INVESTIGATING THE WEANING PROCESS IN PAST POPULATIONS

The 19th century St. Thomas'Anglican churchyard in Belleville, Ontario , Canada is associated with a large and well-preserved infant skeletal collection (n = 149) and good-quality parish records that document in terments in the graveyard (1821-1874). By using a combination of histo rical demographic and stable nitrogen isotope analyses on the parish r ecords and skeletal remains, respectively, a general pattern of extend ed nursing for about 14 months, introduction of foods other than breas t milk by around 5 months of age, and variation in breast-feeding and weaning behaviours were detected for St. Thomas' infants. The results demonstrate that it is possible to go beyond the concept of weaning ag e to explore the weaning process in past populations when appropriate and large samples of documentary and skeletal data are available. (C) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.