Abstract
Cooperative care of infants is theorised as a critically important social behaviour with profound implications for human evolution. Allomaternal nursing in humans is one part of this evolutionary cooperative care package. Shared investment in the provisioning of human milk, both through shared breastfeeding and use of expressed human milk, remains a vital strategy in promoting infant survival and health throughout the world. This chapter brings together perspectives on cooperative breastfeeding and human milk feeding from biological anthropology, history, cultural anthropology, and global public health. The overall purpose of this chapter is to highlight the biocultural dimensions of cooperative lactation strategies and their continued relevance in understanding the importance of shared investment in the health and well-being of human infants.
There is much to learn from cross-cultural approaches to much in pediatrics, certainly in relation to breast-feeding, including the basic need in all mammals, including dolphins, elephants, and man, for … a doula – that is one or more individuals, often female, to give psychological encouragement and physical assistance at the time of birth and in the neonatal period (Jelliffe and Jelliffe 1972:171).
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Notes
- 1.
In this chapter, the terms “mother” and “maternal” refer narrowly to a birthing parent. Allomothers refer to all other infant caregivers within genetically and nongenetically related kin groups, including adoptive and surrogate mothers. Alloparents refer to infant caregivers other than a birthing parent, including kin and non-kin.
- 2.
However, Hrdy (1992) suggests that stratified, coercive systems of allomaternal nursing are found in other mammalian species and were likely practiced in hominins as well.
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Palmquist, A. (2020). Cooperative Lactation and the Mother-Infant Nexus. In: Gowland, R., Halcrow, S. (eds) The Mother-Infant Nexus in Anthropology. Bioarchaeology and Social Theory. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27393-4_7
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