The text builds the understanding that children who are nursed by one mother are kin, regardless if it is through a blood relationship. The breast was considered a sacred commodity during the Medieval period. In this time period the men exclusively proceeded to hire a wet nurse ensuing that the mother’s breasts would remain as the virginal image which the men cherished. This reconsidered and criticized the pre-Islamic and Qur’anic beliefs of milk kinship to adhere to rules of blood kinship and also their “implication that men have nothing to do with milk kinship” (p.35). It is explained that the way of knowing or establishing the rules of breastfeeding are politically critical for attaining kinship. Benkheira construes “the only mode of milk ingestion that complies with ‘nature’ is suckling” (p.31). Any other form of milk collection such as “pouring milk into the baby’s mouth or through an enema produces no marital impediment” (p.31) or kinship
The text builds the understanding that children who are nursed by one mother are kin, regardless if it is through a blood relationship. The breast was considered a sacred commodity during the Medieval period. In this time period the men exclusively proceeded to hire a wet nurse ensuing that the mother’s breasts would remain as the virginal image which the men cherished. This reconsidered and criticized the pre-Islamic and Qur’anic beliefs of milk kinship to adhere to rules of blood kinship and also their “implication that men have nothing to do with milk kinship” (p.35). It is explained that the way of knowing or establishing the rules of breastfeeding are politically critical for attaining kinship. Benkheira construes “the only mode of milk ingestion that complies with ‘nature’ is suckling” (p.31). Any other form of milk collection such as “pouring milk into the baby’s mouth or through an enema produces no marital impediment” (p.31) or kinship