in the wild

Before we had a baby, Jim and I used to muse about how our dog would survive in the wild. How, we would wonder aloud, could this creature who cannot find food that falls to the floor right in front of his face and who refuses to go outside in the rain lest he get his feet wet, how could he be a descendent of wolves?

I now have similar musing about the baby. Yes, I know, babies were never meant to live in the wild on their own like wolves. But I wonder how babies survived when their parents lived as nomadic hunter-gatherers. Where did they sleep? What did people do before diapers? The papoose-wearing-your-baby thing made sense to me to a point. But did babies learn to crawl/walk by rolling around in the dirt? At what point could children wean from milk to, hmm, to what, exactly? How could putting everything into your mouth be an evolutionary asset?

I often find myself watching Jonathan and trying to imagine raising him as a nomad. It always makes me wonder in awe at those courageous women.