"well, we've evolved since cave-man times and we have more variety of foods and we can prepare them better, so we don't need to nurse until age 5 just because we can't chew the tough old bison we happened to kill...". Well Fio, she *does* have a point, of sorts. I do think that the discovery of fire and cooking, and then the later domestication of plants and animals helped reduce the consequences of NOT nursing for 5-6-7 years, and enabled people to wean earlier (say 2-3-4 years) without too much excess child morbidity and mortality. Just as antibiotics, immunizations, clean water, and good sewer systems allow modern/industrialized societies to do away with nursing altogether, without too much excess child morbidity or mortality. But not without SOME excess child morbidity or mortality. Breastfeeding is way more than just food, for one thing. But you know that. And if your child is the one who gets sick at age 3 or 4 or 5, but doesn't die because they are still breastfeeding, then you'll think it was mighty important. She is clearly still struggling with the idea that "breasts as sex objects" is a cultural phenomenon, not a 'natural' one. My example of how powerful culture can be is to ask people to think about what they eat, and who defined for them what was edible and what not. Surely it can be idiosyncratic -- I don't eat 'organs' (liver, kidneys, brain) but my father did. Still, pretty much no one in the US eats termites or witchetty grubs, and most of us would get physically ill if asked to eat them, even though people in other cultures consider them delicacies. Of course, I wouldn't eat snails (escargot) or horse either, but many French people do. Culture is very powerful. Kathy D. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp *********************************************** 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