I am covered in bugs, I am bugmogging everyone. I am severing all my ties to humanity to bugmaxx and become the alpha. They will eat my skin and birth me anew. I'm Like The Joker But A Big Bug. I'm like the Joker, But A Big Bug.
at some point in your life you will be boiling fruit, water, sugar, and lemon juice in a pot to make a syrup or jam. the instructions will tell you to simmer for a certain amt of time. your timer will go off and you will look at the pot and go, "hm, this doesn't look thick enough. maybe i'll let it go for another 10 minutes." this is the devil speaking. it's only so liquid right now because it is at boiling point. it will thicken when it cools down. learn from the follies of my youth and do not let this happen to you
at some point in your life you will be making a sauce or a stew in which you need to add cornstarch to thicken it. and you will prepare a slurry of starch in cold water and think "this looks like way too little starch to thicken this amount of liquid." this is the devil speaking. cornstarch instantly polymerizes at 95°C and if you add too much it will turn into an impossibly thick goop.
at some point in your life you will be making some sort of cream based dessert that requires gelatin to thicken it. and you will soak some gelatin sheets in water and think "this is too few gelatin sheets for this amount of cream." this is the devil speaking. it will thicken in the fridge and if you add too much you will end up with milk jelly
at some point in your life you will be baking cookies. you will take the sheet out after twelve minutes as the recipe instructs and the cookies will still be glistening and soft. "these don't seem cooked enough," you will think to yourself, "i should place them back into the oven until their edges are nice and golden." this is the devil talking. this is how you get dry, overdone cookies. the cookies will continue to bake on the warm sheet for several more minutes and then harden up after sitting on a rack for a while. trust the process. trust the process.
This has been bugging me for ages and I feel like you’re the only other blog who would appreciate my conundrum here. Do you think people in the avatar-verse drink cow’s milk?
On the one hand the lost lore archive seemingly confirms that cow-pigs produce “delicious” milk, but how canon can we really consider that? On the other hand, if you didn’t already know, most humans are lactose intolerant. The gene for lactase persistence (the ability to digest milk past babyhood) originated in the Middle East or Europe and spread from there. Even today East Asia has some of the highest rates of lactose intolerance in the world, and lactase tolerance was virtually nonexistent in North America pre-colonisation. Not drinking cow’s milk is the norm for humanity, not the exception, so I just think it would be cool to have at least one fantasy world where the main characters are lactose intolerant and soy milk is the norm.
Granted, given that cheese can be made to be palatable to lactose intolerant people and that there does seem to have been some lactase persistence traditionally in northern Indian and Himalayan regions (at least at a cursory research glance), you would probably expect it to vary by region and culture. Maybe cow-pig milk is consumed in only certain regions and otherwise usually made into cheese. I personally headcanon that air nomads eat sky bison cheese, which might taste similar to chhurpi.
From what I've read, dairy cows aren't native to East Asia, hence the lack of cow milk in most of the traditional cuisine of that region. I would say that cow-pig milk in Avatar might just be a local delicacy unique to the EK town from "Zuko Alone".
However, a predisposition towards lactose intolerance is not necessarily a permanent roadblock to enjoying milk products. Speaking from personal experience, I can generally build up my tolerance for dairy if I make a point of drinking milk every day. However, if I take a break of more than a week, then I have to start the whole process over again.
As for the consumption of other animal milks...
Based off cultural inspiration, the Air Nomads likely had close to 100% lactase persistence. Dairy is a huge part of Tibetan and other Himalayan cuisine. Plus, if Appa is any indication, sky bisons were roughly the size of sperm whales. Assuming there was a sky bison for every nomad, there was probably enough extra milk produced for it to become a staple of the Air Nomad diet.
The Northern Water Tribe probably has some lactase persistence, since they have Mongolian and Sakha cultural influence in addition to Inuit. Both Mongolian and Sakha culture are known for their consumption of mare's milk, both as a drink and as an ingredient in dishes. Plus, the NWT canonically has Buffalo-Yaks, which is a combination of two animals whose milk is commonly consumed in parts of Asia. Lactase persistence might not be as strong in the Southern Water Tribe, who don't seem to have domesticated any milk-producing animals.
The Earth Kingdom probably only has lactase persistence in certain regions, such as the village in "Zuko Alone". This aligns with its primary cultural inspiration, China. While most of China does not have a cheese-making tradition, there are pockets of regional cheeses: cow and goat acid cheeses in Yunnan, fermented cow milk cheeses in Xinjiang, and yak cheeses in the Tibetan and Mongolian autonomous regions. However, on the whole, I think most EK citizens stick to non-dairy milks made from soy, seeds, or nuts.
Finally, there's the Fire Nation. I don't think they drink much milk. In addition to China, the Fire Nation's other major cultural influences are Southeast Asia (Thailand, especially) and Japan. Historically, none of these cultures consumed much animal milk. I think the Fire Nation's choice of milks would be soy, sesame, coconut, or peanut.
Aren't arctic camels a domesticated animal in the swt? camel milk is a pretty common staple among people who keep them (and I know several north American farmers that have brought camels. onto their farms specifically for milk!) Sami people also milk reindeer, but immmmm not sure how well snow leopard caribou would take to being milked
You're right! In Korra, we do see arctic camels, so the SWT likely consumes dairy regularly, at least in the post-war period. This would imply that Katara and Sokka have some lactase persistence. I can just imagine Sokka bringing this up whenever a game or situation requires the Gaang to split into teams:
Sokka: Alright, Team 1 will be me, Katara, and Aang. That leaves Suki, Toph, and Zuko for Team 2.
Suki: Are you basing this off seniority in the group or something?
Sokka: More like who can handle a few rounds of drinks without turning into a tomato.
Team 2: *glares*
Sokka: Kidding! It's based on who can have a milkshake without turning into a walking stink bomb---*gets dirtball to the face*
Okay, this really got my cartography brain going, so...
Lactase Persistence in the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender!
The map is inspired by the above thread, but also some additional real-world biological anthropology, heavily referenced from this paper.
Of course I kept the high lactase persistence (LP) around the air temples, but I also showed the diffusion of that trait in the areas around the temples. This could be because of Air Nomads mixing into the non-nomadic local populations (genetically and culturally) and due to the trading/gifting of sky bison dairy products to those populations. I think the latter would reinforce the former, in this case.
Important to remember is that this map is representative of the percent of a population's LP if there is a population living in a given location. For example, for over a hundred years, there were no people living in the air temples, but if there were, they would have high rates of LP. Similarly, the Si Wong Desert is sparsely populated, but those who do populate it likely have LP (operating under the assumption that the sandbenders and other nomadic people get milk from the camelephants).
As in our reality, there are also high rates of LP in less fertile lands like deserts or higher latitudes (by the poles) and altitudes, as these regions tend to have more issues growing crops that can meet diet requirements. By having dairy producing animals eat the less nutritious crops, their bodies can basically add in the missing nutrients. This is why I have marked more mountainous regions + the Si Wong Desert as having more LP.
Version without the location labels:
Reference map (Wells 2021):
🌊 If I missed something or anyone has questions, always feel free to tag me! Big thanks to anon, atlaculture, and lizardlicks for the inspiration today!
@atlaculture Your wish is my command~ Almost—I added the character for milk in the negative space because I thought it looked cute there.
Additionally, here's a new map:
Dispersal and Domestication of Ruminant and Dairy Cattle!
We are really going down a rabbit hole with this one.
So once again I'm referencing the Stock and Wells paper, because it has really nice maps and it's pretty accessible in terms of academic language.
This map is pretty straightforward—circles represent points (areas) of origin, and the arrows denote the dispersal of the species. But for lore purposes, this requires some notes.
Flying Bison: I have marked their area of origin as being in the Southern Air Archipelago. We really don't know where they're specifically from, but seeing that there are populations of bison living in the Fire Nation (with/around the Bhanti tribe), I'm guessing they're from either the Western or Southern Air Archipelagos. And purely because the Bhanti tribe lives in the southern part of the Fire Nation, I've placed the bison as from the South. Their dispersal paths are also the most unique of the list, as, since they can fly, I imagine them flying directly to their preferred habitats, and the Air Nomads following/settling based on that.
(Really, the bison are too enlightened to be considered 'domesticated' by humans, but I included them because of their teamwork with the airbenders + their dairy potential.)
Arctic Camels: These creatures have more appearances in the Southern Water Tribe than the Northern, so I've placed their area of origin in the South. Perhaps they reached the North on trading ships or pirate ships traveling between the tribes?
Moo-sow (Cow-pig) and other pig hybrids, excluding the Picken/Pigster: The moo-sow are the only pig hybrids confirmed to be raised for their milk. Others, like the wooly-pig (cross between a sheep and a pig), are raised for specific functions like wool for clothes. But seeing as sheep in our world have been utilized for dairy, I don't think it's a big jump to think wooly-pigs would be in similar circumstances. All other pig hybrids are fully mammal (so this inference could still apply) except the picken (pig + chicken) and pigster (pig + rooster). (I don't know why they're two separate things. Weird!) Since these are birds crossed with mammals, they might not be able to produce milk. In Beasts of the Four Nations, Aang supposes that they lay eggs, and makes no mention of milk.
If the Picken and Pigster are more like chickens than pigs, they are likely to be native to A:tLA's equivalent of Southeast Asia—the Fire Nation. (Wikipedia page for the red junglefowl, from which chickens were domesticated.)
On the subject of the Fire Nation, I remembered—after completing this map, of course—that the Fire Nation has a native milk producer: the hippo cow.
Admittedly, this throws a wrench in the whole 'lactose intolerant Fire Nation' theory, but we could suppose that they are raised primarily for meat, and milk is an extra. According to the wiki, hippo cows are also domesticated in the Earth Kingdom after the Hundred Year War.
Final notes:
Non-hybrid yaks also exist and can be found around the Northern Water Tribe. Their dispersal pattern likely follows that of the buffalo yak quite closely, so they were not included in order to prevent crowding and clutter on the map.
Goat dogs and goat gorillas exist in the Earth Kingdom. While goats in the real world produce milk, these goat hybrids seem to express their non-goat 'genes' more prominently than the goat ones. Therefore, I have decided not to consider them.
New version of lactase persistence map, without labels:
Version of cattle map with labels:
And the lovely reference map (Stock and Wells 2023):
🌊 Questions, comments, concerns, critiques? I'll take them all :P
Your posts are so good! I love how easy it is to encounter academically minded people on Tumblr for literally any subject.
However, regarding the Hippo-Cow, I actually contend that it's not originally from the Fire Nation. Here's the excerpt from the original profile that was on the Nick website:
Creature: Hippo-Cow
If you haven't already guessed, this animal is a cross between a hippo and a cow, and can be found on farms throughout the world. While in most cases the hippo-cow is known to be a vegetarian, in the Fire Nation, things are a little different. The hippo-cows of the Fire Nation love meat. Like Sokka says: In the Fire Nation, "Even the meat eats meat."
The Hippo-Cow's "default" state is being an herbivore, but it seems to have adapted to becoming a carnivore in the Fire Nation. This implies that they're native to somewhere else, most likely the Earth Kingdom. This leads me to think they're a rather recent (<100 years) import from the colonies and the Fire Nation raises them for meat rather dairy. They kind of look like those scarily buff cows they raise for their lean meat.
This is how the system of white supremacy operates. The media is used 2 create stereotypes like blk on blk crime.They need black men to fill jail cells for the Prison Indstrial complex
You know what? I’m tired of this.
I do not know what exactly they are waiting for. I mean our government comes up with “reasons” to invade other countries, such as Syria, like their government is allegedly violating human rights or something like that. but… I mean for other countries, they do not even have to go deep to bomb the fuck out of this place, they can just look at our media. And this has been happening to people of color since the media has existed.
Did a research project on this in undergrad and the results are extremely alarming because it’s not just in imagery, it’s in language used even in the law making process and within our own communities in a completely different way than expected.
turnnoffyourmind
romaincrisis
prguitarman
kianamaiart
