The first chemical proof of beer production, found inside ceramics from Godin Tepe located in the Zagros Mountains, showed that beer production occurred as early as the fourth millennium BC. Later sources provide even more evidence of beer production in sources such as the Enuma Elish, or the Babylonian Epic of Creation, written between the fourteenth and twelfth century BC. Other texts and wall paintings depict the importance of beer in various Ancient Near Eastern cultures, yet scholars continue to ignore the importance of beer, and instead, incorrectly translating beer to mean wine or a strong drink.1 This is most likely due in part to today’s society in which beer is seen more as a drink for rowdy sports fans compared to wine or liquor. Regardless of what some scholars may think, the use of beer in the Ancient Near East is numerous including encouraging the agricultural revolution, medicinal uses, economic uses, inducing happiness, and religious uses.
To begin with, scholars, such as Dr. Patrick Hayes of Oregon State University, believe that beer drove the first agricultural revolution and makings of civilizations. Barley, a main ingredient of beer, was actually the first crop planted. As the demand for beer rose, due to the effects of intoxication, humans had to find a way to harvest more barley. Domestication, leading to agriculture, served as the solution. Dr. Patrick McGovern, professor of bio-archaeology at University of Pennsylvania, backs up Dr. Hayes’s claim with pottery found with traces of beer chemicals on it tracing back to 3,000 years before the first bread was baked.3 Dr. Hayes also states that the agriculture of beer helped fuel the invention of the plough, to help dig holes to burry seeds, irrigation, to b...
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... East were not true feasts without the serving of beer.
Feasts were seen as “important arenas of political action in ancient civilizations.”15 Feasts provided a fun exciting atmosphere, even if business needed to be discussed. Beer, with it’s intoxicating properties, helped “lubricate labor exchanges, ritual acts, family negotiations, and other activities.” Certain political groupings were quite large and “leaders and elites in early complex societies often needed to host much larger events where much more alcohol was consume.”15 “Power in these societies, therefore, was based in part on overcoming the material, temporal, organizational, and labor obstacles to creating, controlling, and capturing sufficient amounts of alcohol for largescale feasts.”15 Similar to today, the man who can provide the best, and most, beer is considered more favorable than other men.
Alcohol has always been a part of feminine culture, but it took a dramatic shift in the early 20th century. In the book, Domesticating Drink, Catherine Murdock argues that during this period, women transformed how society drank and eradicated the masculine culture that preceded this shift. Murdock draws from a few different sources to prove her argument, such as: etiquette manuals published after the turn of the century and anecdotes from the time period. She provides many interesting and unique perspectives on how drinking culture evolved, but she shows a clear bias towards “wet” culture and also makes very exaggerated claims that turn her argument into something that is nearly impossible to completely prove.
Tom Standage has described the beginnings of six beverages: beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and Coca-Cola and has found many connections, and information helpful in finding out history of the drinks themselves but also their impacts on the growth of civilization as a whole. This book connects everything with society both past and present, it makes learning about history and the way drinks connect fun and interesting. Like learning without even realizing you are. A History of the World in Six Glasses is more than just talking about each beverage as a single but as a whole, it’s connections, uses, relations, and growth they started.
World History, itself is a very well complicated topic to discuss. Many other authors have tried to condense many years of history in one book. Subjected to fail, Tom Standage’s attempt was a success. Instead of Standage trying to sum up the history, he simply based the book upon a single topic, in this case beverages.
During these times, domestic violence was commonplace and many blamed alcohol as the culprit. Reformers also noticed that alcohol decreased efficiency of labor and thought of alcohol as a menace to society because it left men irresponsible and lacking self control. One reformer, named Lyman Beecher, argued that the act of alcohol consumption was immoral and will destroy the nation. Document H depicts the progression of becoming a drunkard from a common m...
When people think of the ancient Roman civilization, notions of trained legions bent on conquering territory and evocative oratory from celebrated politicians often come to mind. And while early Romans will always be credited for both their insatiable military expansion and their enlightened ideas of government, the rapid growth of Rome was not built on these two pillars alone. Indeed, what led to the rise of such a dominating power in a matter of centuries was not simply from the end of a sword, but from that which grew from the earth -- what the people cultivated, traded and consumed. One very significant agricultural need of a growing population that transformed the bounty of the harvest into a cultural ritual and tradition of Roman life was wine. This presentation will demonstrate how the beverage became a locally grown and manufactured staple that played a powerful role in the social, institutional and economic life of the civilization.
It is not common that when one thinks of the history of the world that the thought of beer, wine, spirits, tea, coffee, or even Coca-Cola comes to mind. Matter of fact, the thought of a beverage having an impact in history may be the very last thing that comes to mind. But according to Tom Standage in his book A History of the World in 6 Glasses, he argues that these six drinks have had an all-round influence in the history of the world. It is hard to imagine that the drinks we know of today, were the foundation and building blocks of the history that has been engraved in us. As to which beverage has had a greater impact in history, it is a matter of the extent to which each particular drink has contributed to influencing, not just people, but the course of history. Not diminishing the impact of the other beverages, but coffee has had a greater impact in history over tea and the other drinks.
The Romans drank a lot of wine but not straight or quickly. “Diluting wine and drinking with restraint were ordinary courtesy. The purpose of a dinner party was relaxed enjoyment, not getting drunk.” (166) A Roman was supposed to manage this temptation. If Trimalchio and his guests didn’t consume so much alcohol then maybe the night would have gone a lot smoother.
In taking sides, it is evident that W.J. Rorabaugh was on the right track when he points out that many evangelic religious leaders formed groups to reiterate to the people that liquor was the tool of the devil and that basically, society would continue to...
Even in the early times, alcohol was a key component in everyone’s lives. According to Tori Avey in “The Great Gatsby, Prohibition, and Fitzgerald” in colonial times people drank beverages containing alcohol at every meal. Weak beer and cider was the choice dinks in the 1700's (Avey). In the 1800's, farmers were able to cultivate more potent grains to make rum and whiskey (Avey). By 1830 men, 15 years and up, began drinking 88 bottles of whiskey per year; since then numbers have tripled (Avey). Men began losing their jobs, wasting paychecks, and neglecting their families. This called for a change.
After the American Revolution, drinking was on the rise. To combat this, a number of societies were organized as part of a new Temperance movement which attempted to dissuade people from becoming intoxicated. At first, these organizations pushed moderation, but after several decades, the movement's focus changed to complete prohibition of alcohol consumption. (Brayton)
Beer and alcohol has been around for thousands of years. It was only in the 1900’s that the idea that alcohol was a bad substance came about. Before prohibition went into effect there were 900 barrels of beer brewed each year. On December 10th of 1913 prohibitionist, people who supported prohibition also know as dries, marched to the capitol for the prohibition amendment. On the opposing, the anti-prohibitionist known as wets, elected the famous brewer Anheuser Bush as their leader. During the time of debate, on April 2nd, 1917 President Wilson declared war against Germany. This war gave the prohibitionist another reason for prohibition. Most of the liquor breweries were from German descent. This gave the wets a chance to combine the idea that war and alcohol were evil because they were both German. After lots of debates prohibition finally passed and went into effect on January 16th of 1920. Once in effect, the federal government wanted the state government to enforce the prohibition laws, meanwhile the state governments thought that the federal government would enforce the new law. This caused lots of confusion and for the law to be broken in many ways. It was acceptable to make wine for home conception, though you could not sell it or sell the ingredients for...
Many Americans, religious leaders, and political leaders saw alcohol as the key to all that was evil, a curse on the nation. Significant numbers of people believed that the consumption of alcoholic beverages presented a serious threat to the integrity of their most vital foundations, especially the family (“Prohibition” 846).
Most people point to wars, Presidents or the economy when asked to describe the history of the United States, but what about alcohol. Social history in general has always taken a back seat to political and economic history, mostly because many aspects of social history are not exactly bright spots from the past. Alcohol, for example, is actually a much bigger aspect of our history than one may expect. As a matter of fact, early America was centered around drinking as a kind of social event. William Rorabaugh’s book Alcoholic Republic outlines how prevalent drinking really was during the years after the Revolutionary War. Rorabaugh argues that post-colonial Americans should be considered alcoholics. However, the evidence Rorabaugh uses
Mancall, Peter C. "Men, women, and alcohol in Indian villages in the Great Lakes region in the early republic." Journal of the Early Republic. Indianapolis: Fall 1995. Vol. 15, Iss. 3; p. 425
A great example of this is a sub-chapter in his book titled Sports Bars on Wheels. Up until the games it appears that moderation in terms of alcohol was used. Public drunkenness was discouraged so much that 'meden agan, ' which meant 'all things in moderation, ' was engraved on temple pediments. Throwing this slogan aside the game had wine vendors who somehow became very popular and profitable. A Greek doctor named Mnesitheus had argued that binge drinking had positive and purgative effects on ones health. Wine carts were desisted from at any other time of year but most only used their services during the Olympics when it wasn 't considered so