Masahiro Hirata

I have researched milk culture and the subsistence of pastoralism in West Asia, North Asia, Central Asia, Tibetan Plateau, the Balkan Peninsula, East Africa and South Europe over 25 years, with considering its local ecological environments. Field survey is important for my research approach to understand and analyze milk culture and the subsistence in each site. I also use ancient documents from China and India and results of archeology to reproduce ancient milk products and analyze the developmental history of milk culture in Eurasia. Furthermore, I try to construct a new subsistence theory of pastoralism from the viewpoint of milk culture and comparative studies of pastoralism. Recently, I am studying how milk culture has adapted into Japanese food culture. I have also started to tackle the issue of regional revitalization in the mountain areas in Japan, focusing on milk culture and dairy farming grazed in grassland.