>so you're saying that hormonal stimulation from menstruation is a factor
>in fully developed lobes, lobules and alveoli?

If I'm reading Lawrence and others correctly, rapid development of ducts and lobes, etc is at puberty.  Thereafter normal cycling contributes to a small and very gradual development of alveolar buds. 
 
Complete development does not take place in the absence of pregnancy, where growth of ducts, lobes and alveoli are all rapid.

>i'm kind of an armchair anthropologist and was interested in the
>differences in 'primitive' (for lack of a better word....can someone
>help me out there?) cultures in terms of amount of time spent cycling,
>v. 'modern' cultures.

Me too.  An everything I've read suggests that the "normal" state of the human adult female is pregnant or breastfeeding, with only a few cycles between breastfeeding and the next pregnancy.  I call that an observation seen among isolated traditional cultures, non-urbanized cultures, non-Westernized cultures, or something phrasing like that.  

Judith

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