Rod Philips,Alcohol a History

Abstract

This is a ‘Plato to NATO’ book about the role of alcohol in various cultures. In fact, it begins even before Plato with speculation about how alcohol was first produced. Was it through the gods, as some believed—perhaps Osiris in Egypt, or Dionysus in Greece, or Bacchus in Rome? Or was it human agency? Jews and Christians traced wine to a mortal, Noah, who was said to have planted vines on the slopes of Mount Ararat. The earliest definite evidence is from about 7000–5600bc in a dozen pottery jars containing wine made from rice, honey and fruit, from the early Neolithic village of Jiahu in northern China. Beer and wine drinking followed different paths of diffusion. The Greeks and Romans exported wine drinking extensively in Europe but considered beer drinking among the masses to be harmful. Alcoholic beverages became a healthy choice but Philips disputes the oft repeated statement that alcohol was consumed because it was safer than water. He points out that there was a big difference between consumption occasionally in moderation for health and mass avoidance of water in favour of alcohol as a daily drink, which he considers unlikely. Gender, age and social position need to be taken into account and water consumption must have been implicated in historically high levels of child mortality.