PROLOGUE: Allomothers across Species, across Cultures, and through Time

Mother mammals are guaranteed to be on hand at birth, and after months of gestating, are hormonally primed to respond to infantile signals. Maternal commitment to young is the best single predictor of their survival. No wonder mothers have played a key role in evolution. For two hundred million years, till the very recent discovery of pasteurized milk and baby bottles, breast milk was, so far as baby mammals were concerned, the only brand in town and mothers the only source of safety (Bowlby 1969). It would be hard to overstate the importance of the emotional bonds between baby mammals