Milk production in Seville in the 12th century. Ethnozootechnical approaches

Among the work on food in al-Andalus, dairy products have always been secondary to meat products and vegetable production. The agronomy treatise produced in Seville in the 12th century by Ibn al-'Awwam and zooarchaeological data can offer insight on milk production in Aljarafe in the Almohad era, using an ethnozootechnical approach. This approach brings together social actors, animals and the environment. The comparative approach of ethnozootechnics allows us to take another look at camel's milk (mentioned in the Arabic textual documentation), and makes it possible to highlight milk production within the framework of a suckling system with low milk productivity. Cheese, which constitutes a solution to the peak of lactation by avoiding losing surplus production, must have been produced in small quantities.