Milk Culture in Eurasia: Constructing a Hypothesis of Monogenesis–Bipolarization

Author:   Masahiro Hirata ,  Peter Hawkes
Publisher:   Springer Verlag, Singapore
Edition:   1st ed. 2020
ISBN:  

9789811517648


Pages:   350
Publication Date:   17 March 2020
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
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Milk Culture in Eurasia: Constructing a Hypothesis of Monogenesis–Bipolarization


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Overview

The invention of milking and milk use created a new mode of subsistence called pastoralism. On rangelands across Eurasia, pastoralists subsist by extensive animal husbandry and by processing their animals’ milk. Based on the author’s fieldwork over more than two decades, this book details the processing systems and uses of milk observed in pastoralist and farm households in West Asia, South Asia, North Asia, Central Asia, the Tibetan Plateau, and Europe and the Caucasus. Milk culture in each region is characterized by its processing technology and use of milk, and characteristics common to wider geographical spheres are identified. Inclusion of case studies from the literature expands the continent-wide perspective and provides further indications of how milk culture developed and diffused historically. The inferences drawn are expressed in the author’s monogenesis­–bipolarization hypothesis of Eurasian milk culture, that milking and milk processing had a single center of origin in West Asia, and that the technology involved the spread from there across the continent, developing distinct characteristics in northern and southern spheres. Finally, because milk culture underpins pastoralism as a mode of subsistence, the typology and theory of pastoralism are re-examined from the standpoint of milk culture.

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Author:   Masahiro Hirata ,  Peter Hawkes
Publisher:   Springer Verlag, Singapore
Imprint:   Springer Verlag, Singapore
Edition:   1st ed. 2020
Weight:   0.887kg
ISBN:  

9789811517648


ISBN 10:   9811517649
Pages:   350
Publication Date:   17 March 2020
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Language:   English

Table of Contents

Milk Culture and Pastoralism.- Milk Culture of West Asia.- Milk Culture of South Asia.- Milk Culture of North Asia.- Milk Culture of Central Asia.- Milk Culture of the Tibetan Plateau.- Milk Culture in Europe and the Caucasus.- The Monogenesis-Bipolarization Hypothesis of Eurasian Milk Culture.- Milk Processing Systems and Processes: A Reconsideration of Nakao’s Analytical Model.- From Milk Culture to Pastoralism Theory.

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Author Information

Masahiro Hirata is a professor in the Department of Human Science, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Japan. As a graduate student at Kyoto University, Japan, he worked at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Syria in the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) program, where he conducted research into the human ecology of pastoralists in Syria. Since then, for more than 25 years, he has carried out fieldwork in arid regions of the Eurasian continent, focusing on subsistence of pastoralists. His research interests include processing and uses of milk worldwide, subsistence strategies of pastoralism, and the origin and spread of pastoralism. He has published many papers and several books in the field of pastoralism and milk culture and is the chairperson of the Hokkaido Ethnological Society, Japan.

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