Milk in Pyrenean and Corsican spas: discourses and practices from the eighteenth century to the early twentieth century

Résumé 0

In the Pyrenees and Corsica, milk occupies a special place within the diet offered in spas since it is closely associated with uses of water in the course of treatment. These uses of milk are various but, in all cases, the symbolic richness of milk, its "turbid purity", is present. The place of she-ass, ewe, cow and other varieties of milk are considered within the medical discourse of the spas. Uses of these varieties produce a complex mosaic in the practices of the spas, between therapy and social distinction. A spa is not a spring in a human desert: the medical discourses about milk uses participate in the construction of images of the locals while the milk demand produces effects in the social and economic life of the countryside. Beyond the geographic and historic particularities of each area, analysing jointly the Corsican and Pyrenean situations reveals some of the main parameters within which were constituted relevant medical debates, patient practices, and the representation of dwellers; this joint analysis also underlines the fascinating originality of the universe of spa activity.