20-07-10, 02:42 PM
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#12
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Banned
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Name: Jessi
Age: 20
Gender: Female
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 184
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Re: Who discovered milk?
My guess is that they saw the calves drinking it, and made the connection between cow's milk (also goat, water buffalo, etc.) and human breast milk. Since breast milk is so important to a baby's survival (it's all they eat, at first, after all), they must have figured that if they could get milk elsewhere it would be beneficial to their diet.
These days we don't need milk past infancy, because we can get those nutrients in our diet very easily without it. Back in the day, though, it was probably helpful. In a foraging society, breast milk was really important to a child's survival. They breast-fed for years, sometimes, compared to the 6 months we do it for today. It's high in fat, which is essential for the baby to survive when food may be scarce, and also leaves more solid food for everyone else. Also, a fun fact for you guys: It was a fairly effective means of birth control, as it kept the mother's own body fat percentage low enough that she was less likely to conceive again until after she stopped breast-feeding. After all, a foraging lifestyle supports one to two people per square mile, so the group had to stay small . As you can see, milk was important.
An approximate date of 3000BC was mentioned, which coincides roughly with the emergence of pastoralism (if I remember correctly) so I'll be willing to buy that without checking it for myself. So, that's your history lesson for the day. Most likely through observation, man learned that he could derive nutrition from the milk of certain animals, rather than just the meat, and some eventually began to raise them specifically for this purpose.
Last edited by Uncle Jessi; 20-07-10 at 02:44 PM..
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