MARC Record from Library of Congress

LEADER: 02759cam a22003498a 4500
001 2011002514
003 DLC
005 20120420074230.0
008 110203s2011 ctu b 001 0 eng
010 $a 2011002514
020 $a9780300117240 (hardback)
040 $aDLC$cDLC
042 $apcc
050 00 $aGT2920.M55$bV35 2011
082 00 $a641.3/7109$222
084 $aCKB096000$aTEC003020$aHIS054000$2bisacsh
100 1 $aValenze, Deborah M.,$d1953-
245 10 $aMilk :$ba local and global history /$cDeborah Valenze.
260 $aNew Haven :$bYale University Press,$c2011.
263 $a1112
300 $ap. cm.
520 $a"How did an animal product that spoils easily, carries disease, and causes digestive trouble for many of its consumers become a near-universal symbol of modern nutrition? In the first cultural history of milk, historian Deborah Valenze traces the rituals and beliefs that have governed milk production and consumption since its use in the earliest societies. Covering the long span of human history, Milk reveals how developments in technology, public health, and nutritional science made this once-rare elixir a modern-day staple. The book looks at the religious meanings of milk, along with its association with pastoral life, which made it an object of mystery and suspicion during medieval times and the Renaissance. As early modern societies refined agricultural techniques, cow's milk became crucial to improving diets and economies, launching milk production and consumption into a more modern phase. Yet as business and science transformed the product in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, commercial milk became not only a common and widely available commodity but also a source of uncertainty when used in place of human breast milk for infant feeding. Valenze also examines the dairy culture of the developing world, looking at the example of India, currently the world's largest milk producer. Ultimately, milk's surprising history teaches us how to think about our relationship to food in the present, as well as in the past. It reveals that although milk is a product of nature, it has always been an artifact of culture"--$cProvided by publisher.
520 $a"A history of milk and its many uses in different cultures of the world"--$cProvided by publisher.
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
650 0 $aMilk$xHistory.
650 0 $aMilk$xSocial aspects.
650 0 $aCooking (Milk)$xHistory.
650 0 $aDairy products$xHistory.
650 0 $aFood habits$xHistory.
650 7 $aCOOKING / Specific Ingredients / Dairy$2bisacsh.
650 7 $aTECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Agriculture / Animal Husbandry$2bisacsh.
650 7 $aHISTORY / Social History$2bisacsh.