The purposeful production of alcoholic beverages is common in many cultures and often reflects their cultural and religious peculiarities as much as their geographical and sociological conditions.
Patrick (1952) states that the discovery of late Stone Age beer jugs has established the fact that purposely fermented beverages existed at least as early as c. 10,000 BC. It has been suggested that beer may have preceded bread as a staple.
China
The earliest evidence of alcohol in China are wine jars from Jiahu which date to about 7000 BC.[2] This early drink was produced by fermenting rice, honey, and fruit.
Egypt
Evidence of wine only appeared as a finished product in Egyptian pictographs around 4,000 BC.[1]
India
Alcoholic beverages in the Indus valley civilization appeared in the Chalcolithic Era. These beverages were in use between 3000 BC – 2000 BC. Sura, a beverage distilled from rice meal, was popular among the Kshatriya warriors and the peasant population. The use of these beverages was well defined within specific social contexts.[3]
Babylon
Beer was the major beverage among the Babylonians, and as early as 2,700 BC they worshiped a wine goddess and other wine deities. Babylonians regularly used both beer and wine as offerings to their gods.
Greece
While the art of wine making reached the Hellenic peninsula by about 2,000 BC, the first alcoholic beverage to obtain widespread popularity in what is now Greece was mead, a fermented beverage made from honey and water. However, by 1,700 BC, wine making was commonplace, and during the next thousand years wine drinking assumed the same function so commonly found around the world: It was incorporated into religious rituals, it became important in hospitality, it was used for medicinal purposes and it became an integral part of daily meals. As a beverage, it was drunk in many ways: warm and chilled, pure and mixed with water, plain and spiced.[1]
Pre-Columbian America
Several Native American civilizations developed alcoholic beverages. Many versions of these beverages are still produced today.
Pulque, or octli is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of the maguey, and is a traditional native beverage of Mesoamerica. Though commonly believed to be a beer, the main carbohydrate is a complex form of fructose rather than starch. Pulque is depicted in Native American stone carvings from as early as AD 200. The origin of pulque is unknown, but because it has a major position in religion, many folk tales explain its origins. Mezcal is made by distilling pulque. Tequila is a form of mezcal.
Sources
- Hanson, David J. “History of Alcohol and Drinking around the World“. Adapted from Preventing Alcohol Abuse: Alcohol, Culture and Control. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1995. Retrieved on 2005-09-18. (Author has relinquished copyright of this article and allowed its use for public domain purposes.) (Site is funded by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States)
- ^ McGovern, Patrick E. (2003). Ancient Wine: The Search for the Origins of Viniculture. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 314. ISBN 0691070806.
- ^ Alcohol and Pleasure: A Health Perspective By Stanton Peele, Marcus Grant. Page number 102. Contributor Stanton Peele, Ph. D., J.D. Published 1999. Psychology Press. Self/Help. 419 pages. ISBN 1583910158
