Passionate Love and Sexual Desire - Elaine Hatfield

40This treatment of an unfaithful wife was conventional and neither herparents nor the tribe did anything about it (Hilger, 1952, p. 212).The king of the Plateau tribes of Zimbabwe executed men caught with any of hiswives. The wives were grossly mutilated (Gouldsbury & Sheane, 1911). In earliertimes, Apache husbands also killed their rivals and mutilated their wives (by cutting offthe end of their noses); presumably that made them less appealing the next time(Goodwin, 1942).In Western cultures, men are far more likely to beat or murder their girlfriendsand wives than their rivals (White & Mullen, 1989). Today, In America, family peacecenters report that about two-thirds of the wives who are forced to seek shelter, do sobecause their husbands' excessive or unwarranted jealousy has led them to repeatedlyassault the women (Gayford, 1979). Male jealousy is the leading cause of wifebattering and homicide worldwide (Buss, 1994; Daly & Wilson, 1988a, 1988b.In the West, until recently, such vengeance was approved or treated leniently untilrecently. The 18 th century English jurist Blackstone commented that killing in asituation where a man or woman is caught in the act “is of the lowest degree ofmanslaughter; . . . for there could not be a greater provocation” (quoted in Smith &Hogan, 1983, p. 288).In many countries, the courts have been sympathetic to such “crimes of passion.”Traditionally, it was considered to be a man’s right to defend his “honor.” In Morocco,for example, the law excuses killing one's wife if she is caught in the act of adultery,but a woman would not be excused for killing her husband in the same circumstances(Greenhouse, 1994). In Sao Paulo (Brazil's most populous city), in 1980-1981, 722