Archivio DI Antropologia Criminale


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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).

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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 December 6, 2023, http://www.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. 6 Dec. 2023. http://www.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 6 December 2023, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=VQG6KDGWBJBN4KN.