Die verskynsel van kindermoord deur die moeder krities heroorweeg binne ’n kruiskulturele raamwerk

Abstract

In this contribution, I aim to make sense of the (somewhat) uncommon and disturbing phenomenon of maternal fi licide within a broader context of the so-called neglected discourse of the mother in the West. Contemporary examples of countries where maternal fi licide have been recorded are Germany, South Africa, the United States and New Zealand and these instances are recounted in the introduction to illustrate the cross-cultural and transnational nature of the problem, as well as the fact that its universal appearance allows for a justifi able feminist methodology. In or der to justify a cross-cultural methodological angle, I analyse four recent examples or case studies of maternal fi licide in an attempt to isolate the underlying factors contributing to this horrifi c social phenomenon. My conclusion is that although structural realities (material and/or emotional bereftness) were the major or ultimate reasons which led to the fi nal decision to execute, it is (neoliberal) patriarchy, and the values ensconced within this framework, that ultimately set the stage for the countdown. Apart from my brief investigation of Kristeva's (2002b) notion of abjection, in order to grasp her thinking in the context of an especially Western feminist paradigm, I also consider other theoretical models in this regard. This is an important consideration since it is in my view diffi cult to understand the construct of motherhood without the benefi t of a wider appreciation of a general scholarship on the topic. My intention is to critically assess the myths about the social construct of motherhood, namely that such construct is in no way "natural" in the sense in which patriarchy would have us believe. These additional theoretical suggestions include a feminist appreciation of the fractured mother-daughter relationship and Hrdy's (2000) insight that women's unbounded, prehistoric sexuality had been repurposed in order to refashion motherhood as "natural". In particular, I argue, by analogy of Blumberg's (2009) notion of freaks in evolutionary biolo gy, that the social construct of motherhood and areas of exhaustion in such a biology, evince structural similarities; since patriarchal forms of oppression force women as mothers to operate outside the boundaries of conventional social norms. I tender these considerations with the aim of reaching a more nuanced understanding of the concept of motherhood's political and ideological underpinnings. As such, I employ a feminist methodology within a transnational theoretical framework in view of motherhood being a cross-cultural phenomenon. Even though a number of theoretical trajectories are considered and employed, I argue that this approach is in fact one of the strengths of this contribution since the proliferation of feminist theoretical perspectives has been seen as being conducive to the feminist project's open-endedness, rather than patriarchy's attempt to close off the debate, as my analogous exploration of the historical course of motherhood demonstrates. I argue that this phenomenon can only be understood properly within the wider context of motherhood as a cultural, political and ideological construct with nuanced and complicated underpinnings. In this way, an indirect approach is likely to show up insights which a direct method would miss or underappreciate. I reach the conclusion that maternal fi licide, signifi cantly even as transnational, cross-cultural phenomenon, fi nds credible explanation in Blumberg's (2009) concept of evolutionary exhaustion. I further argue that the neglect of discourse on the mother, as Kristeva (1982) presciently pointed out, is by design, since the alternative, its proliferation, could and almost certainly would lead to the demise of m/otherhood.