Description
Book SynopsisThis unique book is an exciting global journey into the origins, technologies, and recipes of ancient beer as well as into beer's continued importance today in diet, ritual, and economics.
Trade ReviewIt is only the beer drinkers that survived long enough to reproduce and pass their genes in our direction. Beer has been at the heart of most societies on earth-and this book is an authoritative and fascinating dip into thousands of years of fertile history of the world's favorite adult beverage. * Charles Bamforth, author of In Praise of Beer *
If you've ever wondered, as a brewer or beer aficionado, what a brew from thousands of years ago in Africa or anywhere else on planet Earth might have tasted like and how it was made, this is the book for you. John W. Arthur's globetrotting doesn't stop in the past as he ventures into remote villages and tribal conclaves of today and captivates you with traditional beers of all kinds. These brews celebrated life, sustained gods and ancestors, or simply brought a joie de vivre to our everyday life. * Patrick E. McGovern, author of Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer, and Other Alcoholic Beverages and Ancient Brews: Rediscovered and Re-created *
This wonderful book richly documents the foundational role that beer, and beer-enhanced sociality, has played in human societies around the world for over 10,000 years. Although beer and other chemical intoxicants are too often given short shrift by scholars, Arthur demonstrates that it is impossible to fully understand the technology, economics, health and nutritional outcomes, ritual practices, or social structures of most cultures without understanding how beer is produced, traded, and consumed. Impressively detailed and comprehensive. * Edward Slingerland, author of Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization *
Arthur's book belongs in every serious library. Highly recommended. * Choice *
The text is quite accessible and could easily be incorporated into upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses. * Liza Gijanto, African Archaeological Review *
Table of Contents1. Introduction - Beer is Food 2. The Diversity of Indigenous Beer Production 3. Near Eastern and Asian Beers: Stone Bowls, Red-Crown Cranes, Ancient Hymns, and Ancestral Spirits 4. African Beers: Feeding the Living and the Ancestors 5. European Beers: Henges, Vikings, Monks, and Our Favorite Brews 6. Meso- and South American Beers: Beer Fuels Runners, Roads, and Feasts 7. Tapped Out Index
