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ABSTRACT
This article explores the usefulness of historian Barbara Duden’s ‘somatic epochs’ for re-examining nineteenth century cases of infanticide, neonaticide and concealment of birth. By re-reading legal documentation in light of Duden’s contention that embodied experience is not fixed through time but figured according to the gendered, social and synesthetic contexts of different epochs, I seek to add complexity to legal and medical discussions of infanticide in this era by exploring the felt bodies of both the women accused of these practices and their communities. Taking three child murder investigations conducted in Western Australia, I use rare reports of mother’s felt bodily experiences around concealed pregnancy to argue that a mind/body dichotomy was not yet in evidence. Instead, there are indications that these women and their communities still thought of bodies as a system of Galenic humoral temperaments, and this has implications for the denial behaviours that manifested around infanticide practices. Claims by women that they were not pregnant but rather had other medical complaints and the hesitation of community members to accuse mothers despite a suspected pregnancy are bathed in fresh light. These nuanced additions to understanding the felt body have useful implications for other corporeal explorations of the past.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Accusations are often difficult to untangle as women could be accused of child murder then later convicted of concealment of birth, or accused of both infanticide and concealment of birth. Crucially, only a child’s mother can commit infanticide. If a father kills his baby it is murder (Alder and Polk Citation2001, 4–9; Law Reform Commission of Western Australia Citation2007, 104; Motz Citation2001, 113, 141; Wilczynski Citation1997, 8). The offence of ‘infanticide’ as a partial defence to murder was only encoded into law in Western Australia between 1986 and 2008 (Law Reform Commission of Western Australia Citation2007, 106; Legal Online Citation2020 TLA [10.1.1700]). During this timeframe it was introduced into the Criminal Code (WA) (Law Reform Commission of Western Australia Citation2007, 106) and established as an offence of unlawful killing that referred to a mother who killed her child while suffering from the psychological after-effects of childbirth or a disturbance of mind due to the effects of ‘lactation’ (Johnson Kramar & Watson, 2006, 246–250; Legal Online Citation2020, [10.1.1700]; Motz Citation2001, 129, 131, 141; Scher Citation2005, 14–15; Wilczynski Citation1997, 151, 155). The offence was dissolved in a 2008 criminal law amendment to the homicide bill ("Criminal Law Amendment (Homicide) Bill, Western Australia," 2008). As a result, cases previously been considered infanticide in WA are now dealt with as murder. This means that while the word infanticide was in circulation in nineteenth century Western Australia, the legal definition of the crime between 1829 and 1901 was child murder.
2 Filicide is the killing of a child of any age by her/his genetic mother or father (Alder and Polk Citation2001; Motz Citation2001, 141; Resnick Citation1970, 325; Wilczynski Citation1997, 29). Generally researchers limit their definition of ‘child’ to children aged 18 years and under (Alder and Polk Citation2001, 15–16; Wilczynski Citation1997, 8).
3 Alder and Polk (Citation2001, 31), Law Reform Commission of Western Australia (Citation2007, 111), Motz (Citation2001, 141), Resnick (Citation1970, 1414), Scher (Citation2005, 14–15), Wilczynski (Citation1997, 8). Neonaticide is a term coined by Resnick (Citation1970) to define a previously unnamed category of child murder that distinguished neonaticide from the murder of older infants by their parents. (58). Many nineteenth century Western Australian child murder cases involved neonaticide. However, although neonaticide is a recognised subcategory of filicide, committing ‘neonaticide’ is not a charge or a conviction that can be brought against a woman in the present, and it was not a term used by the judicial system or general public in nineteenth century Western Australia. Alder and Polk (Citation2001) highlight the complexities of using modern terminology to define historical practices, stating that, ‘what is described in social scientific terms as “neonaticide” comes to be treated in law as “infanticide”’ (33). This is reflected in nineteenth century Western Australia; what was named by law as child murder was frequently neonaticide.
4 (Legal Online Citation2020, TLA [10.11.182]) The charge of concealment of birth developed from a time when it was difficult to prove whether a child had been born dead, or if they had been killed before their body was hidden (see Gardiner Citation2014b)
5 See the institutional responses to Celia Jackson’s Citation1883 case.
6 Body History (Korpergeschichte) – A repertory (Ein Repertorium), Citation1990; The Woman Beneath the Skin, Citation1991; Quick with Child: An experience that has lost its status, Citation1992; Disembodying Women: Perspectives on Pregnancy and the Unborn, Citation1993; The fetus on the ‘farther shore’: Towards a history of the unborn, Citation1999; Disembodied Health, Citation2000; Heterosomatics, Citation2005.
7 Although Gowing’s discussion of concealment and infanticide explores early modern Europe, her observations resonate powerfully within a nineteenth century Western Australian context. ‘A history of reproduction that focuses entirely on the legitimate and the acknowledged will erase many of the anxieties, conflicts and dramas that were part of the early modern culture of childbirth. The histories of pregnancies that were hidden or ended in suspected infanticide expose another history of childbirth, characterized by narratives of concealment, fear, confrontation and exposure. The social history of pregnancy is … more ambiguous than historians have tended to acknowledge; women’s experiences of secret pregnancies, labours and alleged infanticides were shaped by some profound cultural and social tensions about the reproductive body and about maternity’ (Citation1997, 90).
8 ‘Observations on the connection between internal disease, and irregularities in the modes of termination of Fevers in general with the view of elucidating the prevailing “Influenza”’.
9 This list is the result of an extensive search of the State Records Office of Western Australia archives, TROVE, and nineteenth century diaries and correspondence. It is not exhaustive or complete.
10 It should be noted that other women whose circumstances were different may have successfully concealed the birth of their children and been able to dispose of their bodies without detection. It should also be recognised that extant archives only provide documentary evidence of an investigation/court process, both of which, as discussed, were stacked against women accused of these practices.
11 See Jane Green (Aveling Citation1979, 314; Erickson Citation1974, 44; Hansford-Miller Citation1995, 72–73), Catherine Kelly (Aveling Citation1979, 314; Hansford-Miller Citation1995, 73) Louisa Lund (Aveling Citation1979, 315; Hansford-Miller Citation1995, 73–74) and Margaret Dearden (Binder Citation2000; O’Mara Citation2000)
12 The Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal and the Inquirer.
13 For an exploration of the materiality of this record, see Gardiner (Citation2015).
14 Also see (Abstract from criminal record book, October sessions Citation1832).
15 Statistical information was not gathered on the population of First Peoples in WA at this time.
16 Governor Stirling’s ‘compensation’ for ‘volunteering as administrator’ without salary permitted him ‘to select a grant of land in the colony to the extent of 100,000 acres’ (Bourke Citation1987, 26). Also see (De Garis Citation1981, 300).
17 Indentured servants signed a contract that bound them to their employer for a period of years in exchange for food, shelter and a basic wage. A male servant could sign over his wife and children’s labour. If the servant worked for a person who was about to emigrate they could have their passage paid for, but may have to pay that amount back. There is little discussion regarding the terms of indentured contracts for single female servants. See (Stannage Citation1979, 17, 18).
18 These labourers were ‘the last group of white indentured émigrés to be transferred to a British colony for the purpose of establishing an initial labour force. Their contacts had been negotiated and signed in the UK before departure and were enforced in the new colony by the Governor’ (Appleyard and Baldasser Citation2004, 35, also see Appleyard Citation2004).
19 All quotations in this section are from, ‘Rex V Mary Summerland. (Citation1832). Unpublished court case documentation. State Records Office of Western Australia, CONS 3472, Item 10, (Nolle prosequi).’ This documentation is located at the State Records Office of Western Australia.
20 Rex V Mary Summerland, Citation1832.
21 For Duden, the skin, while a boundary (Citation1991), ‘was not meant to demarcate the body against the outside world’, above all it was, ‘a surface on which the inside revealed itself’ (123).
22 The Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal, Saturday 8 August, 1840, 2.
23 (‘Quarter sessions. Perth, Thursday, October 1, 1840’, Citation1840, 2)
24 (Regina V Jane Green, Citation1840)
25 (Regina V Jane Green, Citation1840)
26 (‘Quarter sessions. Perth, Thursday, October 1, 1840’, Citation1840, 3).
27 (‘Saturday, August 8, 1840’, Citation1840, 2)
28 (Regina V Jane Green, Citation1840)
29 (‘Quarter sessions. Perth, Thursday, October 1, 1840’, Citation1840, 3).
30 (‘Jane Green’s trial continued’, Citation1840, 4)
31 (‘Quarter sessions. Perth, Thursday, October 1, 1840’, Citation1840, 3).
32 (‘Quarter sessions,’ Citation1840, 39). Also see (Regina V Jane Green, Citation1840).
33 Government of Western Australia Department of the Attorney General (Citation2009).
34 All quotations in this section are from, ‘Geraldton - suspected concealment of birth of a child to a Celia Jackson working as servant at Dongarra (Citation1883). Unpublished police correspondence. State Records Office of Western Australia, CONS 430, Item 1883/0937.’ This documentation is located at the State Records Office of Western Australia.
35 Geraldton – suspected concealment of birth of a child to a Celia Jackson working as servant at Dongarra (Citation1883).
36 Rex V Mary Summerland (Citation1832).
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Amanda Gardiner
Amanda Gardiner is an Adjunct Lecturer with the School of Arts and Humanities at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia. Her work has been published in Westerly, Outskirts and M/C Journal and she was the winner of the 2014 Magdalena Prize for Research and the 2017 Lawrence Wilson Gallery Art Writing Prize. Her curated exhibitions have appeared in Western Australia and Limerick, Ireland. This article was completed as part of the Australian Feminist Studies Mentoring Programme for New Academic Writers.