Dear Ms. White,
        It is NOT "slander" for me to correct misinformation/misperceptions
that you have posted to LactNet.  Margaret Mead had been dead for 10 years
when you claim she was making her opinions known about HIV and formula
distribution in Africa.  She died in 1978.  You attempted to give credence
to your original post by identifying Dana Raphael as a Ph.D. anthropologist,
which she is, but one who is not well respected by her colleagues -- a fine
distinction, perhaps, and one that would be lost on most LactNet readers,
who would probably assume that she was highly respected; and by identifying
her as the originator of the "doula" concept, which she is not.
        It is disingenuous for you to post information to LactNet and then
try to give it respectability and believability by associating it with the
name of  Margaret Mead.  Margaret Mead was a wonderful person and an amazing
anthropologist, but she was *not* an expert on breastfeeding and HIV, or
even on the dangers of formula use in Third World countries.
        It *is* slander for you to accuse me of trying to side-step the
issues by correcting misinformation you have posted to a public forum.

Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Anthropology and Nutrition
Texas A&M University