Heirloom cultures and heritage branding : the creamy case of Icelandic skyr / Valdimar Tr. Hafstein, Jón Þór Pétursson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Valdimar Tr. Hafstein, author.

Jón Þór Pétursson, author.

Series:

Cambridge elements. Elements in critical heritage studies

Cambridge elements. Elements in critical heritage studies 2632-7074

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Branding (Marketing).

Cultural property--Iceland.

Cultural property.

branding.

Iceland.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2025.

Summary:

"Heritage branding and heirloom cultures are twin strategies for building brands in global markets. In this Element, the authors analyze 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. They ask whether there is a more general lesson in this about the relationship between industrialization, capitalism, and heritage."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

CMicrobial heritage and cultural contexts: introduction — Heirloom cultures — Heritage branding — The problematics of cultural heritage: conclusions.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Online resource; title from PDF title page (Cambridge Core, viewed March 27, 2026).

Other Format:

Print version : Valdimar Tr. Hafstein. Heirloom cultures and heritage branding.

ISBN:

9781009530286

1009530283

OCLC:

1559963954

Publisher Number:

CIPO000314507

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license