The hypotheses proposed in this article result from the confrontation between two distinct methodologies : ethnological field research in the one hand and the analysis of juridical texts and archive material on the other hand. Our research hypotheses are thus based on both, juridical and anthropological considerations. We try to show that the infanticide practices described in archive documents reflect the body and life representations of a part of the island population until a relatively recent period – and partly still today – and to explain the penalties pronounced in the light of these representations.