Katherine Ann Dettwyler is an American anthropologist and advocate of breastfeeding. She was an adjunct professor at the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially known as UD, UDel, or Delaware) is a Statutory college#Delaware, privately governed, state-assisted Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Newark, Delaware, United States. UD offers f ...

. In 2017, she gained media attention for her comments regarding

Otto Warmbier Otto Frederick Warmbier (December 12, 1994 – June 19, 2017) was an American college student who was imprisoned in North Korea in 2016 on a charge of subversion. In June 2017, he was released by North Korea in a vegetative state and died ...

, a 22-year-old college student who received fatal brain damage while imprisoned in

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

Background and education

Katherine Ann Dettwyler was born on February 3, 1955. She earned her BS in Anthropology from the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

, in 1977, her MA from

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, IUB, or Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana, United States. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana Univer ...

in 1981, and her Ph.D. in Anthropology also from IU Bloomington in 1985.

Professional career

Dettwyler taught as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of the

University of Southern Mississippi The University of Southern Mississippi (Southern Miss or USM) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bac ...

in Hattiesburg, Mississippi from 1985 to 1987. She taught at

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

, College Station, Texas in the Anthropology department from 1987 until 2000, when she took early retirement from her position as a tenured Associate Professor and moved to Delaware with her husband and children. Through the 1990s she was a nutritional anthropologist/consultant to a number of organizations providing nutrition education in

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

, while performing field research there. She taught part-time as an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Delaware, and continued to write and speak at conferences and universities. Dettwyler is currently listed in Google Scholar as an "Independent Scholar" who has only been cited in one journal since 2017, for one item in a piece on breastfeeding in Mali (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=UisWqaUAAAAJ&hl=en). She has no new credits at ResearchGate since 2016.

Advocacy of breastfeeding

Dettwyler is known for her work studying the duration of breastfeeding in humans as it relates to other mammals, principally the nonhuman primates. According to her research, the natural age of

weaning Weaning is the process of gradually introducing an infant human or other mammal to what will be its adult diet while withdrawing the supply of its mother's milk. In the United Kingdom, UK, weaning primarily refers to the introduction of solid ...

is 2½ to 7 years old as determined by weight gain, length of gestation, dental eruption, and other factors.A Natural Age of Weaning
", by Katherine Dettwyler, brief version of chapter "A Time to Wean", in ''Breastfeeding: Biocultural Perspectives,'' pp. 39–73, ed. Patricia Stuart-Macadam and Katherine A. Dettwyler, 1995,

Personal life

Kathy Dettwyler is married to Steven Dettwyler, Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology, and the mother of three children. In 1999, she was diagnosed with

breast cancer Breast cancer is a cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a Breast lump, lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, Milk-rejection sign, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipp ...

Comments on death of Otto Warmbier

In June 2017, Dettwyler's comments on the case of

attracted media attention. Warmbier was an American college student visiting North Korea who was arrested for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster in a staff-only area of his hotel. He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor, but was released and returned to the United States almost a year and a half later. He was returned in a comatose state and died shortly after his repatriation. Dettwyler wrote about the case on her personal

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

page and in the comments section of a ''

National Review ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief is Rich L ...

'' article. She said Warmbier was "typical of a mindset of a lot of the young, white, rich, clueless males who come into my classes"; that "these are the same kids who cry about their grades because they didn’t think they’d really have to read and study the material to get a good grade", and that Warmbier's parents "ultimately are to blame for his growing up thinking he could get away with whatever he wanted. Maybe in the US, where young, white, rich, clueless white males routinely get away with raping women. Not so much in North Korea." In a since-deleted post to her Facebook page she asked "is it wrong of me to think that Otto Warmbier got exactly what he deserved?" Dettwyler had been an adjunct professor at the

, without tenure, and was not employed between terms. After her comments became public, the university announced that her contract would not be renewed.

Publications

Books

* ''Cultural Anthropology & Human Experience: The Feast of Life'' (2011) * ''Reflections on Anthropology: A Four-Field Reader'' (2003) – co-editor wit
Vaughn M. Bryant
* ''Breastfeeding: Biocultural Perspectives'' (1995) - co-editor with Patricia Stuart-Macadam * ''Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa'' (1994) . 1995 Margaret Mead Award from the American Anthropological Association and the Society for Applied Anthropology.

Selected academic journal articles

* * *

References

External links

North Korea captive Otto Warmbier 'got exactly what he deserved,' college prof says

Personal website
(archived fro
the original

Curriculum Vitaearchived

by Robin Slaw (originally published in New Beginnings, Vol. 16 No. 5, p. 171)

a high volume mailing list for lactation information and discussion, to which Dettwyler has contributed since 1995 *
Busting Out
', a 2004 film about breasts by Stir It Up Productions, featuring an interview with Kathy Dettwyler {{DEFAULTSORT:Dettwyler, Kathy 1955 births Living people 21st-century American anthropologists American women anthropologists American anthropology writers University of California, Davis alumni Indiana University Bloomington alumni University of Southern Mississippi faculty Anthropology educators Breastfeeding activists Texas A&M University faculty University of Delaware faculty American health activists American women academics 21st-century American women