Comparing Tom Standage's A Stone Age Brew And Civilization

Beer was discovered because of the gathering of wild grains after the end of the Ice age in the Fertile Crescent, an area that was ideal for agriculture.

1. The discovery of beer is linked to the growth of the first civilizations because in both cultures of Mesopotamia and Egypt, beer was the main drink. It was consumed by everyone and was known as the defining drink of both of the first great civilizations.

Standage, Tom. An Edible History of Humanity. (Ed) New York: Walker and Company, 2010, Print.

Each drink has changed the world in many ways (good or bad). Starting with beer, beer steered people out of the hunting and gathering way of life into the agricultural lifestyle. People grew grains in order to make beer, but eventually in gave the people the idea that can also grow more crops instead of just grain. "Beer drinking was one of the many factors that helped tip the balance away from hunting and gathering and towards farming and sedentary lifestyle based on small settlements". Beer was also safer to drink than water because water was mostly contaminated. In the Stone Age, beer became the main drink, and it is still a popular drink today.

Beer started out as gruel, and as the gruel fermented it turned into beer. Now it was not the first form of alcohol, but it was an important kind of alcohol. Beer was made from cereal crops, which were very abundant, and because it was so abundant it could be made whenever it was needed. They then found an even easier way to make beer by using beer-bread. Beer bread is basically everything needed to make beer in a loaf, making it convenient to store the raw beer materials. Beer started as just a social drink but then blossomed into a “hallmark of civilization”, as seen by the Mesopotamians. Grain was the basis of the national diet, it was

People drank more alcohol during this time than any other era. Alcohol was a huge part of everyday life. They drank it for many reasons, fear of unsanitary water, its medicinal properties and to keep them warm. Average Americans drank 8oz of alcohol on a daily basis. They had it with breakfast, lunch, dinner and also in the evening. They drank many different types of alcohol such as beer, rum, wine and a mix of other concoctions. One explanation for drinking so much alcohol was that the English had claimed that water was bad for your health. They felt that it was unsanitary and this may have been true during this time period. A “healthy” substitute for water was beer which was thought of as a type of food. Beer often replaced water as a daily drink. Children consumed beer in place of water. Many believed only the very poor drank water. It was even believed that it was bad for your health to drink cold water on a hot day. It was better to drink warm beer on a hot day. There were signs posted to warn people of this belief. When the Pilgrims came to America they brought more beer than water. Settlers of the frontier began to turn corn into whiskey as a substitute for beer. They felt this gave them strength to endure the manual labor that was required of living in the wilderness. Ingredients found in beer did not grow well in some parts of the colonies and soon cider became a popular drink. Apple orchards were

The author Tom Standage says, "In both cultures Egypt and Mesopotamia, beer was a staple foodstuff without which no meal was complete. It was consumed by everyone, rich and poor, men and women, adults and children, from the top of the social pyramid to the bottom. It was truly the defining drink of these first great civilizations.” Beer was first made in the Fertile Crescent and by 3000 BC was so important to Mesopotamia and Egypt that it was being used to pay wages. Water supplies where contaminated which made beer a safer drink. Like the author said beer was really reliable, “Beer, on the other hand, could be made from cereal crops, which were abundant and could be easily stored, allowing beer to be made reliably, and in quantity, when needed.” The society switched from the hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a more settled way of life, humans came to rely on a new beverage derived from barley and wheat, the cereal grains that were the first plants to be deliberately cultivated. This drink became central to social, religious, and economic life and was the staple beverage of the earliest civilizations. The

“The First Stone” is written by Don Aker and this book is based on two teenagers who have suffered very painful past. They both have lost one of their loved ones in their past. The main character is Reef’s whose parents and grandparents die when he was young. He was left to many foster homes because of his past. He got anger issues since his parents and grandparents died. He made very inappropriate decision that leads him to court and then to North Hills. Now he has to respect other and follows the rules in order to stay away from jail. I believe Reef could have changed his past. By his action, behavior and language but since he didn’t help himself, he now has to face his

From the first years in American history, we have drank. Records of the first Europeans on America’s mainland tell about the colonists’ "great thirste" after their original supplies of European-made alcohol ran out. The settlers made their own wine. Eve Alcohol was imported from all over the world. Innovative colonists made alcohol from almost anything. One song from the 1700’s went like this:

Beer helped transform the lifestyle of a nomadic one to a more modern one, “Mesopotamians and Egyptians alike saw beer as an ancient, god–given drink that

Beer was made from cereal grains ( barley and wheat). It was their staple beverage, it played an important role to their religious and new lifestyle. In stone ages beer was used to show hospitality and friendship.For some (Neolithic people) beer was a gift from god, making it a main offering at religious functions, for the Egyptians they believed that it can cure sickness and used beer as a medicine. Beer drinking led to the adoption of farming.

Alcohol has acted as a social lubricant since its inception. Altering or alleviating the boundaries drawn by human nature or social constructs. In many cases, it has altered the course of history. In some parts of history fermented grape juice was introduced into common practice, due to the absence of clean water. Although it did not have the pungency of modern wine, it acted as the guide as people drank more. Such cases where seen by Christians with Sodom and Gomora. Pagan cities riddled with moral corruption, lubricated by the vary drink later outlawed in 20th century America. Although the destruction of the cities are wildly exaggerated it lead to uncontrolled social deviance. Human nature is destructive and requires a delicate hand when tempering the fundamental nature of desire. Such tempering can be seen in the Muslim religion where alcohol is outlawed, but still present due to

Beer might have/had influenced the transition from hunting and gathering to agricultural-based societies. One way beer could have done this was that after the discovery of beer, the demand for beer began to increase. With increase demand for beer, farming would increase taking away time to hunt and gather for food. With less hunting and gathering, farmers eventually settled down in small areas around the Fertile Crescent to create beer.

2.) In the 18th century, how did spirits change the balance of power amongst the western

Eventually beer also had other qualities that allowed farming to progress and that is that beer was not harmful to humans as water was (21). Because of this people found out different ways in which they could produce this drink by having different forms of agriculture advancing its form from regular seeds being planted to massive productions, just as did the Greeks and Romans did by using their slave population to farm all of their grapes for the wine in order to drive a successful wine market (71). Farming allowed for populations to grow from small villages to cities to then allow the adoption of beer and wine to become an essential product that drove agriculture to the civilization and growth of people. Along the same lines we can also see how this development of beer due to farming allowed people to become more than just any regular barbaric man, and show that they were people with class.