Heirloom Cultures and Heritage Branding: The Creamy Case of Icelandic Skyr

— —

Valdimar Tr. Hafstein (University of Iceland) Jón Þór Pétursson (University of Iceland)

Heirloom Cultures and Heritage Branding

Name: Heirloom Cultures and Heritage Branding
Price: 51.51 AUD
Availability: OutOfStock
ISBN: 9781009530293

The Creamy Case of Icelandic Skyr

Valdimar Tr. Hafstein (University of Iceland), Jón Þór Pétursson (University of Iceland)

$60.95 $51.51

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We will update you on expected arrival time to us. If this delay is too long, please let us know within 2 business days and we can give you options regarding cancelling or adjusting your order. More details on cancelling your order can be found in our Terms of Trade.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Cambridge University Press
19 March 2026

Museums & museology; History; Archaeology; Sales & marketing; Cooking with dairy products

Series: Elements in Critical Heritage Studies

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.

By: Valdimar Tr. Hafstein (University of Iceland), Jón Þór Pétursson (University of Iceland)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
ISBN: 9781009530293
ISBN 10: 1009530291
Series: Elements in Critical Heritage Studies
Pages: 100
Publication Date: 19 March 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

1. Microbial Heritage and Cultural Contexts: Introduction; 2. Heirloom Cultures; 3. Heritage Branding; 4. The Problematics of Cultural Heritage: Conclusions.