Someone wrote, about Biblical evidence for late weaning: >The fathers didn't take their sons to the fields with them until they were >weaned, and I can't see a father taking a 4 year old, can >you? Even today >most husbands won't take their 4 year old in the >backyard, let alone to >herd sheep in the high country. We have to be careful about assuming that other cultures have the same beliefs and practices as modern day US (or even that modern day US has one uniform set of beliefs and practices). In many parts of the world, children as young as 2 or 3 years of age are put in charge of livestock such as the calves or lambs or the pigs -- usually not big adult animals. They are responsible for taking them from the family homestead out to pasture some distance away, protecting them, guiding them, and then bringing them back home several hours later. Then they go nurse from their moms! Likewise, in many cultures, children as young as 4 years of age are left in charge of their younger siblings while mom goes to the market or works in the field. It is a specifically US cultural belief that young children are incapable of behaving responsibly and contributing to the family economy. The whole idea of a carefree idyllic childhood, free of labor (note child labor laws) is culturally defined. In cultures where 2 year olds are taught how to herd the animals, and expected to do so, they do. In cultures where 4 year olds are taught how to watch their younger siblings, they do. In Mali, not only are 3 year olds sent to the market to bargain for food (and entrusted with the money, and expected to know how to count the change), 4 year olds often gather in groups, each with a baby on their back, for play time every morning, and 6 year olds start pounding millet and cooking and chopping firewood and hauling water. This is especially true of the girls, who are held to a much higher standard than the boys. Boys get to goof off most of childhood. So, knowing that in Biblical times in the Middle East, fathers didn't take their sons with them to the fields until they were weaned, doesn't really tell us anything about what age that might have been. It might have been 2 years, it might have been 6 or 7 years. In the Koran, there is strong language to the effect that if a couple is getting divorced and there is a young child, he MUST stay with his mother until he two years old, so he can nurse. After that time, his father can claim him. If the father wants him before two years, he must agree to pay for a wet nurse. Thus, a MINIMUM of two years of nursing was standard in the days of Mohammed, and it was considered sufficiently important to have specific regulations put into the Koran about it. Kathy Dettwyler _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html