On Infant Convenience and Female Breast Form
- 1 September 1975
- journal article
- letter
- Published by University of Chicago Press in The American Naturalist
- Vol. 109 (969) , 596
- https://doi.org/10.1086/283030
Abstract
The possible evolutionary advantage of pendulous breasts for nursing or placating infants in hairless, upright females is discussed. If selective forces operated to increase the flexibility of the human breast, they should have had their greatest impact within the racial group having the slowest rate of neuromuscular maturation. The opposite situation exists today. Mongolian infants are most retarded in reaching developmental landmarks; Mongolian females have the least protrudent breasts. Other selective forces apparently were involved besides infant convenience during nursing.This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: