In the book, Dancing Skeletons, anthropology professor, Katherine Dettwyler, touches on many concepts involving the culture of the people. The one that greatly influences and is a key point in her ethnography is diet. The diets of those in Mali differ greatly from the countless other cultures that have been studied by fellow anthropologists. Amongst those cultures are the diets of the Ju/‘hoansi, who are the most thoroughly documented foraging society in the world, and the Nuer, who are the second largest ethnic group in southern Sudan. Their ways in obtaining and dealing with sustenance share both similarities and differences with the diet of those of the Mali inhabitants. In Dettwyler's study, the author recognized that the people in Mali have plenty of food, yet still have serious childhood malnutrition in the area. The mother's lack of knowledge on what edibles to feed children during their growth has led to countless problems such as childhood disease and serious health problems that can affect the child for the rest of their life. Many infants are usually weaned off of breast milk too early, which can result in the lack of vitamins and nutrition in their bodies. Hence, it is common amongst the Mali children to have kwashiokor, malaria, or diarrheas. The women feed their children millet rice on a daily basis; meanwhile the adults receive the high protein food such as chicken, fish, beans, and even sweet rice pudding. The main diet of the people in general is comprised of staples of corn, millet, rice, and sorghum. High calorie foods are usually readily available such as avocado, bananas, and palm oil, yet the system of elders receiving the better foods results in children having a deficiency of this nutrition diet. The geography of the landscape plays a powerful role in their diet. It consists of steamy jungles and swamps, as most of southern Sudan consists of a flood plain formed by its branches with dense vegetation covering much of the region, like a jungle. Wild animals that roam the south are most often gazelles, giraffes, lions, leopards, and elephants. Within the Nile river's branches dwell hippopotamuses and crocodiles. The Nuer economy is a mixture of pastoralism and horticulture. This economy revolves greatly around their surroundings, as both their environment and the Nuer favor pastoralism themselves. However, climate, flooding, and the flatness of the land result in an inability to cultivate most of the Central African food plants. The Nuer people's staple crop, much like the people in Mali, is millet. Their millet is consumed in the form of porridge and beer, and is most often complimented with a small amount of