>Mary Broadfoot writes:
>
>>>there are always exceptions....
>
>Yes of course.
>
>>>secondly, is it always valid to draw universal conclusions from behaviour
>>>observed in 'traditional' cultures?
>
>This is a valid question.  When we talk of "traditional" cultures we mean
>ones where people didn't traditionally have access to breast milk
>substitutes, and didn't view the breasts as sex objects, and where children
>are carried on the mother's body at all times for most of the first year of
>life.  These are the conditions under which our species evolved -- I am
>interested in trying to figure out what breastfeeding behavior would be like
>if we didn't have cultural beliefs and practices that interfered with the
>evolved system.  Certainly the Gainj of highland Papua New Guinea live a
>lifestyle much closer to the vast majority of human evolutionary time than
>modern Americans.
>
>
>  Is it possible that in Western
>>cultures our excellent diet (over eating) could contribute to a situation
>where the breasts are in some way producing rather too much milk for a baby
>- and that thumb sucking is a valid way for a baby to regulate this?
>
>The research on breast milk composition according to diet of the mother
>shows little/no difference, even between over-nourished Western mothers and
>clinically malnourished women in Third World countries.  Only when the
>mother is severely malnourished do you see some drop off in milk quantity
>(but not quality).  So diet apparently has little effect on breast milk
>composition or quantity.  In places where babies don't suck their thumbs,
>they regulate their intake by adjusting the frequency of nursing and the
>duration of nursing on each breast, not by sucking their thumbs instead.
>More frequent nursing increases the fat content of the milk, and longer
>duration on one breast also increases the fat intake from that feed.
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>-------
>Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.                         email: [log in to unmask]
>Anthropology Department                               phone: (409) 845-5256
>Texas A&M University                                    fax: (409) 845-4070
>College Station, TX  77843-4352
>
>
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Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.                         email: [log in to unmask]
Anthropology Department                               phone: (409) 845-5256
Texas A&M University                                    fax: (409) 845-4070
College Station, TX  77843-4352