This thesis uses a cross-cultural sample to examine the relationship between anemia and infant feeding practices. Examples from the ethnography are presented. Findings are largely descriptive on practice, but are largely inconclusive with regard to anemia.

This study asserts that premastication (the pre-chewing of food for infant feeding) has existed as a cross cultural human universal stemming from the post natal immaturity of infant development and their need to have nutritional supplements to breast milk before they develop the molars necessary to consume an adult diet. Hypotheses are informally tested by sampling 119 cultures from the eHRAf database and looking for frequency of premastication occurrence. About one-third with information on infant feeding mention pre-mastication.