The most influential variables are patrilineal descent and authoritarian social relationships that place men over women and older over younger, the concept of property that turns children into assets, and wealth and class. Religious beliefs, laws, and popular notions about gender and childhood support practices ideologically. Thus, the high infant mortality (especially in Afghanistan) prompted the admonition to parents not to cry over a dead child lest the child's soul will be troubled. Folk ethics advised parents not to get attached to a daughter…