I'm still wading my way through "Mother Nature" by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, c.
1999 Pantheon Books, Random House, Inc. NY. ISBN: 0-679-44265-0.  Like
reading a college text  )-:  (Text is 541 pages, notes another 47 pages in
small print!)  Anyway I'm into the chapter on wet nursing - fascinating.
Let me tell you that before bottles there were wet nurses, to a degree that
I had never imagined.  In 1700's in France only 5% of women nursed their
own children!  Sound familiar?  I guess women have (for various reasons)
always looked for a way out of feeding the baby.  I think the bottle symbol
today is an indication of a more global practice/broader issues  that we
just aren't aware of.  The bottle has become the wet nurse!  A lot of what
she talks about was said in a more readable book  "The Myths of Motherhood:
How Culture Reinvents the Good Mother" by Shari L. Thurer, 1994, Houghton
Mifflin Co, Boston.  ISBN: 0-395-58415-9.   Shari is a psychologist and
Sarah is a anthropologist.  Oh well back to  my reading.
Sincerely, Pat in SNJ

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