Subject: | |
From: | |
Reply To: | |
Date: | Wed, 2 Feb 2005 23:54:37 -0500 |
Content-Type: | text/plain |
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
I've been doing some reading on the grandmother effect as part of a
paper I'm writing on grandmothers breastfeeding, and I came up with a
rather odd thought I thought to share with you all. Here goes:
The grandmother effect addresses the question "why do women live past
their childbearing years?" Most animals do not live past their
offspring bearing years and from an evolutionary perspective( survival
of the species mostly through reproduction) that makes sense. If they
can't reproduce, it's not good for the species if they live on and use
resources that could be better used by younger reproducing members of
the species or group. Humans are almost unique in that the females live
well past their childbearing years, and this has been true for a long
time. Why? The grandmother effect theory says essentially that
grandmothers help their children so that they start reproducing
earlier, have more babies, and more of their babies live to adulthood
(so they too can reproduce). so the genes of the grandmothers live on
to another generation.
There is also medical and anthropological literature indicating that
grandmothers nursing their grandchildren on an occasional or part time
basis is not uncommon in many parts of the world. They can and do
relactate. They do so so that their daughters can engage in other
productive work like growing or gathering food.
Here's my question: I wonder if part of the grandmother effect is that
grandmothers nurse their grandchildren enough so that the contraceptive
effect of bfing is lost for the mothers and that is one reason the
mothers have more babies. As far as I can tell there is no research out
there on this specific question. The research on grandmothers nursing
is largely anecdotal or very small samples. Evolutionary research
requires large samples to be able to say anything meaningful. I don't
think we even really know how widespread the phenomenon of cross
nursing or grandmothers nursing is.
Just some thoughts. Any comments from the evolutionary biologists or
anthropologists in the group?
Naomi Bar-Yam
--------------------------------
Naomi Bar-Yam Ph.D.
[log in to unmask]
Researcher, Writer, Educator
in Maternal and Child Health
--------------------------------
***********************************************
To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
|
|
|