From chapter 1 of "Bringing Up Baby":

“I’m not into newfangled stuff like breastfeeding.” I heard those words in 1984, shortly after returning from a tiny atoll in Micronesia, where my wife and I had been doing anthropological fieldwork. Women there wear knee-length skirts woven from the fibrous bark of hibiscus trees. Modesty requires covered thighs, but breasts are in plain view—and so are attached infants and toddlers. Micronesians, it’s safe to say, wouldn’t describe breastfeeding as newfangled. The individual that claimed otherwise is a college-educated mammal from Michigan. She was not breastfed, and neither was her mother. Feeding babies with bottles is a time-honored tradition in her family. It’s the old fashioned way of doing things.

Dr. Paul Turke is in the process of writing "Bringing Up Baby." Combining his extensive background as an anthropologist and his medical training and experience as a pediatrician, Dr. Turke explores how an evolutionary view of common pediatric problems -- from strains and sprains, to anorexia, to depression, to autism -- can be used to understand and, ultimately, to help solve them.

• Read chapter 1 (pdf file)