The Conspicuous Absence of Placenta Consumption in Human Postpartum Females: The Fire Hypothesis
@article{Young2012TheCA, title={The Conspicuous Absence of Placenta Consumption in Human Postpartum Females: The Fire Hypothesis}, author={Sharon M Young and Daniel C Benyshek and Pierre Li{\'e}nard}, journal={Ecology of Food and Nutrition}, year={2012}, volume={51}, pages={198 - 217} }
The absence of human placentophagy, the maternal consumption of the afterbirth, is puzzling given its ubiquity and probable adaptive value in other mammals. We propose that human fire use may have led to placentophagy avoidance in our species. In our environment of evolutionary adaptedness, gravid women would likely have been regularly exposed to smoke and ash, which is known to contain harmful substances. Because the placenta filters some toxicants which then accumulate there across pregnancy…
19 Citations
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A more challenging anthropological question is “why don't humans engage in placentophagia as a biological imperative?” is it possible that there is more adaptive advantage in not doing so?
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It is suggested that propensity to eat placenta increases with maternal/birthing experience in females, and with paternal experience and/or cohabitation with a pregnant female in males.
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- Medicine
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The use of placenta preparations as an individual puerperal remedy can be traced back to historical, traditional practices in Western and Asian medicine and the potential risks and benefit of such a practice are discussed.
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The health benefits and risks of placentophagy require further investigation of the retained contents of raw, cooked, and encapsulated placenta and its effects on the postpartum woman.
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The results suggest that prior maternal experience may contribute to greater competence or efficiency during the birth process, and face presentations appear to be the norm for geladas.
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- 2019
Common alternative practices surrounding the placenta include burial at home, consuming the Placenta, and having a lotus birth.
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- 2020
It is argued that placentophagy is practiced as a resistance to medicalisation as an assertion of control by the mother, whilst simultaneously being a medicalised phenomenon itself.
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