The Historical Evolution and Present Condition of Camel Milk Practices in Northern China

Abstract

This article examines the long-term trajectory of camel milk consumption in northern China and the ways in which that tradition has been preserved and transformed in the present. Methodologically, the study combines textual analysis of premodern historical records with a review of modern ethnographic, food-science, and cultural studies. The evidence suggests a crucial distinction between the history of camel husbandry and the history of camel milk use. Although large-scale camel raising can be traced to at least the Han period, explicit documentary evidence for camel milk consumption appears clearly only from the Yuan dynasty onward. By the Yuan, Ming, and Qing periods, camel milk circulated not only in pastoral settings but also in courtly, medicinal, and commercial contexts. The contemporary case shows that milking, fermentation, dairy processing, and social uses remain embedded in pastoral life, while camel milk has also been reframed through heritage discourse, nutritional science, and regional industrial development. The article argues that camel milk should be understood not merely as a food product, but as a historical foodway shaped by pastoral ecology, social exchange, ritual meaning, and changing economic institutions.