Breastfeeding: New Anthropological Approaches

Breastfeeding: New Anthropological Approaches unites sociocultural, biological, and archaeological 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 showcasing 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 highlights 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, evolutionary 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 an anthropologist and Director of Global Public Health and Community Health at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, USA.

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.