Breastfeeding in Ancient Peru
As part of the celebrations for World Breastfeeding Week (1-7 August) and the Week of Breastfeeding in Peru, the Museo Larco offers the public this virtual gallery dedicated to motherhood and breastfeeding. Also, throughout the month of August (from August 1 to September 2, 2018), visitors were able to appreciate these and other artworks in a temporary intervention inside the Erotic Gallery, on the first floor of the Museum.

* To view the information of each piece, click on the images.
PREGNANT WOMAN. | Mochica Bottle (1 - 800 AD). ML004223
DELIVERING WOMAN. She is presented with the areola of Dubois (darkened nipple and areola), evidencing that her body is preparing for breastfeeding. | Mochica Bottle (1 AD – 800 AD). ML004424
POSTPARTUM SCENE. Naked woman lying down and nursing her newborn child. | Mochica Bottle (1 - 800 AD). ML004203
MAMA CACAO (MOTHER CACAO) Woman wrapped in the cacao fruit breastfeeding an infant with earplugs. In the Andean world, drinking water from a cacao shell is associated with the increase of breast milk production. | Mochica Bottle (1 - 800 AD). ML007314
WOMAN BREASTFEEDING | Mochica Bottle (1 - 800 AD). ML007314
MOTHERS OF THE ELITE. The presence of face painting and jewelry, might indicate that these women were part of the political social elite. | Mochica Bottle (1 - 800 AD). ML001305
AFTER BREASTFEEDING SCENE. The face of the children reveals a feeling of satiety and delight after being fed. | Lambayeque vessel (800 - 1300 AD). ML017985
PROLONGED BREASTFEEDING. Mothers nursing infants that are able to sit up and latch on to the breast with their own hands | Cupisnique bottle (1250 BC – 1 AD). ML040342
BREASTFEEDING AND SEXUAL UNION. This sculptural bottle shows a couple copulating while the woman breastfeeds the child. | Mochica Bottle (1 – 800 AD). ML004258
BREASTFEEDING AND SEXUAL UNION. In most scenes, the union is anal and therefore, does not result in the insemination of the woman. This might be related to a temporary postpartum infertility, as a result of exclusive breastfeeding. | Mochica Bottle (1 – 800 AD). ML004246
CO-SLEEPING. This is a practice in which parents sleep in close proximity to their children. This ancestral practice is very common in the non-Western world. | Mochica Bottle (1 – 800 AD). ML004225
CO-SLEEPING. The woman and the man are depicted copulating while sharing their bed with an infant, all of them under the same blanket. | Mochica Bottle (1 – 800 AD). ML004220