I'm looking forward to reading Ted Greiner's article on weaning terms in the
new issue of Food and Nutrition Bulletin.  I am always very careful to
define my use -- I use wean to mean the cessation of breastfeeding.  I have
two graduate students getting ready to give a paper on this topic at the
American Association of Physical Anthropologists meetings next spring.  They
are looking at it from the context of analyses of prehistoric skeletal
remains.  Many people who study these prehistoric populations claim that
defects on the enamel of teeth (called linear enamel hypoplasias) can be
traced to "weaning stress" and they use the age of the child when the
defects occurred as a clue to when these societies weaned (ended
breastfeeding).  The problem is that "weaning stress" occurs when solids are
added to the diet, along with pathogens, before 1 year of age, while weaning
(cessation of breastfeeding) and hypoplasias occur in the 2-4 year age
range.  They imply that prehistoric populations were exclusively
breastfeeding for 2-4 years, then abruptly switching the child to a
solid/adult diet.  This is what happens when people don't really understand
the terminology, or use it loosely, and read just enough of the literature
in another speciality to be dangerous.

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Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.                         email: [log in to unmask]
Anthropology Department                               phone: (409) 845-5256
Texas A&M University                                    fax: (409) 845-4070
College Station, TX  77843-4352