🏺 A History of the World in 6 Glasses

🧉 Formating

==Big Idea== - red highlight

@@PE (political, economical)@@ - orange highlight

$CS (cultural, social)$ - yellow highlight

%%IE (innovative, environmental)%% - green highlight

cause → effect

word <- definition

\ Short on time? The introduction is a summary of the rest of the book.

🍼 Introduction: Vital Fluids

Importance of Water in Past * A long time ago (150,000 years to civilization) → humans confined to rivers * storing was impractical * Other beverages emerged → had to be made deliberately (unlike water) * ==Water was disease filled== → different beverages were not * many uses * @@currencies@@ * $religious rites$ * @@political symbols@@ * $philosophical + artistic inspiration$ * @@highlight power + status of elite@@ * @@subjugate + appease lessers@@ * $celebrate births$ * $grieve deaths$ * $forge + strengthen social bonds$ * @@seal business transactions + treaties@@ * sharpen senses * dull the mind * %%use in medicine%% * %%use as poison%% * Each drink became popular when: * ==met a need OR aligned w historical trend==
Path toward modernity (Beer) * adoption of farming * Near East 10k years ago → domestication of cereal (wheat etc.) grains * → rudimentary beer * growth from civilizations * organized agricultural large scale → surplus * surplus of grain → more beer * acted as a normal drink + * freed workers → specialization * @@wages paid in bread + beer@@ (cereal grains)
Preliminary Western thought (Wine) * Greeks * advances in philosophy + politics + science + literature * spread worldwide through $wine trade$ on seas * $discussed at symposia$ (formal drinking parties) * Romans * $hierarchy$ reflected in wine style * $Christianity$ → wine part of ritual * $Islam$ → wine banned
Exploration and Expansion (Spirits) [aka brandy, rum, whiskey, etc.] * Global sea routes * European wanted to expand * %%Distilled drinks → alcohol at sea%% * @@Currency@@ * slave trade * @@establishing USA@@
Age of Reason (Coffee) * coffee houses * new %%scientific%% + @@political@@ + @@economic@@ theories * different from taverns * encouraged clear thinking * scientific societies + newspapers + financial institutions + revolutions
Trade with the East (Tea) * foundations for @@imperialism@@ + %%industrialization%% * @@open trade routes@@ from popularity in Britain * Britain as a global superpower * need to tea * demand → British @@foreign policy@@ * @@independence@@ of @@USA@@ * @@less power@@ in @@China@@ * @@production@@ in @@India@@
America’s National Drink (Coca-Cola) * @@consumer capitalism@@ → @@US@@ into superpower * invented as a medical pick-me-up * with American armed forces around the world * symbol of @@single global marketplace@@ * world’s most widely know product

🍺 Beer in Mesopotamia and Egypt

🦴 A Stone-Age Brew

🦖 A Pint of Prehistory

migration of humans out of Africa * 50k years ago * small bands * lived in ==temporary homes== → caves, huts, tents * ==seasonal== food supply
%%Agricultural revolution%% * 12k years ago * settled into @@villages@@ → cities → empires * also developed new %%technologies%%
Barley + wheat * before could only drink water/animal products * Don’t know when invented * no beer before 10k BCE * common at 4k BCE * * ancient beer has grains + chaff → needed straw in order to drink *
nomadic → $settled lifestyle$
increase in $social complexity$ → ==emergence of cities==

🔎 The Discovery of Beer

discovered * gathering of wild grain around end of last Ice Age * 10k BCE in Fertile Crescent * * ideal environment for sheep + goats + cattle + pigs + barley * first established large scale settlements * ==reliable source of food==
Grain usage * can’t eat raw * edible by crushing + mixing with water * \ 1. made with soup → %%thickener%% * \ * fish + nuts + berries + water * plaster + bitumen-lined basket * hot stones dropped in * grains have starch → absorb moisture and burst * thickening soup * %%Stored%% * stores for weeks/months/years * do not recommend * could be made with soup or eaten on own * gruel * → development of tools to store grain * guard against %%famine%%
%%Innovations with grain%% * flint-bladed sickles → harvesting * woven baskets → carrying * stone hearths → drying * underground pits → storing * grindstones → processing
→ ==encouraged people to stay in one place== * 1960s experiment (archeologists are nerds) * using flint-bladed sickle ==harvested 2 pounds of grain in 1 hour== of wild grains in Turkey * family working 8 hours a day x 3 weeks = ==each member gets a pound a day for a year== * ==had to stay near wild cereal== → not miss best harvest time * would not want to leave ==unguarded==
==→ first permanent settlements== * East Mediterranean coast 10k BCE * round huts + wooden roofs * hearth + stone floor + 4-5 yards wide * village ~ 50 huts → 200/300 people
%%grain properties (1) → sugar%% * soaked in water → %%sprouted → tasted sweet%% * storage pits not watertight * diastase %%enzymes → starch → sugar or malt%% * barley produces most → tastes sweetest * not a lot of sweet things → highly valued * %%deliberate malting%% → grain soaked then dried
%%grain properties (2) → Beer%% * gruel left out %%→ slightly fizzy + pleasantly intoxicating%% * not first alcohol found * fruit juice ferments → wine * seasonal + perishes easily * could not be stored without pottery (6k BCE) * water + honey → mead * limited qualities of wild honey * could not be stored without pottery * ==→ made reliably + quantity + when needed== * brewed in * pitch-lined baskets * hollowed out trees * Sahti beer (made in Finland) tradition * large shells * 19th century Amazon basin was most recent * stone vessels * %%quality improved through trial + error%% * stronger beer

😵‍💫 Under the Influence of Beer?

historical evidence * writing was not invented → $no written records for cultural + social impact$ * $inferred$ from later traditions that continued
$social drink$ * sumerian depictions → shared vessel * was possible at time to filter + pottery → served individually * $ritual persisted even though not needed$ * unlike food → beverage shared * cutting up meat → some have desirbale * sharing drink → trusted * clinking of glasses
$magical drink$ * fermentation + effects → magic * connected to gods * Egypt → Osiris
$religious ceremonies$ * every religious ritual → America + Africa + Eurasia * Inca → chicha (beer) to ground or rising sun * Aztec → pulque to Mayahuel * China → beers from millet + rice

🌱 Beer and Farming, the seeds of Modernity

beer → %%adoption of agricultural%% * up for debate * beer discovered → socially + ritually important → desire to have more * one of many factors
%%vitamin help%% * long term storage → would have been drunken earlier → low alochol high yeast * vitamin D → need less meat
==safer to drink than water== * contaminated
communal storehouses * storing + ritual → intertwined → recorded in clay tokens → priests live off * %%→ autocracy, writing, bureaucracy%%

🌆 Civilized Beer

🛞 The Urban Revolution

Mesopotamia → most farmers * banded together for many factors → rise of urban working population * invasions?
made possible by agricultural surplus * $freeded admin + craftsman$ * $funded public works$ * edible money

🧑 The Drink of the Civilized Man

Sumer (S Mesopotamia) * writing emerged 3.4k BCE * Epic of Gilgamesh * primitive nature of Enkidu → shown lack of familiarity w bread and beer * ^^saw as made fully human^^ * drunkness seen humorous
Egypt * beer in pyramid texts * Ra + Hathor * disapproval of drunkeness * unrepresentative of any career besides scribe

🪶 The Origins of Writing

earliest documents * tax reciptes + wage lists w beer
@@neohilitic socialism → control over economy@@ * record what was going out → writing * different shapes → different standard amounts * $primary source of food$ → 3k to 4k calories
Cuneiform * pictographs became more abstract

🪙 Liquid Wealth and Health

$redistributed to fund public works$ * sumerian temple work force → sila of beer a day (one liter) * junoir officals → 2 silas; higher court → 3 silas; highest officals → 5 silas * ^^example of social hierachy discovered through beer^^ * extra used to tip messengers + scribes + pay
^^wedding rituals^^ * bride price → groom to bride * women + childern recived + refugees + soliders + policemen + scribes
pyramid workers in Egypt paid in beer * pyramids built by state employees → collected grain + redistburted it as payment
^^bread + beer → word for food in general^^ * also daily greeting * banquet → place of bread + beer
pharmacopoeia → list of medical recipes based on beer * oldest use of alcohol in medicine
egypt → afterlife * depended on having beer

🍷 Wine in Greece and Rome

The Delight of Wine

demonstrat power + weatlth → wine part of * as opposed to tradiotnal beer * prev only availble in small amount * transpot x10 * only elite could drink
comparsion to beer * scoial seperation * main use relgious → creation of reliious rituals * wine → propganda of power * prosperity + privlede
how made * eurasian grape vines + avialibitl of cereal vrops + invention of potery * fremented juice of crushed grapes * 5.4k BCE * bliblical story of noah → relgious connection
spread * egypt early rulers (king scorpionn I) → 700 jars of wine * original greek gods drank necter (mead) → then wine got more popular * introduced later * dinoysus * accesss to wine as mark fo status * ashurnasirpal + shalmanser → social + rel beverage
avaiblity grew * volume of wine traded over sea → more avilable * larger empires → fewer borders to tax and trade * volume go up, prices go down → peasents oculd drink * desired tribute offfering → wine rations
expanding * hard to transport over land → boats carried * could not go upstream → broken up and sold * still expensive → date palm wine became popular intstead (fermented date syrup)
assumpitions * that one and the other → rather both at same time
greek thinkers → rational inqury (test one though t agisnt the other) * democrayc + philsoophy + scientific method + legal system + athletics * superitoy over forgegineers
symposia * venues of discussion → reminder how cilvizied they were * Symposium → is singluare version * manner of grecian approval
dinoysus * fled to greece to escape beer mediterraien * creaated beer for benfit of mediterrian * greece wince availble to everyone
geography * ideal for viticulutre * scientifc approach * wine press * neat rows
switched to industrial farming * commerial farming * x20 from growing wine vs grain * captialism modern
social heriachy * soical status basee don vineyard ho.dings
9iamgery/importantce * greek coinds * targets of peloponesian war between athens = sparta
type * everyone drank wine → type mattered * local/demositc → start of CC/copyright fro distinction * older >>>
drinkign style * mix w water * \