Milk kinship, formed during nursing by a non-biological mother, was a form of fostering allegiance with fellow community members. This particular form of kinship did not exclude particular groups, such that class and other hierarchal systems did not matter in terms of milk kinship participation.
Traditionally speaking, this practice predates the Early Modern Era, though it became a widely used mechanism for developing alliances in many hierarchical societies during the Early Modern Period. Milk kinship used the practice of breast feeding by a wet nurse to feed a child either from the same community, or a neighbouring one. This wet nurse played the strategic role in forging relations between her family and the family of the child she was nursing, as well as their community.
Read more about Milk Kinship: In Islamic Societies, Strategic Reasons For Milk Kinship, Conflicting Theories/ideas/myths About Milk Kinship, Practice in Eastern Christianity, See Also
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