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A bad week for buffalo mozzarella
China is the latest to ban imports, citing dioxin concerns. But how did the seventh century barbarian nomad Avars get involved in this mess?
Andrew Leonard [2008-03-31]

  • Cow boys, Indians, and buffalo

    I wish I could access the White article (more than the first page). Is this the same Lynn White who wrote Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis?

    My absurd theory is that the buffalo did not make their way from India alone, but rather in the company of herders, with Indians perhaps all the way. The Indian buffalo has been domesticated a long time, and the rich milk would make it desirable. But, why not bring the herders with the buffalo, which would mean you've got Indians in Europe, though maybe the herders are replaced by locals long before Europe.

    But, the Roma (Gypsies from India) might have appeared in southern Europe history by 800 CE, so maybe Indians of some sort had come in earlier but were not mentioned.

    And from that leap, I'd make the leap further to try to equate the Avars with Indians of some sort. In other words, maybe they didn't have to rendez-vous with the buffalo, maybe they had the buffalo all along. Long hair with ornaments, travel in wagons, rouse the attention of the locals? Sounds like the same impact of the Roma.

    Since the Avars kind of just disappeared into some other population, we perhaps can't know. But, the people(s) we call Roma now are a varied lot.

    There are many reasons my theory is unlikely but just let it loft a bit into the intellectual ether before shooting it down.

    -- JackSparx
    [Read JackSparx's other letters]
    Monday, March 31, 2008 06:21 PM
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