John W. Arthur - Beer: A Global Journey through the Past and Present

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Arthur, John Wood, 1965-author.

Title: Beer : a global journey through the past and present / John W. Arthur.

Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2022] |

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021035119 (print) | LCCN 2021035120 (ebook) |

ISBN 9780197579800 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780197579824 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: BeerHistory. | BeerSocial aspects.

Classification: LCC TP577 .A7195 2022 (print) | LCC TP577 (ebook) |

DDC 663/.42dc23/eng/20211109

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021035119

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021035120

DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197579800.001.0001

Dedicated to my dad, Ray C. Arthur, and mom, Frances B. Arthur.

My research on beer began not as a conscious decision but through a serendipitous, yet methodical, discovery. As I was studying peoples household pottery, I noted each chip and scratch, as well as erosion and soot patterns, and I asked women, What caused these ks on your pots? Some of the pots had severe erosion from the lip to the base of the pot. Each woman, when questioned as to the cause of the erosion, stated, The beer is eating the pots. What does this mean?

I then began to taste Gamo beer, discovering its thick, slightly sour, porridge-like consistency. I participated in gatherings in which women served beer as a way to pay workers for different types of work, such as tilling the soil, harvesting the crops, and building or moving a house. I also witnessed how beer was a symbol of status. Among the Gamo, predominantly wealthy, high-caste families have farmland to produce the surplus +grain to make beer, while low-caste artisans, such as potters and leather workers, generally do not have farmland to grow the grains needed to produce beer. Beer is also a medium between the living and the spiritual world of the Gamo, and all feasts begin by feeding the ancestors first by pouring the beer onto the ground. Apart from the ancestors who are fed beer, beer is also a highly nutritious food that is consumed daily by the living. I began to realize that while people were fed by beer, the process of lactic acid fermenting beer encouraged the beer to eat the pots by reducing the pH of the beer. in the world and how deep in our history beer exposes our diverse ideas and practices.

In this book, I present a global history of beer as a food produced using malted grains that stimulated innovation in technologies, nutrition and health, and social, spiritual, political, and economic practices. A journey through Southwest Asian, East Asian, African, European, and Central and South American cultures from our archaeological pasts into the ethnographic present reveals the vast tastes, smells, and consistencies of beer that resulted from human technological and social ingenuity.

The goal of this book is to encapsulate how beer has transformed the economic, ritual, political, and social worlds of past and present societies. By incorporating both the archaeological and ethnographic contexts of brewing beer, my purpose is to demonstrate dramatic cultural change and to give life to the brews by bringing out the actors and actions of brewers and those who participate in drinking beer. Highlighting past and present cultural perspectives is to reveal the variety of ways beer is integrated in peoples lives through their technology, health, social status, rituals, and economics.

Thirst rather than hunger may have been the stimulus behind the origin of small grain agricultu