"When a woman gives birth to a child, the child needs to be able to digest the mother's milk; but when this child is old enough to begin to eat other foods, there is some switching off of this ability to consume milk"
About this Quote
The subtext is aimed at societies that treat adult milk-drinking as self-evident, wholesome, even mandatory. Harris is quietly reminding us that, for most humans, lactose tolerance is the exception, not the rule. That fact becomes a lever for his larger project in cultural materialism: beliefs and foodways follow infrastructure, ecology, and adaptation more than sentiment. If adults in some populations keep the “ability” on, that’s not because dairy is universally destined to be on the menu; it’s because specific histories (pastoralism, cattle economies, selective pressures) made it advantageous.
Context matters: late 20th-century anthropology was pushing back against armchair explanations that leaned on “tradition” or “taste.” Harris offers a provocative corrective: culture isn’t floating above biology, but biology also isn’t destiny. The power of the line is its quiet demystification - a reminder that what feels normal can be an artifact of ancestry, economy, and environment, marketed afterward as common sense.
Quote Details
| Topic | Science |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Harris, Marvin. (2026, January 16). When a woman gives birth to a child, the child needs to be able to digest the mother's milk; but when this child is old enough to begin to eat other foods, there is some switching off of this ability to consume milk. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-a-woman-gives-birth-to-a-child-the-child-93683/
Chicago Style
Harris, Marvin. "When a woman gives birth to a child, the child needs to be able to digest the mother's milk; but when this child is old enough to begin to eat other foods, there is some switching off of this ability to consume milk." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-a-woman-gives-birth-to-a-child-the-child-93683/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"When a woman gives birth to a child, the child needs to be able to digest the mother's milk; but when this child is old enough to begin to eat other foods, there is some switching off of this ability to consume milk." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-a-woman-gives-birth-to-a-child-the-child-93683/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
