According to V S Naipaul (I think in The Overcrowded Barracoon) there is a deep tradition in the West Indies (Trinidad in his experience) of fatherhood as often both neglectful and violent. He points out the word used for physical chastisement - bless - had (in the 50s) acquired a respectability from the English root of the word and Biblical attitudes to punishment, but is in fact derived from the French word blesser- to wound.