Anthropology 105, lecture 13: Milk
Synopsis:
A lecture on energy expenditure, costs of pregnancy and lactation, and lactase
Technical issues caused me to miss lecture 12, which was about metaphyses and the growth of the skeleton, as cues for life history evolution.
Lecture 13 went into "Milk" as a topic. Lactase persistence comes in at the end as a case of gene-culture coevolution. Most of the lecture covers the concept of energy expenditure, including sex differences in basal metabolic rate and energy expenditure and the energy demands of pregnancy and lactation.
Study questions:
- As humans have come to supplement infant feeding with sources other than breast milk, how has that affected energy expenditure?
- Does the energy allocation to reproduction explain the difference in energy expenditure between males and females?
- Are there other kinds of foods that we have special adaptations to digest?
