Someone cited Jim Akre as saying that cultures breastfeed, rather than
women. I disagree. A child can not be breastfed by a culture, only by a
person with breasts. 
In the same vein, people belong to cultures, but cultures are not
individuals.  Each individual will have beliefs and ways of living that they
have learned from their culture, but they will also have ways of doing
things that are peculiar to them alone.  
If you think that because you know some tidbits about certain cultures, you
will be able to give appropriate help to any individual who defines
themselves as belonging to that culture, you are destined to fail. There are
no shortcuts. You have to engage with the person in front of you. 

My hackles still go up more than 20 years down the road when I recall being
asked by our INSTRUCTOR, no less, on the first day of midwifery school in
Oslo, during our intro round where we said our names and where we were from,
'You'r American, eh?  Tell me, why do *all* American women ask for dry-up
pills in the hospital?'  A third of my class had children under two years
old when we started. One student was breastfeeding when school started -
yep, the American. And I was supposed to be the expert on people who weaned
prematurely, because I came from that culture.  The population on which this
instructor based her conviction that all American women wanted dry-up pills
was the group of NATO officers' wives who were stationed at the base nearby
and used the hospital where she worked part time. 

There was a post in this thread about Latina women being more likely to
supplement in the early days.  In the same post, it was mentioned that the
pediatricians ordered supplements to any baby whose weight on the second day
of life was more than seven per cent below birthweight.  What mother would
NOT be supplementing in such a setting?  The pediatricians need
re-programming more than the mothers do.  I really feel for the
breastfeeding brigade in that unit, it's an uphill battle.

As to culture, human beings are much more similar than they are different,
and still there is a wondrous diversity amongst us. Celebrate the diversity,
don't bother labeling it.  You'll find your work more fun, too.

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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