Milk Culture in Eurasia - Constructing a Hypothesis of Monogenesis-Bipolarization

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.

List 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.

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.

Product details

Authors	Masahiro Hirata
Assisted by	Peter Hawkes (Translation)
Publisher	Springer, Berlin
Original title	Eurasia Nyubunkaron
Languages	English
Product format	Paperback / Softback
Released	31.03.2021
EAN	9789811517679
ISBN	978-981-1517-67-9
No. of pages	350
Dimensions	155 mm x 17 mm x 235 mm
Illustrations	XXVI, 350 p. 279 illus., 129 illus. in color.
Series	Springer Geography
Subject	Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Geosciences > Geography

Product details

• Authors: Masahiro Hirata
• Assisted by: Peter Hawkes (Translation)
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Original title: Eurasia Nyubunkaron
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.03.2021
• EAN: 9789811517679
• ISBN: 978-981-1517-67-9
• No. of pages: 350
• Dimensions: 155 mm x 17 mm x 235 mm
• Illustrations: XXVI, 350 p. 279 illus., 129 illus. in color.
• Series: Springer Geography
• Subject: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Geosciences > Geography