World Milk Cultures

Cniel 0210/2188
International Symposium
May 6 and 7, 2010
Program
W RLD M LK
CULTURES
CULTURES des
LA TS du M NDE
W RLD M LK
CULTURES
Throughout the ages, throughout the world, dairy cultures have
helped to structure and weave together our history and our societies.
These world milk cultures are especially diverse and evolving, with
one point in common: a beverage, a food, an essential product: milk.
Raw or transformed, fresh or fermented, plain or prepared, in all
its forms milk is an indispensable nutriment the world over.
practical information
“World Milk Cultures” presents the multiple facets of Milk
Cultures through a variety of perspectives, disciplines and places
Muséum national
d’Histoire naturelle
Grand Amphithéâtre
57, rue Cuvier - 75005 Paris
Métro : Jussieu
Contact : Sylvie Girard -Tél : 01 49 70 71 62 - Fax : 01 42 80 63 64 - [email protected] - www.lemangeur-ocha.com
Milk has been a structuring element in various human histories,
rooted in systems of social, cultural, and economic relations and specific
geographic areas.
The World Milk Cultures symposium offers a journey through this diversity: diversity of dairy species, diversity
of breeding systems and the lands on which they develop, diversity of dairy products, their representations and uses, and
lastly, diversity of people that produce, process, create and innovate.
This symposium will present the multiple facets of World Milk Cultures through a variety of perspectives, disciplines
and places: anthropologists, agronomists, ethnologists, economists, archeozoologists, veterinarians, prehistorians,
biochemists, geographers, zootechnicians, sociologists… All will look into how dairy cultures participate in our dietary
habits and our ways of looking at the world – here and now and over the course of time, in Africa, South America,
Europe, Asia, Ancient Greece and contemporary Japan.
What are the origins of dairy breeding and how did the consumption of milk begin? What is the role of milk in our
beliefs or religious systems? Cows, camels, goats, sheep, mares… as many species as there are dairy traditions.
What societies do they fit into? How did the techniques to preserve and process milk evolve? How were tastes for dairy
products created? In what ways do dairy cultures shape a specific economic fabric integrating ties between the area and
its landscape? What kind of biodiversity can we speak of in relation to dairy land?
World Milk Cultures will be a forum to exchange views and experiences around this fascinating
food in all its complexity and timeless cultural and symbolic significance the world over.
Thursday, May 6, 2010 • morning
9:00 to 10:00 a.m. Welcome
10:00 to 10:30 a.m. Introduction: Bertrand Hervieu, Inspector-General for Agriculture
Session 1: Milk and origins: milk of man, milk of the gods
Presided by Jean-Denis Vigne, archeozoologist, CNRS/MNHN
10:30 to 11:15 a.m. Jean-Denis Vigne, archeozoologist,CNRS/MNHN
The Origins of Animal Domestication, Breeding of Hoofed Mammals and Milk Consumption in the Neolithic Era
in the Middle East and Europe.
11:15 to 11:45 a.m. Jean-Loïc Le Quellec, prehistorian, CNRS
When Hunters and Shepherds Are Not Always Those It Appears.
11:45 to 12:15 a.m. Alessia Ranciaro, geneticist, University of Maryland, USA
Evolutionary History of Lactose Tolerance in Africa.
12:15 to 12:30 a.m. Discussion
12:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.  Open lunch
2:00 to 2:30 p.m.
Janick Auberger, historian, UQAM Canada
Ewes and Nanny-Goats, the Unloved Nurturers of Ancient Greek Literature.
2:30 to 3:00 p.m.
Ysé Tardan-Masquelier, religious historian, Sorbonne/Institut Catholique
Divine Milk: Cosmogony, Sacrifice and Rebirth in Hinduism.
3:00 to 3:15 p.m.
Discussion
Thursday, May 6, 2010 • afternoon
Session 2: Milk, man, culture and society
Presided by Catherine Baroin, anthropologist, CNRS/Equipe Afrique
3:15 to 4:00 p.m. Catherine Baroin, anthropologist, CNRS
Camel’s Milk, Cow’s Milk: Qualities and Uses among the Toubou (Chad, Niger).
4:00 to 4:30 p.m. Jean Boutrais, geographer, IRD
Economic and Symbolic Uses of Milk among the Peul (Cameroon, Niger, Burkina Faso).
4:30 to 4:45 p.m. Discussion
4:45 to 5:00 p.m. Break
5:00 to 5:30 p.m. Michel Bras, chef, Laguiole, Aubrac : Milk from the World over in My Cuisine.
5:30 to 6:00 p.m. Gaukhar Konuspayeva, biochemist, University Al Farbi, Kazakhstan
Identity, Therapeutic Benefits and Health Claims: Fermented Dairy Products in Central Asia.
6:00 to 6:30 p.m. Allen J. Grieco, historian, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance (Florence, Italy)
Evolution of the Status of Dairy Products from the Middles Ages to the Renaissance.
6:30 to 7:00 p.m. Angelica Espinoza Ortega, anthropologist, UAEM, Mexico
Traditional Cheeses in Mexico and their Social Role.
7:00 to 7:15 p.m. Discussion
7:30 to 10:30 p.m. Buffet Dinner and Visit to the Grand Gallery of Evolution
Friday, May 7, 2010 • morning
9.00 to 9.30 a.m.
Welcome
Session 3: Dairy Land, Sustainable Land?
Presided by Bernard Faye, veterinarian and agronomist, INRA/CIRAD
9:30 to 10:15 a.m. Bernard Faye, veterinarian and agronomist, INRA/CIRAD
What Species for What Spaces? What Systems for What Territories?
The Challenges of Sustainability in Dairy Breeding
10.15 to 10:45 a.m. Frédéric Gaucheron, biophysicochemist, INRA, Rennes: Dairy Biodiversity
10:45 to 11:15 a.m. Zelalem Yilma, doctor of sciences, Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, Ethiopia
The Dairy Sector in the Ethiopian Highlands: the Place of Traditional Fermented Milk Products
11:15 to 11:30 a.m. Discussion
11:30 to 11:45 a.m.  Break
11.45 to 12:15 a.m. Dominique Barjolle, agronomist, Agridea, Suisse
Dairy Breeding and Landscape Maintenance
12:15 to 12:45 a.m. Sarah Bowen, sociologist, North Carolina University, USA
Heritage, Identity, and the Construction of Quality among Cheese Producers in the United States and France
(the example of Comté)
12:45 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Discussion
1:00 to 2:30 p.m.
Open lunch
Friday, May 7, 2010 • afternoon
Session 4: To Each His Own Milk
Presided by Françoise Sabban, sinologist, EHESS, Paris
2:30 to 3:15 p.m. Françoise Sabban, sinologist, EHESS, Paris
The Rise in Dairy Consumption in China Today: a Historical Perspective
3:15 to 3:45 p.m. Komei Wani, doctor of agriculture, Western Japan Food Culture Study Group, Japan
Milk Culture in Japan: from Ancient Age to Today
3:45 to 4:15 p.m. Suresh Gokhale, veterinarian, BAIF Central Station, India: Milk, a Lifeline of India
4.15 to 4:30 p.m. Discussion
4:30 to 4:45 p.m. Break
4:45 to 5:15 p.m. Giuseppe Licitra, zootechnician, Italy
Traditional Women Cheesemakers in Developing Countries.
The Challenge of Food Safety
5:15 to 5:45 p.m. Djiby Dia, geographer, Senegalese Institute of Agricultural Research (ISRA), Senegal
Senegal, a Land of Milk: From Local Milk to Powdered Milk.
The Reinvention of an Urban Dairy Culture.
5:45 to 6:00 p.m. Discussion
The present speaker
Janick Auberger
Professor of classical antiquity at the University of Quebec in Montreal, Canada. Her training in philology
has led her to translate and comment many ancient writings that had not yet been available in French. Her historical research
has prompted her to publish extensively on the social and cultural history of ancient Greece. She has devoted many articles to
dairy products, Le lait des Grecs, boisson divine ou barbare? Dialogues d’Histoire ancienne, 27/1, 2001, 131-157, among others.
She is also the author of La trilogie céréales-vignes-oliviers, frontière illusoire entre Grecs et Barbares in the edited volume
Les Frontières alimentaires (J.R Pitte and M. Montanari eds, Paris, CNRS, 2009, p. 15-37).
Catherine Baroin
Research director with the CNRS, Equipe Afrique/University of Paris X, France, anthropologist specialized
in the Toubou. She has studied the social organization of these nomadic shepherds of the Sahara and Sahel from a number
of angles, publishing several articles and books, in particular Les Toubou du Sahara central, Paris, Editions Vents de sable, 2003,
Gens du roc et du sable - Les Toubou. Hommage à Charles et Marguerite LE CŒUR (Edit), Paris, Editions du C.N.R.S, 1988,
reissued in 2002 by CNRS Editions.
Dominique Barjolle
Agronomist, she has been head of the Swiss Association for the Development of Agriculture and Rural
Areas (AGRIDEA) since 2002 and has taken part in several European research programs on these topics. She has published extensively
on the quality of agricultural produce, innovation in agriculture and Swiss agricultural policy. In particular L’agriculture dans son
nouveau rôle, Presses Polytechniques Universitaires Romandes, Lausanne, 2008 (with J.-M. Chappuis and C. Eggenschwiler) and
Politiques agricoles et de développement rural, Comparaisons entre la France et la Suisse, Economie Rurale, on line, Paris, 2009
(with J.-C. Kroll and M. Jaouen).
Jean Boutrais Geographer, research director with the IRD in Paris, associate member of CEAF (Center for African Studies
at EHESS, Paris). His areas of research focus mainly on Sahel-Sudan pastoral societies, the adaptation of pastoral systems
to the political territorialization of their space, and the animal heritage in Sahel-Sudanese pastoral areas. He has published several
single-authored books including, in 1995 a 2-volume 1301-page comprehensive survey: Hautes terres d’élevage au Cameroun,
Paris, Éd. de l’Orstom, as well as edited volumes, published by Éd de l’IRD, in 1999: L’homme et l’animal dans le bassin du Lac
Tchad. In 2008, together with C. Baroin, he coordinated the publication of a special issue of Journal des Africanistes on the theme
“the link with livestock.”
He is also member of the scientific advisory board of the Mega-Chad Network (International network of multidisciplinary research in the
Lake Chad basin), series editor for “A travers champs” (IRD) and member of the editorial board of the journal Natures, Sciences, Sociétés.
Sarah Bowen Sociologist at North Carolina State University. Her research focuses primarily on the relationships between local
actors, global institutional and market dynamics. Her PhD dissertation compared the production systems of Comté in France and
tequila in Mexico to theorize the way that organizational and territorial factors interact in the construction of more sustainable and
equitable geographic indication systems. She has published articles in Rural Sociology, the Journal of Rural Studies, and Agriculture
and Human Values, among others.
s in the colloquium
Michel Bras Chef, was born in Gabriac, in Aveyron, France, in 1946. He was fascinated by both Aubrac and cuisine. Right out of school,
his mother introduced him to local culinary traditions, and their collaboration continues.
Michel Bras has been self-taught, letting his intuition guide him. He studied culinary literature with a passion, taking inspiration from
such great thinkers as Saint-Augstin, Lamartine, Saint-Exupéry, Ernest Renan and Francis Ponge, amongst others. He finally found
his own culinary path.
He and his wife Ginette decide to follow this route all the way and set up their restaurant in the middle of the natural landscape. And so they
opened Le Suquet in 1992 in perfect harmony with the light, stone and vegetation of the Aubrac plateau.
This goal has never left them, guiding them in making this incredible place between heaven and earth a reality, a place where a crazy idea
became a reality: to offer a moment to contemplate nature, truly, totally, sincerely.
Djiby Dia
PhD in geography, Researcher with the Office of Macroeconomic Analysis at the Senegalese Institute of Agricultural Research. His work focuses on questions relating to the spatial organization of breeding activities and land use planning.
His research thus turned toward the dairy sector. His doctoral dissertation is entitled Les territoires d’élevage laitier à l’épreuve des
dynamiques politiques et économiques: Éléments pour une géographie du lait au Sénégal. He is also the curator of the exhibition
Mon lait, je l’aime local [I Like My Milk Local].
Angelica Espinoza Ortega Anthropologist, Institute for Agricultural and Rural Sciences at the Independent University of the
State of Mexico, (UAEM). She has published her research findings in several Mexican journals and has also authored book chapters
and books, all dealing with the socio-economic aspects of small dairy farms and traditional cheeses.
She is also rapporteur for several scientific journals. In 2009, the book she co-authored, Los quesos mexicanos genuinos, won the
Gourmand World Cookbook Award 2009 as best book on cheese in the world, in Paris, France.
Allen J. Grieco Historian, Senior Research Associate, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, Florence,
Italy. Historian of food, he is also a specialist of the vegetal world and its transformations with respect to the culinary and medicinal
dimension of plants.
He is a member of the scientific advisory board of the European Institute for the History and Culture of Food (IEHCA, Tours) and
member of the scientific advisory board for the Observatoire Cniel des Habitudes Alimentaires (OCHA, Paris). Among his publications is, in 1989, Art culinaire, art majeur. Paris, and in conjunction with Odile Redon and Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi in 1993 Le monde
végétal (xiie-xviie siecles): savoirs et usages sociaux.
Bernard Faye
Veterinarian, PhD from the University of Paris XII and Accreditation to Direct Research (HDR), INRA research
engineer assigned to the CIRAD. For many years he headed a research network on milk in tropical environments (Laitrop) and
is interested in both the production and processing conditions of milk from various species as well as the study of dairy breeding
systems throughout the world. Having traveled through many countries, he has broad knowledge of world dairy systems in all types
of environment. He is the author of many scientific publications on the dairy production of various species and in a wide variety of areas
in the world, from Africa to the Central Asian steppes. After an illustrated book, Bergers du Monde, aux Editions Quae, 2008, he has
just co-edited, L’élevage, richesse des pauvres, with Guillaume Duteurtre, Editions Quae, 2009.
The present speaker
Frédéric GaucheroN
PhD in molecular biochemistry with the CNRS in Orléans. Scientific advisor for the national “LAIT”
platform team with INRA in Rennes. His research themes pertain to the biochemistry of dairy products according to different
physical-chemical conditions and in the course of various processing technologies. He coordinated the edited volume Minéraux
et produits laitiers (2004) and organized the 1st international symposium on “Minerals & Dairy Products” (2008). He has teaches
in various academic programs in France and abroad, especially in southern hemisphere countries.
Suresh Gokhale
Veterinarian, he is research director at the BAIF Development Research Foundation, India, of which
he was vice-president from 1996 to 2005. The BAIF, a charity organization founded in 1967 by a disciple of Gandhi, aims to promote
sustainable development in rural areas (in particular through dairy breeding), food safety and environmental protection through
various programs set up in nearly 50,000 villages. Dr Suresh Gokhale has published several books and many scientific articles
on dairy breeding, agriculture, development and social issues.
Bertrand Hervieu Inspector-General for Agriculture, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Paris, he was secretary general of
the International Centre of Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM 2003-2009). Former research director with the
CNRS, professor at the Ecole nationale du Génie rural des Eaux et Forêts, he was successively technical advisor to Henri Nallet,
Agriculture Minister (1985-1986), conseiller d’Edith Cresson, Prime Minister, on rural issues (1991-1992), and then technical
advisor to Louis Le Pensec (1997-1998) and Jean Glavany (1998), Agriculture Ministers. He was also president of INRA from 1999
to 2003. Bertrand Hervieu has authored a vast number of articles published in scientific and general interest journals dealing with
agricultural policy, the impact of politics on farming and more generally on changes in the agricultural and rural world. He has
published 11 volumes either in his own name or as co-author including, in 2008 Les orphelins de l’exode rural: essai sur l’agriculture
et les campagnes du 21ème siècle, Éditions de l’Aube, and supervised the publication of Mediterra 2008: les futurs agricoles et
alimentaires en Méditerranée, CIHEAM’s 10th annual report.
Gaukhar Konuspayeva
Professor of biochemistry and immunology in the Kazakh National Al-Farabi University (KazNU,
Almaty, Kazakhstan), she defended her doctoral thesis in Food Sciences at the University of Montpellier II on the physical-chemical
and biochemical variability of camel milk in Kazakhstan. She has an in-depth understanding of milk production conditions in the
steppes and of the traditional knowledge surrounding dairy products. Her work currently focuses on the impact of heavy metal
pollution on milk quality and she is particularly specialized in the biochemistry of non-conventional milks (camel, mare).
s in the colloquium
Jean-Loïc Le Quellec
Research director with the CNRS at the Centre d’Etudes des Mondes Africains. He is an anthropologist and specialist in African prehistory and cave art, particularly in the Sahara and southern Africa.
He has published many works taking a historic, archeologcal and mythological approach to rock art, most recently and
together with Pauline and Philippe de Flers, Du Sahara au Nil. Peintures et gravures d’avant les Pharaons (Soleb-Fayard, Collection
d’Egyptologie du Collège de France, 2005).
Just published by Publications de la Sorbonne in 2010, co-authored with F.X. Fauvelle-Aymar and François Bon: Vols de vaches à
Christol Cave. Histoire critique d’une image rupestre d’Afrique du Sud.
Giuseppe Licitra  Professor of zootechnology at the Faculty of Agriculture and teaches in the department of tropical and
subtropical agriculture in Ragusa. He founded and presides a dairy research center in 1996 (CoRFiLaC), located in Ragusa. He is
particularly interested in the nutritional and sanitary aspects of traditional cheeses and is the author of many scientific publications
devoted to the protection and promotion of traditional Sicilian and developing country cheeses.
Alessia Ranciaro
Geneticist, post-doc at the University of Pennsylvania in the laboratory of Professor Sarah A. Tishkoff.
Her main research focus is on lactase persistence into adulthood. Fieldwork done in Kenya in 2004 and 2006, organized by
Professor Sarah Tishkoff, for DNA sample collection from local populations.
She published with Sarah Tishkoff and other authors The genetic structure and history of Africans and African Americans,
Science. 2009 May 22;324 (5930):1035-44.
Françoise Sabban Sinologist and director of studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)
in Paris, member of the Centre d’études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine (EHESS-CNRS). She is also member of
the scientific advisory board for the IEHCA, Chief Co-Editor of Journal of Chinese Dietary Culture, Advisory Editor of the
journal Food & Foodways, and member of the editorial board for the journal Food & History.
She has published many articles on the history and anthropology of food, in particular in China. She co-edited with Frédérique
Audouin-Rouzeau Un aliment sain dans un corps sain — Perspectives historiques, Collection “À boire et à manger,” n°1,
Tours, Presses Universitaires François Rabelais, 2007.
The present speakers
Ysé Tardan-Masquelier PhD in the history of religions, she teaches the history of Hinduism at INALCO and the Institut
Catholique in Paris. Among her published works are L’esprit du yoga, Albin Michel, 2005; Les hindous: un milliard de croyants,
Albin Michel, 2007. She co-edited Les religions, la médecine et l’origine de la vie (O. Jacob, 2002), Le Livre des Sagesses (Bayard,
2002), La quête de guérison (Bayard, 2006).
Jean-Denis Vigne Research director with the CNRS, he is director of the archéozoology laboratory at the Muséum National
d’Histoire Naturelle and the CNRS. He also heads the French segment of LeCHE (Lactase Persistence and the Cultural History
of Europe) that brings together 15 teams from 7 countries in a research project on the origins of dairy breeding in the Neolithic age
and human capacity to digest milk in adulthood. He has authored many scientific articles on the domestication, in particular on the
early days of milk production: Was milk a “secondary product“ in the Old World Neolithisation process? Its role in the domestication of cattle, sheep and goats (with D. Helmer), Anthropozoologica, 2007, 42, 2: 9-40. Among his books are Invasions biologiques
et extinctions. 11 000 ans d’histoire des vertébrés en France (with M. Pascal and O. Lorvelec) Paris: Belin, 2006, and in Current
Anthropology, special issue “The Beginnings of Agriculture: New Data, New Ideas,” forthcoming (O. Bar-Yosef & D. Price eds).
Kohmei Wani PhD in Agriculture and a graduate of the University of Maryland (USA). Specialized in food sciences and professor
at Toa University (Japan). He worked in the Japanese milk sector for 30 years in the Research and Development department.
Director of the study group on Japanese food culture and honorary member of the Japanese Society of Food Culture, Culture
of Weaning Food: Survey Reports from 10 Asian Countries, a series of DVDs entitled Why people eat the Foods and co-author
of Ethnographical Aspects of Dairying in Non-European Societies. In 2004, he published Culture of Eating Milk, Foods & Food
Ingredients (Japan), vol. 209, no. 5, pp. 423-440, an article in which he surveys the history of cheese, since domestication and
offers a classification of cheeses, suggesting how to appreciate their various textures, tastes and smells.
Zelalem Yilma PhD in the science and technology of nutrition from the University of Montpellier. Teacher-researcher on the
production, technology and microbiology of dairy products, Ethiopian Agricultural Research Organisation, Holetta, Ethiopia. Consultant
for the FAO, member of Ethiopian Society of Animal Production executive committee, member of the organization committee for the
5th Conference of the “All African Society of Animal Production,” author of many scientific articles and book chapters.