Details

Subject(s)

• Branding (Marketing)—Iceland—History [Browse]
• Cultured milk—Iceland—Marketing—History [Browse]
• Cultural property—Iceland [Browse]

Author

Jón Þór Pétursson [Browse]

Editor

Sigurlaug Dagsdóttir [Browse]

Series

• Cambridge elements [More in this series]
• Cambridge elements. Elements in critical heritage studies [More in this series]
• Cambridge elements. Elements in critical heritage studies, 2632-7074 [More in this series]

Summary note

Heritage branding and heirloom cultures are twin strategies for building brands in global markets. In this Element, the authors analyse these strategies through skyr; a traditional, sour dairy from Iceland. They explore how live microbial cultures in skyr have been 'heritagized' as heirloom cultures to build a brand advantage. Live skyr cultures, they show, illustrate symbiotic relations over millennia between microbial cultures and human cultures. The industrialization of this species interaction in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, they argue, ultimately converted a mutualistic relation into a parasitic one. Moreover, they demonstrate a parallel inversion of gender relations in the production and consumption of skyr as part of its industrialization and export. Ironically, these transformations undermine the industry's promotion of the cultures and heritage to which it has effectively put an end.

Bibliographic references

Includes bibliographical references.

Target audience

Specialized.

Source of description

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (viewed on March 4, 2026).

ISBN

9781009530286 (ebook)

Doi

10.1017/9781009530286

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