Belinda Bohnert, commenting on what I wrote about wet-nursing in western
Europe, says:

>I'm not sure I believe, at least in the US, "that childrearing is still
>reguarded as *the most important thing a woman does with her life"

Belinda -- I was saying this was true of many places in the world still
today, but NOT the U.S.!!  Of course I realize that sadly this isn't the
case in the U.S. any more.  Fathering gets even shorter shrift in our society.

Our evolutionary heritage suggests that the mother-child bond should be the
strongest one, regardless of what our specific "culture" tells us at any
particular time and place.

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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