Symposium
The social context of infant feeding in the murik lakes of Papua New Guinea
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 14722468 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kathleen Barlow (University of California San Diego, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1984 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 61-72 |
| Publication date | 1984-08-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Ecology of Food and Nutrition (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0367-0244 • E-ISSN: 1543-5237 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/03670244.1984.9990810 |
| OpenAlex | W2139751129 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 3 |
Among the Murik people of Papua New Guinea, food and feeding are central to nearly all social activities. Giving and receiving food are the means for acquiring prestige, paying debts, resolving quarrels and humiliating rivals. The problem of providing for dependent infants and their mothers is closely bound up with these social gestures involving food. Because the need for special care goes on for many months, the requirements of infant care and feeding compete with other activities and force individuals and families to adjust to changing circumstances and priorities. The ideals of infant care and feeding are well‐formulated and often‐expressed. The actual arrangements represent compromises between high expectations and real possibilities. The negotiation of actual caretaking and parenting responsibilities is most visible in cases where there are adoption claims on a new baby. Adoptive parents must demonstrate their claims through willingness to work for and feed the child and its natural mother. This paper presents ideal arrangements, typical modifications of them and one case of family caretaking and rival adoption claims. The case demonstrates the ways in which infant care and feeding are embedded in a complex of social values, activities and expectations
Business · Context (archaeology · Ethnology · Geography · Ideal (ethics · Negotiation · New guinea · Political science · Prestige · Public relations · Social environment · Social science · Sociology · Work (physics · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology
| Citations per year | 0.06 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1992 - 1999 (8) |
| Highly cited | No |