Description of Beer in History of the Worlds in Six Glasses by Tom Standage

In a History of the Worlds in Six Glasses, Tom Standage describes beer as one of the oldest beverage. According to Standage the discovery of beer was around 10,000 BCE, it was made from grain that grew in the region called Fertile that could be stored and made wet or soaked to turn into beer (p 15). Beer was shared with several people and goes on to become a social drink. Standage goes on to explain about another beverage made with wild grapes vines produced between 9000 and 4000 BCE in northern Iran (p 47). Wine became a symbol of social differentiation and a form of conspicuous consumption. In this essay I will describe how Tom Stranger’s text discusses the relationship between beer and wine with their social behaviors and their different beliefs in religion Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Rome have.

Humans today drink alcoholic beverages to have a decent time and get an intoxication effect, but this has not always been the case for earlier humans. Not every culture viewed drunkenness the same way. “Most reference to drunkenness in Mesopotamian literature are playful and humorous” (Standage 27). It all started with the myth of Edkidu. Edkidu was a man found in the wilderness by a young girl. They gave him food and beer as the custom of a shepherds’ village. With the shortage of familiarity he drank seven jugs of beer witch made him very friendly and turned him into a human. “The Mesopotamians regards the consumption of bread and beer as one of the things that distinguished them from savages and made them fully human” (Standage 27). On the other hand Egypt did not approve drunkenness they expressed it in texts copied by people in Egypt. “Take not upon thy self to drink a jug of beer. Thou speakest, and an unintelligible utterance...

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...stians, regarded wine drinking as a form of sacred communication.” (p85)

Every culture has a different way of thinking. They believe different thing, they do different things. When it comes to alcohol now and back then people still have unlikely similarities, different attitudes to drunkenness. Mesopotamians did not mind getting drunk and having a good time, it showed they were humans. Egypt disapproved in drinking and getting unprofessional, they focused on more important things. Greeks were right in between; they didn’t want to get to out of hand but also wanted to drink. Finally in Rome only the rich could afford alcohol and were the only ones to drink. Religion takes a big part in drinking alcoholic beverages due that most cultures believe that’s how beer and wine first started. They also have different rituals they do to worship their gods with wine and beer.