Historical Ethnography and the Meanings of Human Milk in Ireland

This chapter discusses what Sharon MacDonald calls a “multidirectional temporal practice” ethnographic analysis, engaging as M. Fenske argues the micro , macro , and agency associated with maternal milk sharing in Ireland. In some cultures, including Ireland , other women’s breastmilk was a real and often-preferred “choice” for some mothers. Despite contemporary concerns surrounding shared breastmilk, a number of sources argue that at various points in history, Ireland normalized such communal relationships. A Christian version of the tradition is linked to Saint Brigid, the patron saint of County Kildare in Ireland, who is said to have been a wet nurse to the Christ Child. Thus, in a 1904 paper read by Walter Smith to the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland, the author said that despite the fact that the “milk of various mammals has been employed for human nutriment, but practically we need consider only two—viz., woman’s and cow’s milk”.