Cultures of Milk: The Biology and Meaning of Dairy Products in the United States and India

by Andrea S. Wiley

Overview

Milk is the only food mammals produce naturally to feed their offspring. The human species is the only one that takes milk from other animals and consumes it beyond weaning age. Cultures of Milk contrasts the practices of the world's two leading milk producers, India and the United States. In both countries, milk is considered to have special qualities. Drawing on ethnographic and scientific studies, popular media, and government reports, Andrea Wiley reveals that the cultural significance of milk goes well beyond its nutritive value.

Shifting socioeconomic and political factors influence how people perceive the importance of milk and how much they consume. In India, where milk is out of reach for many, consumption is rising rapidly among the urban middle class. But milk drinking is declining in America, despite the strength of the dairy industry. Milk is bound up in discussions of food scarcity in India and food abundance in the United States. Promotion of milk as a means to enhance child growth boosted consumption in twentieth-century America and is currently doing the same in India, where average height is low. Wiley considers how variation among populations in the ability to digest lactose and ideas about how milk affects digestion influence the type of milk and milk products consumed. In India, most milk comes from buffalo, but cows have sacred status for Hindus. In the United States, cow's milk has long been a privileged food, but is now facing competition from plant-based milk.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674729056
Publisher:	Harvard
Publication date:	06/09/2014
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Andrea S. Wiley is Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments ix

1 Introduction: Cultures of Milk 1

2 A Brief Social History of Milk Consumption in the United States 25

3 A History of Milk in India 53

4 Diversity in Dairy: Cows, Buffalo, and Nonmammalian Milks 82

5 Milk as a Children's Food: Growth and the Meanings of Milk for Children 113

6 Conclusion: Milk, Biology, and Culture in India and the United. States 147

Notes 165

References 169

Index 187

Editorial Reviews

What a readable, informative, and fascinating book! Andrea Wiley deftly compares the culture, history, and biology of milk drinking in the U.S. and India to create a truly biocultural analysis of how these very different cultures utilize and think about milk drinking. This volume is essential reading for anyone curious about how culture affects biology, and how public discourse shapes cultural perceptions about good food, the good body, and the good citizen.

Janet Chrzan

Cultures of Milk is a lucid and concise exploration of two of the world’s great dairying cultures. Wiley’s mastery of the material is evident throughout, as she weaves cultural, biological, historical, and nutritional data into a theoretically coherent narrative. It should be of interests to all students of food, whatever their particular angle is on the topic—nutritionists, anthropologists, sociologists, historians, etc.

John S. Allen

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