Woman's Curse?, Meredith F. Small, The Sciences, Jan/Feb 1999, pp. 24-29.

Summary Paper A Woman's Curse? "Why do cultures the world over treat menstruating women as taboo? An anthropologist offers a new answer - and a challenge to Western ideas about contraception" A Woman's Curse?, Meredith F. Small, The Sciences, Jan/Feb 1999, pp. 24-29. In almost all mammals, menstruation does not occur; the discarded uterine lining is simply reabsorbed into the body if fertilization does not take place. In humans, as well as some higher primates, …

…which has traditionally had culture as its focus. She also laid to rest the idea put forward by Margi Profet, that menstruation had evolved to "flush" pathogens out of the vaginal canal, by showing that in early society women spent relatively little time menstruating. Menstruation, then, it seems, has played a key role in shaping who we are, and its significance can longer be ignored. 1 Lactation amenorrhea is the absence of menstruation due to lactation