Social, economic and ecological parameters of infant feeding in Usino, Papua New Guinea

Much of our knowledge about infant feeding practices comes from cultures undergoing rapid development, where a decline in lactation already exists. In order to delineate cultural baselines against which the impacts of development may be identified and measured, detailed ethnographic description of infant feeding practices in regions minimally changed by modernizing forces are required. This paper, based on fourteen months of intensive ethnographic fieldwork, serves as a baseline study in an area only marginally altered by economic development and identifies specific interrelationships between local economics, social structure and physical environment that define infant feeding patterns in the Usino area, Papua New Guinea.

Key words:

• infant feeding
• human lactation
• infant health and nutrition
• maternal and child health