VQG6KDGWBJBN4KN.
MLA:
. Archivio DI Antropologia Criminale, Vol. 37, in Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, edited by Thomas, William I., New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1937, Original Sources. 1 Jul. 2025. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=VQG6KDGWBJBN4KN.
Harvard:
, Archivio DI Antropologia Criminale. cited in 1937, Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, ed. , McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York. Original Sources, retrieved 1 July 2025, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=VQG6KDGWBJBN4KN.
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