> For example: If she had to be the one out in the fields, or if she could
>stay home in the hut and wait for others to bring home the goodies...those
>things affected whether or not she brought her baby with her and how much
>access they had to each other during the infancy/toddler time.

I'm not sure which scenario was intended to go with early weaning, and which
late, but Catherine Panter-Brick, an anthropologist in England, has done
research on just this issue in Nepal -- and the babies who go with their mom
out to the fields nurse longer than the babies who stay home with mom.

>
>Even if mother does not give obvious signs of wanting to wean, toddlers in
>our culture pick this up - or they pick up the lack of peers breastfeeding.
>First, our breasts are not exposed. Second, there are few other toddlers
>nursing around them.

Well, of course this all depends -- in some parts of the country, there are
many toddlers nursing around our own, depending on one's local group of
friends.  My son saw many toddlers and way-older than toddlers nursing.  He
also knew that from age 3 on, he only nursed in the mornings and at night
during the week, and he just assumed that the same was true of all his
friends at preschool and eventually kindergarten.  It was NEWS to him that
the other kindergarteners didn't begin and end their days with breast milk.

>
>One thing we need to sometimes remember is that we live in the context of our
>culture with its set of "norms."  Although we collectively understand the
>positive ramifications of breastfeeding beyond one or two years, the culture
>in which we are doing this is only marginally supportive of breastfeeding tiny
>infants.  Before we take up arms we might look at getting general acceptance
>for breastfeeding 6 to 12 month olds and as that becomes more the norm the
>issue of extended breastfeeding will resolve on its own.

I must humbly suggest that when you talk about nursing 5 and 6 year olds as
being normal and natural, suddenly nursing a 2 or 3 year old doesn't sound
so extreme.  It is precisely by changing our language that we change
culture.  There is already "general acceptance" for breastfeeding 6-12 month
olds.  The AAP guidelines have always stated this as the preferred minimum,
and now they say 12 months as the minimum.  The World Health Organization
has had two years as the minimum since at least 1979.  Culture is not some
big monolithic block that must be budged.  It is the sum total of all our
everyday actions and beliefs.  Culture can change very quickly if all the
individual members change.
Kathy D.
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