\[ **BT: [[society#kinship systems of relationship based upon marriage and descent]]** ] --- # milk kinship ## laws and customs [[The term ‘milk kinship’ is a scholarly designation referring to practices—which may not actually be similar in regards to kinship creation—where infants are breastfed by someone not their birth mother.]][^1] [[In Arabic countries, neither fosterage nor wet-nursing—despite being classified as milk kinship by some scholars—are actually considered to be forms of kinship.]][^2] [[Per Islamic regulations (Quran 4.23), children breastfed by the same woman are prohibited to marry.]][^3] [[Islamic custom presents three methods of kinship creation—’nasab’ (kinship via procreation), ‘musahara’ (kinship via marraige), and ‘rida’a’ (kinship via breastfeeding). Wet-nursing however, is distinguished as ‘istirda’.]][^4] [[There is an Arab saying—that blood is thicker than milk.]][^5] - see also: [[human beings#lactation (breast/chestfeeding)|breast/chestfeeding]] [^1]: Fadwa El Guindi, ‘[[El Guindi,‘Milk Kinship’, 2018|Milk Kinship]]’, in *The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology*, p. 2, https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118924396.wbiea1358. [^2]: El Guindi, ‘[[El Guindi,‘Milk Kinship’, 2018|Milk Kinship]]’, in *The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology*, p. 2. [^3]: [[Quran (Progressive Muslims Organization)|Quran 4:23]], trans. Progressive Muslims Organization (2015), Wikisource, last edited 9 April 2023, 02:46, https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Quran_(Progressive_Muslims_Organization); M. Papasavrou et al., ‘[[Papastavrou et al., ‘Breastfeeding in the Course of History’, 2015|Breastfeeding in the Course of History]]’, *Journal of Pediatrics & Neonatal Care*, vol. 2, no. 6 (2015), p. 4, <https://doi.org/10.15406/jpnc.2015.02.00096>; Fadwa El Guindi, ‘[[El Guindi,‘Milk Kinship’, 2018|Milk Kinship]]’, in *The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology*, p. 1, https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118924396.wbiea1358. [^4]: Guindi, ‘[[El Guindi,‘Milk Kinship’, 2018|Milk Kinship]]’, in *The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology*, p. 2. [^5]: Peter Parkes, ‘[[Parkes, ‘Fosterage, Kinship, and Legend’, 2004|Fosterage, Kinship, and Legend: When Milk Was Thicker than Blood?]]’, *Comparative Studies in Society and History*, vol. 46, no. 3 (2004), abstract, [https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417504000271](https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417504000271).