Cooperative Lactation and the Mother-Infant Nexus
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.
