>
>>-- husbands should give their wives extra grain when they are pregnant
>>(which can then be traded for higher protein foods)
>
>Kathy,
>
>This line had me a little confused...  Are the wives being traded for higher
>protein foods or the grain or some other commodity?
>
>I wasn't sure what was the intended social marketing message.
>
>Sleep deprived in Modesto,
>
>Mimi Poinsett MD


Sorry about that, Dr. Mimi.  The husbands traditionally give their wives a
daily ration of grain from the granary, which the wife pounds into flour
and cooks up for the meals for the family that day.  The important point is
that the husband has the key to the granary and controls how much grain the
wife has each day.

Husbands were not open to a message of "give your pregnant wife money each
day so she can buy high-protein/vitamin-A rich foods to help prevent night
blindness."  They weren't about to give their wives money.  Husbands were
not open to a message of "buy your wife high-protein/vitamin-A rich foods
in the market to help prevent night blindness."  But focus group and
individual interview research showed that husbands *were* open to message
of "give your wife extra grain every day when they are pregnant" (above and
beyond what is needed for the family's meals that day).  The women could
then take the extra grain and go to the market and exchange it for food for
themselves, such as meat, especially liver, or mangoes (high in Vit. A), or
they could trade grain to the Fulani cattle-herding women in exchange for
cows' milk (high in both protein and Vit. A).

It took a *long* time to figure out what "idea" to sell to the men to have
the desired effect of allowing the pregnant women greater access to
high-protein/Vitamin-A rich foods.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.                         email:
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Anthropology Department                               phone: (409) 845-5256
Texas A&M University                                    fax: (409) 845-4070
College Station, TX  77843-4352
http://www.prairienet.org/laleche/dettwyler.html

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