Cow blowing

Drawing from a unknown author dated around 1700–1740

Cow blowing,[1] Kuhblasen,[2] phooka, or doom dev[3] is a process in which a farmer forcefully blows exhaled air into a cow's vulva or anus to supposedly induce her to produce more milk. A tube may be used to provide some sanitary separation between the blower and the cow, although not every culture that practices cow blowing does so.

Information on the origin, spread and efficacy of this practice appears to be quite scarce.

Cow blowing was the reason why Gandhi disliked dairy products, stating that "since I had come to know that the cow and the buffalo were subjected to the process of phooka, I had conceived a strong disgust for milk."[4]

The practice has been illegal in New Zealand since 2018.[5] In 2020 the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards revoked their 'Share Farmer of the Year' award over a dairy farmer's tweets about the practice.[6]

Distribution according to Plischke (1954)

People Area Author Year See (also) Other
Kalmyk southern Russian steppe Peter Simon Pallas 1776
Scythians Herodotus 5th century BC (to horses)
Yakuts Lena River (Siberia) Gerhard Friedrich Müller 1736
Ethiopians Ethiopia I. M. Hildebrandt 1874
Kaffa Friedrich J. Bieber 1920
Nuer H. A. Bernatzik 1929 E. E. Evans-Pritchard (1951); Luz H, Herz W (1976)
Dinka H. A. Bernatzik 1930
Baggara Arabs Kordofan McMichael 1924
Somali C. Keller 1894
Oromo Ph. Paulischke 1893
Wasiba (part of Haya people) Kagera Region H. Rehse 1910 Per Rehse, Wasiba insert their arm into the cow anus up the elbow for the same purpose
Turu people E. Sick 1915
Wagogo H. Clauss 1911
Khoikhoi South Africa Peter Kolb 1719
Masa people Logone area south of Chad A. Rühe 1938
Chinese Tung River (China) I. H. Edgar 1924 Dadu River (Sichuan province)
India T. Murari 1937 Mahatma Gandhi (1927/1929) known locally as phooka
Alps (Untergurgl, upper Ötztal), Pfitscher Joch 1939
Pyrenees 1939

Literature

  • Hans Plischke: "Das Kuhblasen. Eine völkerkundliche Miszelle zu Herodot,' Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, Berlin: Reimer, Bd. 79, 1954, S. 1-7.
  • H. A. Bernatzik: Zwischen Weißem Nil und Belgisch-Kongo. Wien 1929
  • Isaac Schapera: The Khoisan Peoples of South Africa. London 1930
  • Tadeusz Margul: "Present-Day Worship of the Cow in India." In: Numen, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Feb., 1968), pp. 63–80
  • Florence Burgat: "Non-Violence Towards Animals in the Thinking of Gandhi: the Problem of Animal Husbandry." In: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, Volume 17, Number 3 / Mai 2004, Seiten 223-248
  • Hubert Kroll: "Das Zurückhalten der Milch bei Rindern und ihre Behandlung bei afrikanischen Hirtenstämmen." In: Milchwirtschaftliches Zentralblatt (1928), Jg. 57, Heft 22, S. 349-350
  • Hubert Kroll: "Die Haustiere der Bantu." In: Zeitschrift für Ethnologie Bd. 60, S. 247-248
  • Sture Lagercrantz: Contribution of the Ethnography of Africa. Lund: Håkan Ohlssons 1950 (mit Karte zur Verbreitung in Afrika, auch zur Verbreitung des milking with dummy-calves ("Melkens mit Kalbspuppen")

References

  1. ^ Clancy, Shae (1999). "Cattle In Early Ireland". Celtic Well. Archived from the original on 2011-07-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  2. ^ Sierksma, F. (1963). "Sacred Cairns in Pastoral Cultures". History of Religions. 2 (2): 227–241. doi:10.1086/462462. ISSN 0018-2710. JSTOR 1062065. S2CID 162204945.
  3. ^ "The Prevention of cruelty to animals act, 1960 (paragraph 12)" (PDF).
  4. ^ Gandhi, Mohandas K. (1927). The Story of My Experiments with Truth. pp. part 5, chapter XXIX.
  5. ^ "Animal Welfare (Care and Procedures) Regulations 2018".
  6. ^ Taunton, Esther (July 10, 2020). "Dairy farmer stripped of national title after offensive tweets surface". Stuff. Retrieved October 7, 2024.