Tom Standage, the author of A History of the World in Six Glasses. Standage purpose of this book is to prove that civilization and globalization came about due to six different drinks: beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola. Each drink acted as a spark to a new era of technology and advancement.
At the start of the Neolithic revolution the only available drink was water, typically contaminated with many waterborne diseases. Around 9,000 BCE beer was first discovered by the spread of wild grains throughout the Fertile Crescent. Once beer was discovered some anthropologists suggest the drink had become so widely important in both social and religious aspects that agriculture started in order to ensure the availability of the grains needed to produce beer, thus creating the first major civilizations Mesopotamia and Egypt. Consuming bread and beer was seen as an act that distinguished a man from a savage. Frequently Sumerian art depicts two men drinking from a shared vessel of beer, sharing beer with a party shows that the host …show more content…
The earliest written records found are Sumerian tax receipts depicting symbols of beer, textiles, livestock, and other trading implements. Initially tax receipts were kept using tokens within clay "envelops" later switching to tablet of wet clay and marking with impressions. According to Standage, the collection and distribution of beer paved the way for the first writing systems.
The drinking of wine started the first main distinctions between social classes. When wine first became available it was very expensive and only suitable for the wealthy or the gods. However, once wine production became widely available it was common throughout all social classes, but the type of wine varied between each. Often during Greek symposion's social classes were forgotten, but in Roman convivium's social classes were more
At the start of the Neolithic revolution the only available drink was water, typically contaminated with many waterborne diseases. Around 9,000 BCE beer was first discovered by the spread of wild grains throughout the Fertile Crescent. Once beer was discovered some anthropologists suggest the drink had become so widely important in both social and religious aspects that agriculture started in order to ensure the availability of the grains needed to produce beer, thus creating the first major civilizations Mesopotamia and Egypt. Consuming bread and beer was seen as an act that distinguished a man from a savage. Frequently Sumerian art depicts two men drinking from a shared vessel of beer, sharing beer with a party shows that the host …show more content…
The earliest written records found are Sumerian tax receipts depicting symbols of beer, textiles, livestock, and other trading implements. Initially tax receipts were kept using tokens within clay "envelops" later switching to tablet of wet clay and marking with impressions. According to Standage, the collection and distribution of beer paved the way for the first writing systems.
The drinking of wine started the first main distinctions between social classes. When wine first became available it was very expensive and only suitable for the wealthy or the gods. However, once wine production became widely available it was common throughout all social classes, but the type of wine varied between each. Often during Greek symposion's social classes were forgotten, but in Roman convivium's social classes were more