>Mary Broadfoot writes: > >>>there are always exceptions.... > >Yes of course. > >>>secondly, is it always valid to draw universal conclusions from behaviour >>>observed in 'traditional' cultures? > >This is a valid question. When we talk of "traditional" cultures we mean >ones where people didn't traditionally have access to breast milk >substitutes, and didn't view the breasts as sex objects, and where children >are carried on the mother's body at all times for most of the first year of >life. These are the conditions under which our species evolved -- I am >interested in trying to figure out what breastfeeding behavior would be like >if we didn't have cultural beliefs and practices that interfered with the >evolved system. Certainly the Gainj of highland Papua New Guinea live a >lifestyle much closer to the vast majority of human evolutionary time than >modern Americans. > > > Is it possible that in Western >>cultures our excellent diet (over eating) could contribute to a situation >where the breasts are in some way producing rather too much milk for a baby >- and that thumb sucking is a valid way for a baby to regulate this? > >The research on breast milk composition according to diet of the mother >shows little/no difference, even between over-nourished Western mothers and >clinically malnourished women in Third World countries. Only when the >mother is severely malnourished do you see some drop off in milk quantity >(but not quality). So diet apparently has little effect on breast milk >composition or quantity. In places where babies don't suck their thumbs, >they regulate their intake by adjusting the frequency of nursing and the >duration of nursing on each breast, not by sucking their thumbs instead. >More frequent nursing increases the fat content of the milk, and longer >duration on one breast also increases the fat intake from that feed. > > >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >------- >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 > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- 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