Uncorking the Past - Patrick E. McGovern

Uncorking the Past

The Quest for Wine, Beer, and Other Alcoholic Beverages
Buch | Softcover
348 Seiten
2009
University of California Press (Verlag)
978-0-520-26798-5 (ISBN)
24,90 inkl. MwSt
Tells the compelling story of humanity's ingenious, intoxicating quest for the perfect drink. This title offers information on what we know about how humans created and enjoyed fermented beverages across cultures. It also explores a provocative hypothesis about the integral role such libations have played in human evolution.
In a lively tour around the world and through the millennia, "Uncorking the Past" tells the compelling story of humanity's ingenious, intoxicating quest for the perfect drink. Following a tantalizing trail of archaeological, chemical, artistic, and textual clues, Patrick E. McGovern, the leading authority on ancient alcoholic beverages, brings us up to date on what we now know about how humans created and enjoyed fermented beverages across cultures. Along the way, he explores a provocative hypothesis about the integral role such libations have played in human evolution. We discover, for example, that the cereal staples of the modern world were probably domesticated for their potential in making quantities of alcoholic beverages. These include the delectable rice wines of China and Japan, the corn beers of the Americas, and the millet and sorghum drinks of Africa. Humans also learned how to make mead from honey and wine from exotic fruits of all kinds - even from the sweet pulp of the cacao (chocolate) fruit in the New World.
The perfect drink, it turns out - whether it be mind-altering, medicinal, a religious symbol, a social lubricant, or artistic inspiration - has not only been a profound force in history, but may be fundamental to the human condition itself.

Patrick E. McGovern is Scientific Director of the Biomolecular Archaeology Laboratory for Cuisine, Fermented Beverages, and Health at the University of Pennsylvania Museum. His books include Ancient Wine: The Search for the Origins of Viniculture, the 2004 Grand Prize winner in History, Literature, and Fine Arts, Organisation Internationale de la Vigne et du Vin. McGovern's research on the origins of alcoholic beverages has been featured in Time, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Nature, and elsewhere.

List of Illustrations Preface 1. Homo Imbibens: I Drink, Therefore I Am 2. Along the Banks of the Yellow River 3. The Near Eastern Challenge 4. Following the Silk Road 5. European Bogs, Grogs, Burials, and Binges 6. Sailing the Wine-Dark Mediterranean 7. The Sweet, the Bitter, and the Aromatic in the New World 8. Africa Serves Up Its Meads, Wines, and Beers 9. Alcoholic Beverages: Whence and Whither? Select Bibliography Acknowledgments Index

Erscheint lt. Verlag 18.1.2011
Zusatzinfo 10 color illustrations, 24 b-w photographs, 4 maps
Verlagsort Berkerley
Sprache englisch
Maße 152 x 229 mm
Gewicht 499 g
Themenwelt Sachbuch/Ratgeber Essen / Trinken Getränke
ISBN-10 0-520-26798-2 / 0520267982
ISBN-13 978-0-520-26798-5 / 9780520267985
Zustand Neuware
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