- 'Illuminating . . . an important book' Sunday Times
- 'A fascinating journey through the social, cultural and historical meanings of breastfeeding. A sublime book' Elinor Cleghorn, author of Unwell Women
- 'Erudite, intimate and compelling . . . a long-overdue history' Leah Hazard, author of Hard Pushed
- 'A story for us all' BBC History Magazine
Milk is elemental. It is the first thing we look for at birth and, for most, it is the first substance to touch our tongues after we enter the world. It is the promise of nourishment, of care, of life.
Using the arc of her own experience, cultural historian Joanna Wolfarth takes us on an intimate journey of discovery beyond mother and baby, asking how the world views caregivers, their bodies, their labour and their communal bonds. By bringing together art, social histories, philosophy, folk wisdom and contemporary interviews with women from across the world, Milk reveals how infant feeding has been represented and repressed, celebrated and censured. In doing so, it charts previously unexplored territory - and offers comfort and solace to anyone who has fed or will feed a child.
Autorentext
Joanna Wolfarth
Klappentext
As a breastfed baby herself, Joanna Wolfarth assumed it would come easily to her when she had her first child. Yet three weeks after the birth she was back in hospital with an underweight baby, bewildered by the inconsistent advice and myriad problems she was encountering. As a cultural historian, Joanna's impulse was to look to the past. What she discovered, neglected in the archives, amazed and reassured her. She found connection and solace in communities from the past.
Using the arc of her own experience, MILK is an intimate cultural survey of infant-feeding that draws on artworks, philosophical treatise, historical medical devices, folk wisdom and contemporary interviews with women from across the world to reveal how infant-feeding has been represented and repressed, celebrated and censured. From fragments of ancient baby-bottles with traces of animal milk to 18th-century brass breast pumps, from lush Renaissance paintings of the Virgin nursing Jesus to sensual Hindu sculptures of voluptuous breastfeeding goddesses, MILK charts previously unexplored territory as the first major cultural history of breastfeeding.