As promised, I bring you an #EarlyModernPeriod on breast milk as cannibalism. Today's snippet comes from Robert Boyles "Occasional Reflections Upon Several Subjects" (1665), which is a lovely and meandering read. https://twitter.com/TheGlintOfLight/status/1281386338026217474

In "Occasional Reflections," Boyle writes about all kinds of things, from science (e.g. his observation of illness and physick), to philosophy (e.g. his thoughts on culture), to lovely personal moments (such as "Upon my Spaniel's Carefulness not to lose me in a strange place").

In, of all places, his reflection "Upon the eating of Oysters" Boyle discusses breast milk, medicinal cannibalism, and culinary cannibalism! The reflection is about custom and how people in England suck down oysters and think they're cultured, without realizing how weird it is.

To make his point, one of his two characters (this reflection is a dialogue) goes for an extreme example: We think cannibals abroad are barbaric, meanwhile we feed our own babies exclusively on breast milk which is just blanched blood! We also use mummy for all kinds of ailments!

This is neat for my research because I want to know how Europeans in the #EarlyModernPeriod justified their own cannibalistic practices (including breastfeeding I guess?), while using allegations of cannibalism elsewhere as a pretext for colonial expansion and genocide.

Boyle suggests that maybe there is no justification, even in his own time. After all, if (as "received Opinion" has it) breast milk is actually blood then how is feeding our children blood so they become big and strong any different from feeding them flesh for the same purpose.

The ramifications of this might be quite meaningful. If Boyle is not an extreme outlier (and I am working on collecting that evidence) then Europeans *knew* that cannibalism was just a pretext. I'm still not quite able to state this definitively, but there's potential there.

On that slightly tentative note, we come to the end of this month's #EarlyModernPeriod I hope you have enjoyed this peek into my research interests and practices and that you'll join us again next month!