The consumption of cow’s milk has reached the level where it has become second nature to many societies across the world. Yet.
The history of this practice is still somewhat obscure as researchers and scientists try to make more sense of when and why humans decided to include cow’s milk in their diets.
Early Evidence and Theories
Taking into consideration the historical data, it seems that the process of taming cattle started approximately 8 thousand years ago in the Near East. Research done on the primitively domesticated cattle shows that early man might have used the cattle for work and meat rather than for milk.
The first signs of dairy farming began approximately 5,000 years ago in the region of present-day Turkey. This process is quite distinct but the reasons for change pertaining to the cattle from being a source of labor and meat to a source of milk remains still not very clear.
A theory, for example, is that early humans drank milk either because they had to do so or because they got the chance to do it. In agrarian society, this could have been a major means of nutrition in case of an excess of production in the form of cheese or straight milk. But this even failed to explain why people began to drink milk or why it evolved into becoming part of their diet.
Genetic Adaptations and Lactose Tolerance
Another area where the realized consumption of dairy products from domesticated animals makes contact with human genetic development. At first, most adult humans were not able to digest lactose, which is the sugar found in milk; that is, they were lactose intolerant.
This intolerance was the case in most of human history. But in some groups, the gene mutation occurred that makes the adult organism adapt to the better digestion of lactose. It is believed that this adaptation afforded the ability to select for improvement where dairy formed an important component of diet.
It is also believed by scientists that this genetic shift may have occurred more than once and at jurisdictions apart from each other. For example, the specific gene mutation that provides people the ability to digest lactose is not as same in Europeans and some African and Asian people.
This genetic change shows that the adoption of dairy consumption seems to have occurred more often than what has been estimated, due to these and many other factors.
Cultural and Economic Factors
Apart from a genetic perspective, culture and economics were also the main contributors to the popularity of drinking milk. More specifically, in many societies, dairy farming emerged as a major source of economic activities, and dairy products such as cheese, yogurt, and the like emerged as important in trade as well as food security.
Even the cultural status of dairy products was changed: milk was integrated into religious and ritual eating and became part of believers’ everyday diets.
Also, the seeming ‘liquid’ nature of dairy products meant that they could be integrated into different recipes and stored for long. It is for this reason that dairy products became a suitable product for many societies, thus fixing the consumption of milk in the society.
Unraveling the Mystery
Although the given article has provided a lot of information about the emergence of the tradition of using milk, the full story is still shrouded in mystery. The decision-makers, of course, genetic evolutions, cultural practices, and economic realities made it possible for cow’s milk to be widely consumed.
Thus, as research continue, we may be able to learn more about why this practice become part of societies of the world right from the beginning.
Meanwhile, it is about exploration of the fact that humans began to consume cow milk. Every time a new form is discovered, it contributes to providing details on how these predecessors were able to cope with the recipient environment.
ASH CK