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Milk Culture in Eurasia

Constructing a Hypothesis of Monogenesis–Bipolarization

  • Book
  • © 2020

Overview

Authors:
  1. Masahiro Hirata

    1. Department of Human Science, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Obihiro, Japan

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  • Includes photographs that illustrate many of the milk processing techniques and products discussed from various regions of the Eurasian continent
  • Employs diagrams that clarify complicated milk processing systems to facilitate comparative analysis
  • Presents the monogenesis–bipolarization hypothesis to describe the history of milk culture in the Eurasian continent
  • Identifies cultural filters that regulate the adoption and change of milk processing technology
  • Re-examines the typology and theory of pastoralism from the standpoint of milk culture

Part of the book series: Springer Geography (SPRINGERGEOGR)

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Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxvi
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Milk Culture and Pastoralism

    • Masahiro Hirata
    Pages 1-35

  3. Milk Culture of West Asia

    • Masahiro Hirata
    Pages 37-71

  4. Milk Culture of South Asia

    • Masahiro Hirata
    Pages 73-106

  5. Milk Culture of North Asia

    • Masahiro Hirata
    Pages 107-147

  6. Milk Culture of Central Asia

    • Masahiro Hirata
    Pages 149-196

  7. Milk Culture of the Tibetan Plateau

    • Masahiro Hirata
    Pages 197-242

  8. Milk Culture in Europe and the Caucasus

    • Masahiro Hirata
    Pages 243-296

  9. The Monogenesis-Bipolarization Hypothesis of Eurasian Milk Culture

    • Masahiro Hirata
    Pages 297-321

  10. Milk Processing Systems and Processes: A Reconsideration of Nakao’s Analytical Model

    • Masahiro Hirata
    Pages 323-338

  11. From Milk Culture to Pastoralism Theory

    • Masahiro Hirata
    Pages 339-350
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Keywords

About this book

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.


Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Human Science, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Obihiro, Japan

    Masahiro Hirata

About the author

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.




Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Milk Culture in Eurasia

  • Book Subtitle: Constructing a Hypothesis of Monogenesis–Bipolarization

  • Authors: Masahiro Hirata

  • Translated by: Peter Hawkes

  • Series Title: Springer Geography

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1765-5

  • Publisher: Springer Singapore

  • eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental Science, Earth and Environmental Science (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-15-1764-8Published: 17 March 2020

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-981-15-1767-9Published: 17 March 2021

  • eBook ISBN: 978-981-15-1765-5Published: 16 March 2020

  • Series ISSN: 2194-315X

  • Series E-ISSN: 2194-3168

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXVI, 350

  • Number of Illustrations: 150 b/w illustrations, 129 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Cultural Geography, Human Geography, Asian Culture, European Culture, Agriculture, Nutrition

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