Main description:

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.

Contents:

Preface

My Encounter with Pastoralists and Milk

Aims of Milk Culture Research

Fieldwork and Literature Research

Arid Zones: The Main Focus of This Book

Chapter 1 Milk Culture and Pastoralism

1.1 Pastoralism and the Use of Milk

1.2 Dating the Start of Milking

1.3 Concept and Methodology of Field Research into Milk Processing Technology

Chapter 2 Milk Culture of West Asia

2.1 The Milk Processing System of Baqqaara Arab Pastoralists in Northeast Syria

2.2 Milk Processing Systems in Southern Iran: Milk Culture Shared Across Ethnic Boundaries

2.3 Milk Culture in West Asia

Chapter 3 Milk Culture of South Asia

3.1 Changes Impacting Milk Production in the Modern Era

3.2 Urban and Rural Milk Products and Processing Techniques in Western India

3.3 Milk Processing System of Pastoralists in Western India

3.4 Features and Background of the Milk Processing System of Western India

Chapter 4 Milk Culture of North Asia

4.1 Milk Processing Systems of Mongolian Nomads in Central Mongolia

4.2 Milk Processing Systems in the East of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

4.3 Regional Diversity of Milk Processing Systems in North Asia

Chapter 5 Milk Culture of Central Asia

5.1 Milk Processing Systems of Khazakh Pastoralists in Khazakhstan

5.2 Milk Processing Systems of Turkic Pastoralists in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

5.3 Milk Culture of Central Asia

Chapter 6 Milk Culture of the Tibetan Plateau

6.1 Milk Processing Systems in the Central Tibetan Plateau

6.2 Milk Processing Systems in the Eastern Tibetan Plateau

6.3 Milk Processing System in the Western Tibetan Plateau

6.4 Milk Culture in the Tibetan Plateau: Its Characteristics, Establishment and Evolution

Chapter 7 Milk Culture in Europe and the Caucasus

7.1 Milk Processing Systems in Bulgaria

7.2 Milk Processing Systems in France

7.3 Milk Processing Systems in the Caucasus

Chapter 8 The Monogenesis-Bipolarization Hypothesis of Eurasian Milk Culture

8.1 Monogenesis of Milk Culture

8.2 Developmental History of Milk Culture by Region

8.3 The Monogenesis-Bipolarization Hypothesis of Milk Culture

8.4 An Attempt to Verify the Monogenesis-Bipolarization Hypothesis

Chapter 9 Milk Processing Systems and Processes: A Reconsideration of Nakao's Analytical Model

9.1 Problem Points

9.2 Descriptive Method for Modeling Milk Processing Units

9.3 Sequences of Milk Processing Units

9.4 Milk Processing Systems and Processes: Combinations of Milk Processing Unit Sequences

9.5 Comparison with Nakao's Model

9.6 Flexibility of System Analysis in Terms of Milk Processing Units

9.7 Establishment of System Analysis in Terms of Milk Processing Units

9.8 Conclusion

Chapter 10 From Milk Culture to Pastoralism Theory

10.1 Pastoralism theory from the viewpoint of nutritional intake

10.2 A reconsideration of pastoralism theory from the viewpoint of milk culture

10.2.3 Typology of pastoralism along the axes of milk use and agricultural activity