Just bought the June issue of the UK edition of Marie Claire magazine because of
article mentioned on the cover "Women who breastfeed animals".

The article "Mothers who raise animals as their own children" is about women of
the Bishnoi tribe in Rajasthan in India -- in the desert near where the recent
nuclear tests were conducted -- who have a long tradition of protecting their
environment including rearing orphan black buck antelope with their own milk.

The article talks about how these people avoid outsiders, are strict vegetarians
(not defined what that means) and how the women do most of the work -- including
heavy work -- , marry young and have certain sexual freedoms (they can sleep
with men they fancy and  their husband accepts this) BUT -- completely
unremarked by the author of the article the tradition of feeding the deer:

"In remote areas of the desert,,,,Bishnoi women still feed orphaned bucks at the
breast. 'I have seen it myself in villages....But the women are shy and never do
it in front of an outsider'."   " 'Bishnoi women used to breastfeed the young
buck.  But today we use bottles of milk for our animals and for our children
too.' "  The woman speaking "takes a baby's bottle filled with buffalo milk from
under her tight-fitting embroidered choli, or blouse.  Shuti has been warming
the milk between her breasts."   There is a photo of the deer with the baby
bottle.

I do not know what to think of this article.  How tragic that a people so remote
from many influences of modern life and whose values include nurturing the
environment have turned to bottle feeding.  How irritating that the journalist
has seen fit to use the breastfeeding angle to sell the magazine.  ('Breastfeeds
animals' is pretty emotive stuff.)  How utterly bizarre to warm the animal milk
between the human breasts.  How interesting that the journalist seems totally
unaware of this irony.......

Magda Sachs
UK

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