Breastfeeding : new anthropological approaches

258 Pages·2018·3.596 MB·English

by  Cecilia Tomori (editor), E. A. Quinn (editor), Aunchalee E. L. Palmquist (editor)

BREASTFEEDING
Breastfeeding: New Anthropological Approaches unites sociocultural, biological, and archae-
ological anthropological scholarship to spark new conversations and research about
breastfeeding. While breastfeeding has become the subject of intense debate in many
settings, anthropological perspectives have played a limited role in these conversations.
The present volume seeks to broaden discussions around breastfeeding by showcas-
ing fresh insights gleaned from an array of theoretical and methodological approaches,
which are grounded in the close study of people across the globe.
Drawing on case studies and analyses of key issues in the field, the book high-
lights the power of anthropological research to illuminate the evolutionary, historical,
biological, and sociocultural context of the complex, lived experience of breastfeeding.
By bringing together researchers across three anthropological subfields, the volume
seeks to produce transformative knowledge about human lactation, breastfeeding, and
human milk.
This book is a key resource for scholars of medical and biological anthropology, evo-
lutionary biology, bioarchaeology, sociocultural anthropology, and human development.
Lactation professionals and peer supporters, midwives, and others who support infant
feeding will find the book an essential read.
Cecília Tomori is Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Durham University, UK.
Aunchalee E. L. Palmquist is Assistant Professor of Maternal and Child Health at the
Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute, in the Gillings School of Global Public Health,
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, USA.
EA Quinn is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Washington University in St.
Louis, USA.

BREASTFEEDING
New Anthropological Approaches
Edited by Cecília Tomori,
Aunchalee E. L. Palmquist
and EA Quinn
First published 2018
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 selection and editorial matter, Cecília Tomori, Aunchalee E. L.
Palmquist, and EA Quinn; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Cecília Tomori, Aunchalee E. L. Palmquist, and EA Quinn to
be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for
their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77
and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-50288-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-50287-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-14512-9 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
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CONTENTS
List of illustrations vii
Notes on contributors viii
Acknowledgements xiii
Foreword xv
Penny Van Esterik
1 Introduction: towards new anthropologies
of breastfeeding 1
Cecília Tomori, Aunchalee E. L. Palmquist, and EA Quinn
2 Beyond passive immunity: breastfeeding, milk and
collaborative mother-infant immune systems 26
Elizabeth M. Miller
3 Consuming immunities: milk sharing and the social life of
passive immunity 40
Aunchalee E. L. Palmquist
4 Breastsleeping in four cultures: comparative analysis of a
biocultural body technique 55
Cecília Tomori
5 “Natural, like my hair”: conceptualizations of breastfeeding
among African American women 69
Sarah Sobonya
vi Contents
6 Breastfeeding and body size 83
Nicola L. Hawley and Pavane Gorrepati
7 Mothers, milk, and morals: peer milk sharing as moral
motherwork in Central Florida 97
Beatriz M. Reyes-Foster and Shannon K. Carter
8 Milk, medium chain fatty acids and human evolution 112
EA Quinn
9 Chestfeeding as gender fluid practice 127
Michelle Walks
10 Mixed-feeding in humans: evolution and current implications 140
Melanie Martin
11 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings: breastfeeding
and weaning in the past 155
Siân E. Halcrow*, Charlotte L. King*, Andrew R. Millard,
Anne Marie E. Snoddy, Rachel M. Scott, Gail E. Elliott, Darren
R. Gröcke, Hallie R. Buckley, Vivien G. Standen, and Bernardo
T. Arriaza
*Joint first authors
12 Shifting weanling’s optimum: breastfeeding ecology and
infant health in Yucatán 170
Amanda Veile and Karen L. Kramer
13 New mothers’ breastfeeding expectations, challenges, and
the return to employment 185
Carrie Hough, Erica Prussing, and Kayleigh Applegate
14 Understanding and enabling breastfeeding in the context
of maternal-infant needs 199
Kristin P. Tully and Helen L. Ball
Afterword: Breastfeeding: in search of the right questions 212
James J. McKenna
Index 219
ILLUSTRATIONS
Tables
2.1 Selected immunologically bioactive factors in human milk 30
8.1 Global comparative data for the nine most common fatty acids,
plus essential fatty acids and DHA and ARA 115
8.2 Descriptive characteristics of the case study sample from Cebu, Philippines 121
9.1 Interview participants who experienced a successful pregnancy 128
12.1 Summary of maternal costs of breastfeeding in the Yucatec Maya,
traditional versus contemporary setting 178
Figures
2.1 Model of passive immunity via breast milk 27
3.1 A mother breastfeeding with a supplemental nursing system 47
6.1 Infant body size scale for Samoa 90
8.1 Comparison of percentage of MCFA relative to total fatty acids 116
11.1 Schematic showing expected changes to isotopic ratios during
the transition from exclusive breastfeeding to the adult diet 157
11.2 Map giving the location of the northern Atacama Desert, and
modern-day city of Arica from which individual Morro1 T17c4 derives 161
11.3 Isotopic profile for left deciduous first molar from Morro1 T17c4.
White squares represent δ15N values and dark circles represent δ13C values 162
11.4 Long bone length vs. dental age for individuals from Morro1.
The black diamond represents Morro1 T17c4. 163
14.1 Theoretical mother-infant breastfeeding trade-offs over a specific
period of time 201
Box
10.1 Mixed-feeding 142
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
Kayleigh Applegate is a Masters in Health Administration graduate student at Saint
Louis University. She graduated from the University of Iowa with a BA in Anthro-
pology for Health Professionals. She was invited to be a student research assistant
for Carrie Hough and Erica Prussing through the Iowa Center for Research by
Undergraduates (ICRU) after she expressed interest in their research project on
new mothers and the return to employment.
Bernardo T. Arriaza is a Professor and researcher at the Universidad de Tarapacá,
Arica, Chile. His work focuses on bioarchaeology and the study of eco-contaminants
in ancient Andean populations.
Helen L. Ball is Professor of Anthropology at Durham University, UK, where she
founded and directs the Parent-Infant Sleep Lab and the Infant Sleep Info Source
website. Her research examines parent-infant sleep, infant feeding, and infant mor-
tality. She serves as Chair of the Scientific Committee for the Lullaby Trust, UK.
Hallie R. Buckley is Professor in the Department of Anatomy at the University of
Otago, New Zealand. Her work focusses on biocultural adaptations to the island
environment in early colonising populations in the Pacific islands and has high-
lighted the vulnerability of mothers and infants in these colonising situations. Her
work on later more established Pacific populations has also investigated early life
stress, particularly in areas where malaria was endemic.
Shannon K. Carter is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Cen-
tral Florida, USA. Her research focuses on social inequalities, reproduction, and
mothering. She is currently conducting research on African American mothers’
breastfeeding experiences and peer breast milk sharing in Central Florida. Her col-
laborative research with Beatriz Reyes-Foster on peer milk sharing is published in
Notes on contributors ix
several outlets, including articles in Breastfeeding Medicine and the Journal of Human
Lactation.
Gail E. Elliott is a PhD Candidate in biological anthropology at the University of
Otago, New Zealand, researching human growth as an indicator of physiologi-
cal stress in past populations. She also has a research interest in gross anatomy and
forensic anthropology.
Pavane Gorrepati is a Research Assistant in the Department of Chronic Disease
Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, USA. Her interests are on the
roles that gender gaps play in improving maternal and child health. She has pub-
lished a children’s book entitled Girls Can! Do Anything as part of her work to
inspire young girls about the endless possibilities they have.
Darren R. Gröcke is Associate Professor (Reader) in Stable Isotope Geochemistry
at Durham University, UK, and is the director of the Stable Isotope Biogeochem-
istry Laboratory (SIBL), located in the Department of Archaeology at Durham
University.
Siân E. Halcrow is Associate Professor in the Department of Anatomy at the Uni-
versity of Otago, New Zealand. She assesses infant and child health in the past to
answer central archaeological questions of subsistence, fertility, and health change
with the intensification of agriculture. She does this by applying a range of methods
including bone growth, dental and skeletal pathology, and indicators of diet and
weaning within a biocultural framework.
Nicola L. Hawley is Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Anthropology at the
Yale School of Public Health, USA. Her research focuses on maternal obesity dur-
ing pregnancy and the challenges it presents for long-term maternal and child
health. Her work on breastfeeding has been primarily conducted in the Pacific
Islands of Samoa and American Samoa.
Carrie Hough is Associate Professor of Anthropology and chair of the Public
Health Program at Augustana College, USA. Her current research examines new
mothers’ prenatal expectations of parenting and their postnatal realities, particularly
around the return to employment. This work on the intersections of reproduc-
tive and productive labor coupled with her own experiences as a breastfeeding
employed mother catalyzed her engagement with the anthropology of lactation
and breastfeeding.
Charlotte L. King is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Otago,
New Zealand. Her work focusses on the use of tissue chemistry to trace changes
to human diet over the life course. She is currently particularly interested in how
breastfeeding, weaning, and nutritional stress interact, and how these interactions
may be visible in archaeological skeletal and dental tissues.