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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| George Will: No beer, no civilization. |
| 2008-07-10 |
| The development of civilization depended on urbanization, which depended on beer. To understand why, consult Steven Johnson's marvelous 2006 book, "The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic -- and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World." It is a great scientific detective story about how a horrific cholera outbreak was traced to a particular neighborhood pump for drinking water. And Johnson begins a mind-opening excursion into a related topic this way: "The search for unpolluted drinking water is as old as civilization itself. As soon as there were mass human settlements, waterborne diseases like dysentery became a crucial population bottleneck. For much of human history, the solution to this chronic public-health issue was not purifying the water supply. The solution was to drink alcohol." Johnson notes that historians interested in genetics believe that the roughly simultaneous emergence of urban living and the manufacturing of alcohol set the stage for a survival-of-the-fittest sorting-out among the people who abandoned the hunter-gatherer lifestyle and, literally and figuratively speaking, went to town. To avoid dangerous water, people had to drink large quantities of, say, beer. But to digest that beer, individuals needed a genetic advantage that not everyone had -- what Johnson describes as the body's ability to respond to the intake of alcohol by increasing the production of particular enzymes called alcohol dehydrogenases. This ability is controlled by certain genes on chromosome four in human DNA, genes not evenly distributed to everyone. Those who lacked this trait could not, as the saying goes, "hold their liquor." So, many died early and childless, either of alcohol's toxicity or from waterborne diseases. The gene pools of human settlements became progressively dominated by the survivors -- by those genetically disposed to, well, drink beer. "Most of the world's population today," Johnson writes, "is made up of descendants of those early beer drinkers, and we have largely inherited their genetic tolerance for alcohol." Johnson suggests, not unreasonably, that this explains why certain of the world's population groups, such as Native Americans and Australian Aborigines, have had disproportionately high levels of alcoholism: These groups never endured the cruel culling of the genetically unfortunate that town dwellers endured. If so, the high alcoholism rates among Native Americans are not, or at least not entirely, ascribable to the humiliations and deprivations of the reservation system. Rather, the explanation is that not enough of their ancestors lived in towns. But that is a potential stew of racial or ethnic sensitivities that we need not stir in this correction of Investor's Business Daily. Suffice it to say that the good news is really good: Beer is a health food. And you do not need to buy it from those wan, unhealthy-looking people who, peering disapprovingly at you through rimless Trotsky-style spectacles, seem to run all the health food stores. So let there be no more loose talk -- especially not now, with summer arriving -- about beer not being essential. Benjamin Franklin was, as usual, on to something when he said, "Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." Or, less judgmentally, and for secular people who favor a wall of separation between church and tavern, beer is evidence that nature wants us to be. |
| Posted by:Nimble Spemble |
| #20 I think Maytag was the man who realized that the prayer was also a recipe. He first reproduced the ale for a science conference, serving the brew to the assembled anthropologists and archaeologists in communal clay pots with long reed straws. |
| Posted by: Eric Jablow 2008-07-10 23:48 |
| #19 Spot on Eric. Local brewer master at Anchor Steam came up with the idea of brewing beer as close to the original recipe as possible...and it was called Ninkasi. The prayer itself appeared on the label. It's not the beer we recognise today but the point was to highlight the importance of beer. Communal agrigulture, centered on grain not as a direct food source, but for the production of beer. Oh...the owner of Anchor Steam...Fritz Maytag. Washer Machine giant and I believe behind Maytag Bleu Cheese as well. Drink up! |
| Posted by: Rex Mundi 2008-07-10 23:40 |
| #18 Amazingly, I'm sure, I made my own "prayers" after drinking too much of the health food. In my yout days |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-07-10 22:41 |
| #17 This article in the Beer Advocate describes the Prayer of Ninkasi, the Sumerian Goddess of Beer. People have actually made this ale. |
| Posted by: Eric Jablow 2008-07-10 21:37 |
| #16 Sorry, hit the post button too early. The grog ration, according to historians, was due to the fact that water, which was kept in wooden barrels, soon became slimey and impossible to drink. The daily beer and grog ration helped to keep the men fit on longer voyages (not to mention keeping the crews relatively happy). |
| Posted by: FOTSGreg 2008-07-10 21:13 |
| #15 Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy Ben Franklin Good ole' Ben got it right for sure. Even in the darkest of times alcohol and beer, in particular, has always been a staple diet of most peoples. There was a daily grog ration onboard sailing vessels from the earliest times (British ships mandated the ration). |
| Posted by: FOTSGreg 2008-07-10 21:11 |
| #14 Ah, but Marseille was actually a Phoenician colony and port before the Greeks. I suspect they brought wine there first. |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2008-07-10 20:57 |
| #13 They brewed beer and mead. It was the Greeks that introduced southern France to wine and the Romans made it a permanent part of the culture. Sorry, confused the Romans and Greeks in southern France. French wine originated in the 6th century BC, with the colonization of Southern Gaul by Greek settlers. Viticulture soon flourished with the founding of the Greek colony of Marseille. The Romans brought wine and grapes north. If you look at the lands the Romans conquered, you will notice they don't stray far from where grapes can be grown. ;) |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2008-07-10 20:08 |
| #12 When they exported wine to southern France, they forgot (or didn't tell) the natives to cut the strong Roman wine with water Actually it was the Gauls who invented the cask thus opening the way to improving wine through aging. Romans only knew the clay amphora who does not allow to age wine. I am 99% sure that teh Gauls knew wine well before the Rioman invasion. And 100% sure they brewed beer. |
| Posted by: JFM 2008-07-10 17:58 |
| #11 A little ditty I heard in Cincinnati in the 1980s: Beer, beer, three cheers for beer! It's my way of keeping my mind fresh and clear! |
| Posted by: Mike 2008-07-10 16:38 |
| #10 Man dis site not like endingof the hales. |
| Posted by: .5MT 2008-07-10 16:30 |
| #9 o/Alaska Paulo 0/Biero o/Alaska Pual & Biero o/Potable Watero o/Potable Biero Less go 'stablish civlizashun tomorror early, really, frist lite. I has a easy to draw alphabit we can carry with us. |
| Posted by: .5MT 2008-07-10 16:29 |
| #8 Beer was boiled, killing the cholera. But wine is not. Romans used to cut the wine with water for daily drinking so they could stay hydrated and not sick (or drunk). When they exported wine to southern France, they forgot (or didn't tell) the natives to cut the strong Roman wine with water. Major outbreaks of alcoholism followed. Mead followed the same principle for the Northern Europeans. You cut the 15% alcohol drink with water for daily drinking, but not for drunkfest feasts. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2008-07-10 15:51 |
| #7 Beer was boiled, killing the cholera. They didn't know about sanitation, they just knew that you didn't get sick from beer. Cholera is a particularly horrific, particularly avoidable disease. The ONLY way to get it is to drink water that people have defecated in. It is easily killed by the most basic of sanitation practices. Remember this the next time you read about a cholera outbreak somewhere. |
| Posted by: gromky 2008-07-10 15:47 |
| #6 Slightly OT but relevant: My commute is through 38 fun-filled miles of western Washington 2 lane SR-20; to pass the time ( and in response to a former car pool companion) i began counting heavy truck traffic ( once you get behind one there is no room to pass and you are stuck). As the fuel prices have soared, the numbers have dwindled, however the number of beer trucks has remained fairly constant. might not need walmart crap, but gotta have a Bud. |
| Posted by: USN,Ret. 2008-07-10 15:02 |
| #5 This makes a lot of sense. Thanks, Nimble Spemble. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-07-10 13:51 |
| #4 Braudel also pointed out a while back that brewing beer meant converting its calories and carbs into a form less likely to spoil or be eaten by rodents. The Structure of Everyday Life |
| Posted by: lotp 2008-07-10 13:48 |
| #3 I'm going to log out and go get a pint of Jimmy Beam right now. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-07-10 13:41 |
| #2 Also remember that Alcohol kills the little bugs in the water. People not only kept drinking booze because it made them feel good, but cut with water hydrated them and they didn't get sick. So drink booze out in the wilderness. It will save your life ;) Just make sure you don't say, "Hold my beer and watch this!" |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2008-07-10 13:18 |
| #1 In colonial America, nearly everyone of all ages drank beer or cider (less affluent) or wine (if they could afford it) for the same reason. When canny Scots came over and applied their distilling skills to maize, white lightning was born, and was mixed with water to make it more healthy to drink. Johnny Appleseed planted apples not for direct consumption but for cider production, knowing that it was better to drink than most giardia-infected sources. In fact, up until the late 1800's, most apples were planted for cider, not fresh eating or preserves. There's some evidence now that wheat, barley, and rye were not initially domesticated for bread, but for beer. Not so rice - which may explain the high numbers of Asians who have low alcohol dehydrogenase levels and cannot drink in quantities. |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2008-07-10 13:08 |