MHS:   Source date is:     05-Jun-95 10:12:00 -0300 EDT

======== Original Message ========
Somewhere I read or heard that the reason kids have baby teeth ("milk"
teeth) is because evolutionarily kids breastfed until 5 or 6. Milk is not
great for teeth. After they weaned they would get a brand new set of teeth
which would last them into their ad
ult years. When folks were hunter gatherers (which is basically what our
bodies have evolved for--according to an article in the last issue of
"Mothering" we have been farmers for 10,000 years and hunter gatherers for
100,000.) they had no access to milk
(o refined sugar for that matter) so their teeth were safe from cavaties.
======== Fwd by: Judy Canahuat ========
Hunters, gatherers for something more like 1,000,000 +.  In fact, the basic
human physiology, which includes all of the adaptations of breastmilk as we
know it today (low protein, low solute, high water content, low calcium,
high lactose, etc.- and the relationship to slow maturation, long life span,
complex central nervous system, etc.) are a result of an extremely long
process of adaptation that took place wholly in the tropics (this is one of
the reasons why I always am amused by concerns about the breastfed baby not
being hydrated enough by breastmilk alone).  One of the best treatments in
the already existing literature is in the Jelliffe's Human Milk in the
Modern World.  Also, Marvin Harris, the anthropologist, has a fascinating
chapter called Lactophiles and Lactophobes in The Sacred Cow  and the
Abominable Pig in which he discusses the adaptiveness of adults not having
the enzyme for digesting lactose.  I am hoping that our new member Katherine
Dettwyler will be giving us an update on this fascinating topic in her new
book and her discussions at our meetings in at the American Anthropology
meeting.