“Growing children around the world:”
Contemporary global patterns of milk consumption and the meanings of child growth
Abstract:
Historically milk production and consumption were important parts of local foodways in several areas of the world but notably absent from others. This pattern corresponded to biological variation in milk digestion. However, by the late 20th century, milk consumption has become globally normative, and a spectacular rise in intake has been documented in countries with emergent economies, including China and India. Meanwhile in the U.S., consumption has declined steadily, especially among children. In this paper I argue that milk has been able to achieve a dominant presence in diets in India and China by being positioned as a food with special qualities that enhance physical growth, which in turn serves as a powerful metaphor for individual and national power and wealth. Simultaneously, milk’s link to growth has become more problematic in the U.S. I review the evidence underlying claims about milk’s relationship to physical growth and consider how this particular food has been able to achieve a global presence through its associations with child growth.
User:
Default Administrator
Time:
4:00pm - 5:00pm
Description:
This presentation will focus on how potters allocate workshop space to different stages of pottery manufacture and how space can be used to reflect the specialization degree of a production unit. Ethnoarchaeological data on spatial organization has been collected from a traditional potters' quarter in the city of Moknine (Tunisia). The study examines the overall size of the workshop, the division between open and covered areas, the degree of flexibility of space use, as well as the limited allocation of storage. Ultimately, the observations obtained from the ethnoarchaeological study in Moknine will be compared with ethnographic evidence from traditional pottery workshops in Greece, with the ultimate goal to recreate the space of an ancient Greek pottery workshop. The spatial configuration of a workshop will allow us to revisit theories about the size of the ancient workshop, the cycle of production and retail, and the level of specialization in ancient Greek ceramic workshops.
