I'm glad you enjoy the reviews; I find they make me think about the stuff I'm reading in new ways. Turns out there were four things. First, knowledge about how to breastfeed unraveled fast, "including both the ability of older women to teach younger women and poor women's belief in the goodness of what comes from their own bodies, compared to what comes from 'modern' objects such as cans or hypodermic needles." Second, poor women couldn't breastfeed in the kind of jobs available to them. Third, many varieties of formula were readily available, each with its special formulation for different ages and conditions, with an aura of science; even the warnings about appropriate use on the packages contributed to the perception that the issue was proper use instead of use at all. Finally, a social practice developed in which men showed that they were good fathers/providers by bringing milk (formula); breastfeeding would have taken that away. Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil (1992), is her source.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-12 10:46 am (UTC)