This book undertakes a critique of the pervasive notion that human beings are separate from and elevated above the nonhuman world and explores its role in the constitution of modernity. The book presents a socio-cultural analysis of the British milk industry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It traces the dramatic development of the milk trade from a cottage industry into a modernised and integrated system of production and distribution, examining both the social, economic and political factors underpinning this transformation, and also highlighting the important roles played by various nonhumans, such as microbes, refrigeration technologies, diseases, and even cows themselves. The book demonstrates how the resulting insecurities and dilemmas posed a threat to the nature/culture divide as milk consumption grew along with urbanization and, using empirical case materials, systematically challenges the notion that human beings inhabit a unique social domain incommensurable with the nonhuman world. Milk, Modernity and the Making of the Human is an ideal volume for any researcher interested in how 'the social' is constituted within practices and relations which transcend the human world.

Author: Nimmo, Richie
Publisher: Routledge
Illustration: N
Language: ENG
Title: Milk, Modernity and the Making of the Human
Pages: 00000 (Encrypted PDF)
On Sale: 2010-02-23
SKU-13/ISBN: 9780415558747
Lib Category: Human-animal relationships
Lib Category: Humanism
Category: Social Science : Anthropology - Cultural
Category: Social Science : Sociology - General
Category: Non-Classifiable : Non-Classifiable