I'm trying to catch up on a week's worth of postings.  Whew!!  Just a few
thoughts before I sign off for the rest of the summer.

About the Koran: many many sources will tell you that the Koran says
children should be nursed for two years, as though that were both the upper
and lower limit.  In fact, nursing is only mentioned in one place in the
Koran, and that is in the context of a divorce involving a young child.
What it actually says is that in the case of a divorce, a child must remain
in his/her mother's custody until AT LEAST the age of two years, in order
for the child to be nursed.  Or, to put it another way, the father CANNOT
have custody of a child younger than two years, because it needs to be
nursed.  The Koran says the only exception to this is if the mother agrees
to give the father custody, in which case the father is obliged to pay for
the services of a wet nurse to nurse the child until it is two years old.
The Koran says nothing else about duration of nursing.  Thus, my
interpretation is that 2 years is the absolute MINIMUM length of nursing
advocated by the Koran, and that children who are in intact marriages can be
and are routinely nursed for much much longer.  Likewise, even in the case
of divorce, the mother is not obliged to turn the child over to the father's
custody as soon as it is two years old, that is merely the minimum age at
which the father can demand custody.  I have researched this issue quite
extensively and get frustrated when people say that the Koran advocates
weaning at two years, because it does not.

About Calcium and osteoporosis -- the discussion has been fascinating and
informative.  I am constantly struggling with my 14 year old daughter. who
nursed until she was four years old, but has been refusing to drink cows'
milk for the past year.  I make her eat TUMS.  The "scholarly" comment I
wanted to make is that anthropologist Lynette Leidy did a review of the
literature on biological aspects of menopause for the 1994 Annual Review of
Anthropology (should be available in every university library).  In her
review, she points out that cross-cultural studies show that bone loss may
be similar or even in greater in populations outside the U.S., but they have
a much lower fracture rate in elderly women.  Thus, the seemingly obvious
link between osteoporosis and bone breakage isn't really so obvious or so
simple.

I've really enjoyed reading and learning from all of you.  I am signing off
to avoid totally stressing out in the next two weeks before the LLLI
meeting, then the rest of the summer I'll be at home with the kids.  Someday
I'll have a computer and modem at home!  I look forward to beaming back
aboard in the fall, when the membership list will probably top 1,000!!
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Katherine A. Dettwyler                                email:
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Anthropology Department                               phone: (409) 845-5256
Texas A&M University                                    fax: (409) 845-4070
College Station, TX  77843-4352