"Human breastfeeding is so inefficient that its main purpose may be communication"
Um, come again? While breastfeeding is almost certainly "not" key to understanding art, it "is" central to the survival of every mammal on the planet. It's "inefficient" only when modern industrialized societies favor smaller families and mothers that work away from the home.
For hundreds of thousands of years breastfeeding would have been such a common and ubiquitous activity that even the most indifferent male hunter in the tribe would have had a thorough understanding about how to hold an infant so they properly latch. In contrast, a modern girl might easily never see it happen for her entire childhood. For millennia both girls and boys would have been around it constantly, and as girls got older they would have had sisters and friends to guide and assist if they had any problems.
In any case, breastfeeding is the reason why we (you, me and the daft theoretician you met) are here right now, if not so much recently, certainly historically. Babies are unable to receive nutrients any other way for many months; bottles and formula being blips in the timeline of humanity. Still for all that, though it is central to life, it's pretty obviously not central to the impulse to create art.
"Human breastfeeding is so inefficient that its main purpose may be communication"
Um, come again? While breastfeeding is almost certainly "not" key to understanding art, it "is" central to the survival of every mammal on the planet. It's "inefficient" only when modern industrialized societies favor smaller families and mothers that work away from the home.
For hundreds of thousands of years breastfeeding would have been such a common and ubiquitous activity that even the most indifferent male hunter in the tribe would have had a thorough understanding about how to hold an infant so they properly latch. In contrast, a modern girl might easily never see it happen for her entire childhood. For millennia both girls and boys would have been around it constantly, and as girls got older they would have had sisters and friends to guide and assist if they had any problems.
In any case, breastfeeding is the reason why we (you, me and the daft theoretician you met) are here right now, if not so much recently, certainly historically. Babies are unable to receive nutrients any other way for many months; bottles and formula being blips in the timeline of humanity. Still for all that, though it is central to life, it's pretty obviously not central to the impulse to create art.
I haven't given up on it yet, but this book may end up in the category of I Read This So You Don't Have To.