The Treatments and Utilization of Milk among the Rendille
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20149164 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Shunichi Sato (0000-0002-0039-7162, corresponding author), Shun SATO |
| Year | 1980 |
| Volume | 1980 |
| Issue | 19 |
| Pages | 51-62 |
| Publication date | 1980-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of African Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0065-4140 • E-ISSN: 1884-5533 |
| Publisher | Japan Association for African Studies (PUBLISHER • JP) |
| DOI | 10.11619/africa1964.1980.51 |
| OpenAlex | W2015992547 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 6 |
The Rendille, numbering some 20, 000 persons, occupy 50, 000km2 in the southern part of Marsabit District in northern Kenya. They are a nomadic pastoral people who subsist almost exclusively on the products of their herds of camels, goats and sheep. A few cattle and donkeys are kept as subsidiary livestock. They do not practise clutivation and only marginally involved in the external economy. Among livestock products such as milk, meat and blood, milk constitutes the most principal part of the Rendille diet.The Rendille classify fresh milk according to both the types of milking animals and their lactation stage and also milk according to both the degree of fermentation and various types of milk products.Milk is treated by two methods. One is indirect fumigation of milk; the Rendille fumigate the inside of milk container with wood-smoke and then pour milk into the container. Fumigation of milk helps not only to heighten the durability of milk container and to add flavor to the milk, but also to restrain a rapid fermentation of milk. These fumigated milk, fresh or sour milk, contributes to the Rendille daily. The other is churning process; the milk is poured into a milk container which is not fumigated and left as it is until it coagulates and then churned. By this churning process, various types of milk products, such as curd, whey, butter-milk, butter and butter-oil, are removed from whole-milk. The Rendille do not use animals' urine as coagulant or antiseptic, nor do they make cheese as the final products by churning process. Even the butter-oil is limited in production because it is mainly from cattle or sheep milk. Thus it is concluded that, in comparison with their neighboring pastoralists, the churning process of the Rendille is less refined in terms of the utility and repertory of milk products and the churning technology. This is inconsistent with the facts that the Rendille elaborate the technology of livestock rearing more than their neighboring pastoralists and that they subsist almost exclusively on the livestock products. This inconsistency results from two factors. The first is that camel milk is less suitable for churning process than cattle, sheep and goats in biochemical reasons. The second is that it is difficult for the Rendille to obtain the surplus milk appropriated to churning process in the reason of ecological characteristics of camels and socio-economical reasons characteristic to the Rendille subsistence
Animal science · Biology · Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,2 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2021 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |