A while ago in the Capstone project, we were assigned to do an essay to answer our main inquiry questions. The essay was filled with all of our information in our Capstone notebooks. The essay worked as a guideline for our script and the script would be for the final video/presentation. The script contained some of the information since there was a time limit. The essay was fun to make and write but in my script, lots of it was narrowed. I am very proud of it so here it is:
Cheese, a simple food, and a delicious treat. Although cheese is simple, it has an interesting and complex background in its history and religious purposes. I decided to research cheese and it led me to my main inquiry question, what is the history behind cheese, and how does cheese impact different cultures. I researched tons of sites for notes and after a few weeks of straight research, I am able to fully answer my questions with the help of sub-questions to guide my research which is, what is the history of cheese, how have different cultures adapted cheese, what does cheese symbolize in different cultures and how has cheese impacted civilization today?
Cheese has an interesting history and background, it all started in 8000 BC according to an ancient legend when an Arab merchant made cheese by storing milk in a pouch made from a sheep’s stomach and the enzymes turned it into curd and whey. In many Asian places, cheese is not considered to be part of their diet but around 1615 BC the Bai people in China made a new cheese called Rushan cheese. In 100 BC cheese was quite well known throughout Europe and the middle east, and by the time of Julius Caesar who dictated Rome, hundreds of hundreds of varieties existed. The cheese had been produced in America since the early 17th century when English farmers brought knowledge about dairy including cheesemaking from the old world to the English colonies. Factory-made cheese overtook handmade cheese in ww2 and ever since factories have been the source of most cheese in America and Europe.
Cheese is loved by many countries around the world and is quite important to them except for a few countries like Eastern Asia. Cheese is not very popular in China due to the fact that many people are lactose intolerant because they have not eaten cheese yet. Nomadic tribes ate cheese and those tribes were viewed as barbarians so, cheese was seen as an unsavory food and that led to people not eating it and they stayed lactose intolerant. On the other hand, Americans love cheese. Humans are supposedly supposed to be lactose intolerant but Americans got rid of it because of the centuries they ate cheese. When our ancestors moved to new areas with less wildlife they needed protein and animal meat was not an option since few animals existed to hunt so cheese became a viable alternative to meat. Another country that loves cheese is the French, French people truly love cheese as it’s part of their culinary, culture, and lifestyle. The French Monasteries is a place reserved for monks and praying. The Monasteries began to perfect the tradition of cheese in France. The monks were meticulous in creating cheese and their experiments are why we have numerous varieties of cheeses today to eat. Cheese in Italy is very important, cheese is part of many historic dishes and traditions that exist. France has produced tons of cheese in quantity and new variants, and Italy is relative to that number so it is safe to say that Italy loves cheese just as much as France.
Cheese symbolizes many things in religion and is used in it. Cheese played a large role in the religion of the Sumerians in Uruk, the first every city-state made. The story goes that a goddess Inanna had to choose between a shepherd and a farmer to marry, the shepherd named Dumuzi gave her a sales pitch made of dairy items such as milk, yogurt, and cheese. Inanna chose Dumuzi and in honor of Innana’s love of diary, the people of Uruk brought cheese and butter to her temple every day. Likewise, another religious story about cheese was when a Roman writer discussed the temple of Rumina who was the goddess of shepherds, and the fig tree nearby called Ficus Ruminalis, people brought cheese and milk as offerings to the temple instead of wine which was used. Additionally, there are 3 Christian saints who deal with diaries. Saint Bartholomew is the patron saint of Florentine cheesemakers, Saint Lucio-Uguzoh is also a saint of cheese who discovered how to make cheese production more efficient and gave the extra cheese away to those in need and Saint Brigid of Ireland is the patron saint of dairy workers and dairymaids. A legend goes that she gave away lots and lots of milk and butter that there was none left for her family by the end. She was afraid that her mother would be very upset so Brigid prayed and when Brigid’s mother dropped by, the dairy was filled with milk and butter. In addition, Researchers and archaeologists discovered cheese was offered to the deities by the builders of the Stonehenge, They studied eating patterns in the Durrington walls which was a settlement in which the builders likely lived, and the researchers and archaeologists noticed that pots in residential areas had residue of meat and pots in ceremonial places had the remains of cheese.
How has cheese impacted society today? Well, with the discovery of cheese, people could eat dairy and have new vitamins and nutrients with calories along with vegetarians having a source of protein, cheese would have different health benefits with each variant and lots of countries made lots of variants. Furthermore, cheese is also quite a well-known cultural export with many countries exporting variants. Along with their good sides, there are some bad sides to cheese, cheese is actually quite bad for climate change. It takes lots of milk to make a little cheese since cheese is solid and dense and milk is a liquid so many cows are needed. Cows produce methane since it’s part of their digestive system which is worse than carbon dioxide so they constantly produce methane which means they hurt the atmosphere.
Overall, cheese has an interesting background and history and it heavily impacts our society right now. Cheese is a very interesting food whether delicious or religious, it changes our history and without it, life would be quite different and would probably be worse.
