Anthropology of Alcohol

Catalog description

This class provides a lively tour around the world and through the millennia, telling the compelling story of humanity's quest for alcohol. Beginning about 10,000 years ago, humans in China and the Middle East became more sedentary and began to rely more on the food they grew than from hunting and gathering. The cereal grains these early societies relied upon, such as rice, wheat, and barley, soon formed the basis for the first alcoholic beverages. Relying on ethnographic, biological, linguistic, and archaeological data, the course will introduce students to what we now know about how humans created and currently use fermented beverages across cultures. The course introduces students to the basic concepts of anthropology by highlighting the variability of alcohol use through time and space. From the world's first beer in Henan, China in 7000 B.C. to modern breweries in Pennsylvania the class will explore the historical and societal impacts of alcohol production. From the ceremonial use of distilled sugarcane in southern Mexico to ritualized tailgating in the United States, students will be presented with the highly varied ways in which alcohol is consumed. Anthropology of Alcohol provides students with an understanding of the origins of one of the world's earliest and most utilized psychoactive drugs as well as an appreciation for some of the contemporary challenges of alcohol use on college campuses in the US.