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Abstract

In this photo essay we elaborate on artisanal dairying practices in the European Alps and Mongolia. By comparing these geographically distant dairying practices, we view milk fermentation as a multispecies, multidomain food ecology that links bacteria, fungi, plants, animals, and humans in unbroken cycles of production and reproduction that have endured for millennia. We focus on how peasant dairy producers actively engage with microbial communities in form of their starter cultures, which carry locally specific values with them and form biosocial assemblages of heritage. Finally, we introduce the Dairy Cultures Ethnographic Database as an open access resource that documents local and comparative analyses of dairy practices, techniques, and embedded cultural frameworks.