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Does any human culture routinely do this? Typically taboos have some evolutionary basis. So what would that be? Does any mammal drink the milk of its own species, besides nursing?

Karl Kjer
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    I guess your question should be the other way round. Humans I guess are the only species that drinks milk after infancy. We drink cow/buffalo/goat milk. This is an interesting read regarding lactase insufficiency and gene-cultural co-evolution. https://www.americanscientist.org/issues/feature/2010/2/gene-culture-coevolution-and-human-diet/1 – Polisetty Jan 07 '18 at 14:31
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    I understand about lactose intolerance. And it is interesting that we drink milk from other species. But that is what brought me to the question in the first place. – Karl Kjer Jan 07 '18 at 15:19
  • @KarlKjer As you explained to Polisetty, your question is not about human drinking milk of other species at adult age but in case it is of interest anyway, I want to point to the post Are humans the only species who drink milk as adults?. – Remi.b Jan 07 '18 at 16:07
  • Q1: I don't know. Q2: presumably because it's not in the mother's interest to provide direct high-quality nutrition (very energetically expensive) over an extended period of time; additional cost of this parental investment wouldn't pay off in increased total (inclusive) fitness. [HOWEVER: not posting this as an answer because it's speculative/tautological ...] Q3: don't know (but see linked question by @Remi.b) – Ben Bolker Jan 07 '18 at 18:22
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    On might speculate that it's simply a matter of there being a very limited supply. But it does happen: search "breast milk cheese" for some examples. – jamesqf Jan 07 '18 at 19:15
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    The title of your question specifically references humans, but then, in your question body, you mention mammals in general.. which are you most concerned with? –  Jan 08 '18 at 20:17
  • @charles. Humans. Because we have a culture that is often linked to evolution, and everyone reading this is human. The other species just came up as something that might support a universal rationale. – Karl Kjer Jan 09 '18 at 00:39
  • It is only in our modern times that human milk is not consumed. I don't see how you could say for sure that our prehistoric ancestors never consumed human milk as adults. – Superbest Jun 08 '18 at 22:35

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Giving a woman food for her to inefficiently convert to different food is a waste of time and energy; it only makes sense for infants that can't eat much else (and even there, plenty of people find substitutes so the woman can get back to work).

Turning grass, which people can't eat, into a food people can eat makes a whole lot more sense.

swbarnes2
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  • I see your point. But in a capitalist society. if there were profit in it, it should happen. But it doesn't because ...ew... yuck. Why? – Karl Kjer Jan 09 '18 at 00:37
  • @KarlKjer Humans were not capitalist for most of their history, which is the context in which they evolved. Only after thousands, maybe even millions of years under our modern capitalist society can you pose the question you have. – Superbest Jun 08 '18 at 22:19
  • @swbarnes2 Well, it is also inefficient to feed grass to a cow and drink its milk, instead of just growing beans on that meadow and eating those, and yet dairy is a enormous industry. – Superbest Jun 08 '18 at 22:34
  • You don't have to "grow" grass. It grows on its own with no effort. Crops take work. The fact that for millennia people who knew perfectly well how to grow plants did cultivate cows for milk is really good evidence that it really is worth the effort. – swbarnes2 Jun 08 '18 at 23:08