Drinking Cultures

Question 1

Drinking cultures: what is included?

Answer 1

• ideas, practices, behaviors, and institutions involved in the consumption of alcoholic beverages

Question 2

What are the social and cultural dimensions of drinking?

Answer 2

• Drinking is a social act.
• Drinking is a communicative act
• Drinking is a political act.
• Drinking demarcates space and time.
• Drinking involves patterned behavior.
• Drinking is an economic act.

Question 3

History: Early Biblical and archeological evidence

Answer 3

• Early archeological evidence in Persia, Egypt, China and other sites show evidence of alcoholic beverages as early the late Stone age period.
• Biblical references to wine and other alcoholic beverages abound in terms of wine as an integral part of the daily diet and feasting as well as symbolic vehicles to symbolize a myriad of things including the blood of Christ.

Question 4

History: In the US

Answer 4

•From the indigenous alcoholic beverages among Native American groups to the influence of immigrant groups such as the Germans who introduced beer halls and saloons
•America wine in particular became popular and mass oriented after California wine producers found a new way to market their products through new consumer niches – college age kids – the era of the wine cooler and the boxed wine – 70s and 80s.
Drinking values = moral failing, weakness, wickedness, and sin.
Prohibition, Medicalization, Legalization.
•The prohibition era –which saw nativists Christian moralist to attempt to outlaw drinking was really a xenophobic movement aimed to ferret out “bad foreign influences.”

Question 5

How is alcohol drinking understood in terms of class, ethnicity and race?

Answer 5

• The Cocktail Hour/Social Drinking vs. Binge Drinking
• Conducting Business vs. Criminality
• Social “lubricant” vs. Anti-social behavior
• Sophistication vs. Delinquency
• Ethnic/National group “propensities”

Question 6

Mutual symbolic constructions of “Irishness” and “Germanness” through the Irish pub

Answer 6

• The mutual symbolic constructions of modes of “Irishness” and “Germanness” through the drinking experiences of people who frequent the parallel spaces of Irish pubs and German eckkneipe – two spaces where alcohol consumption is the focal point of social life.
• These symbolic constructions of “nationality” and belonging are from various kinds of images and ideas from such diverse sources such as tourist posters and information.

Question 7

The eckkneipe (parallels and differences)

Answer 7

• Both the Irish pubs and German eckkneipe – are spaces or “loci of desire for community in a city, informal family like human interaction, a feeling of belonging and locality, and an elusive quality…”heart” Irish pubs have the positive qualities of the eckkneipe without the negatives.”

Question 8

Gendered dimensions of alcohol drinking

Answer 8

• The creation of a male-dominated and drinking-centered social space for relaxation, business, camaraderie/conviviality and community.

Question 9

Where do Japanese drinking events occur?

Answer 9

• Ono – a rural valley in Kyushu (a northern island) in Japan

Question 10

What are the gender issues of Japanese drinking events?

Answer 10

• Examines how the male inhabitants use drinking to make sense of the world in which they lived and of the social relationships in which they engaged.
• “Drinking is serious business”

Question 11

What are the 2 social categories of Japanese drinking events?

Answer 11

• Drinking of sake or of a potato distilled liquor – exchange of cups among drinkers
• Drinking of beer, whisky or other alcoholic beverages – no exchange of cups

Question 12

What are the stages of the formal Japanese drinking event?

Answer 12

• First waiting for all to be assembled. Very superficial topics then being usher to the main guest rooms –people are seated according to age and gender – the oldest male at the top. Women serve the men and then a toast is made.
• Second stage involves the filling cups of one’s neighbors – exchanging cups – offering it.
• Third stage, mingling – more intimate exchanges. Traditionally initiated by older men – by the 70s it is possible for the younger men. Possible to discuss and be more jocular.

Question 13

What purposes do Japanese drinking events serve?

Answer 13

• Formal and informal drinking encounters – the first involving representatives and involved specific occasions and times of the year, can be connected to work or school, then there are informal gatherings at home or local sake shop
• In a formal drinking encounter – there is a pattern and structured hierarchy to the kind of talk and stylized behavior, who gets seated where and who serves whom. This also includes the kind of conversational topics and the kinds of deferential behavior – according to age and gender. Women occupy the margins
• Drinking enables the social – strengthen friendships, seal agreements and pick arguments, welcome the gods, honor the ancestors etc.
• Drinking also enables moments when hierarchies are transgressed. Daytime vs. nighttime behavior.
• Drunkenness is not aberrant behavior but it creates a sense of community and some temporary egalitarianism.

Question 14

What roles does drinking play in gang culture?

Answer 14

• Drinking as a rite of passage from boys to men. Drinking as a form quintessential form of expressing masculinity.
• Drinking facilitates group bonding, tension reduction, precursor/facilitating mechanism to violence, institutionalized excuse for certain behavior.

Question 15

How does ethnicity influence the way drunkenness is perceived by gang members?

Answer 15

• African American gang members were the mos entrepreneurial in their daily activities (selling drugs, gambling, drinking)
• Latino more leisurly (fewer drug sellers), haning out, drinking, ang detting high
• Asians slept more and headed out later in the day

Question 16

Early history of milk

Answer 16

• Early history shows that in cattle production and possibly production and evidence consumption of dairy products may have started as early as 8000 years ago.
• Particular parts of the world where there was animal husbandry (raising of cattle, sheep etc.) may have led to ancient forms of dairying.
• While it is not definitive, archeological analysis and evidence suggest that fermented milk products were mostly consumed and not “fresh” milk.
• Preindustrial/pre-modern milk consumption of fresh milk was rare.

Question 17

Story of the perfection of milk

Answer 17

• Milk is universal.
• Milk is essential and necessary.
• Milk is complete form of nutrition—babies only need mother’s milk.
• Milk is natural

Question 18

How milk became America’s perfect food (milk advocates, swill milk and alcoholism, what milk symbolizes)

Answer 18

• Rise of the modern city.
• Creation and construction of the “pastoral” or the country vs. the city
• The milkmaid as emblem
• The city as site of evil and degradation vs. the country as innocent and free of
• Advances in Technological and Scientific Knowledge
• Pasteurization
• Refrigeration
• Trains and other transportation technologies.
• Changes in women’s roles – including the rise of women working in the homes. Cult of domestic motherhood. Product of conflicting roles for the modern woman.
• Valorization and necessity of “artificial” or bottle feeding of infants. The unavailability of networks of wet nurses.
• Milk Advocates
• Milk was used to rationalize bad health and living conditions of poor immigrants in the city.
• Establishment of school health and milk programs.
• Establishment of governmental regulations – against swill milk and other dangers.
o Swill milk is when whiskey makers fed cows the excess grain left over from the distilling of whiskey, made cows very sick, thin bluish milk produced, increased bacteria, tripled child mortality rate
• Emergence of nutrition knowledge and experts.

Question 19

Critique of perfection story—is milk healthy?

Answer 19

• The story disregards the realities of power inequality and social choices.
• The story also denies the importance of other dairy products as well as the other sources for calcium.
• Milk has become the normative staple without any consideration of other possible replacements or substitute.
• The story denies that milk, particularly fresh milk, is a staple only to specific ethnic and national groups.
• The story then constructs milk as a mark of racial and ethnic superiority and is a marker of mainstream “Americanness,”
• The question of lactase persistence vs. lactose intolerance.
• Milk also becomes a marker for modernity as well for physical and oral health of individual bodies and the national body.

Question 20

rBGH controversy

Answer 20

o Genetically engineered food debate
o Hormone that affects a cow’s pituitary gland
o Banned in many countries
o Many products in US have gone to rBGH free

Question 21

The Anti-Milk and The Raw Milk Movements

Answer 21

o rBGH has caused some people to question milk altogether
o questioning of the emphasis of milk in American nutrition policy
o milk causes breast, clon, and other cancers, heart disease, diabetes, early maturation, and asteporosis
o attempt to make society vegan

Question 22

Organic Milk Movement

Answer 22

o Many americans buy organic milk that do not buy other organic products
o Result of rBGH
o Not in My Body

Question 23

Decrease in milk consumption in the U.S.

Answer 23

o Drinking less milk, eating more cheese
o Consume less from a glass and more on a plate
o Whole milklow fat milk
o Availability of other kinds of drinks

Question 24

Milk as a global commodity

Answer 24

China and India. Milk is seen as symbol of modernity and cosmopolitanism – in the Third World – Nestle for example.

Question 25

History of coffee: Rise and fall of the market and developing taste. Development of consumer niches or specialty coffee markets. New coffee technologies, relationships, and marketing strategies: evoke the 19th century general store and new styles and flavors associated with a place of origin, closer links between growers and consumers.

Answer 25

• In the 1830s, coffee was an elite beverage, because it was expensive. Annual per capita consumption in the US was 3 pounds.
• Coffee houses were public spaces where people gathered to discuss important issues and socialize.
• In the early 20th century, industrialization, standardization and mass marketing widened the coffee market so it became part of working class life and a consumer good, ie. Coffee breaks, coffee in cans.
• In post war America, long-term decline in coffee consumption and more institutional and governmental control.
• At first seems to represent “more choices” and “more diversity”
• A niche for specialty coffee was methodically created by industry. Mapped out the product– not of mass market–but of smaller class and generation segment using fictitious people and their profiles. “The Grays” represented a yuppie couple with expendable income and “Joel” stood in for a college student who does not drink coffee.
• Specialty coffee marketers refer to an authentic “genuine” past as that of the 19th century general store, including burlap bags and coffee barrels
• Typical specialty coffee customer wants “natural,” “whole,” “fresh.”
• creation of “taste” – wanting “quality” over “standard” brew.
• Specialty coffee market in the 80s yielded the highest profit margins.
• Grades went beyond type of coffee tree and place of origin /varietals to a new form of grading based in styles and flavor.
• Despite expansion of gourmet coffee products to mainstream, it will never become mass market items.

Question 26

Fair trade and direct trade

Answer 26

• The high price paid per pound is, hands down, the foremost benefit to producers. While the model does not guarantee a minimum price, because buyers evaluate it based on quality, on average they pay well above the Fair Trade minimum. Importantly, Direct Trade buyers pay each individual producer, whereas the Fair Trade price is paid to the cooperative. Because Direct Trade buyers are interested in purchasing the highest quality coffee available, they work with producers to improve their crops, and teach them how coffee is roasted and served in the U.S. so that they understand how the product is used. As quality improves, producers are paid more per pound. The direct communication and interaction between producers and buyers that lends the model its name cultivates long-term relationships based on mutual respect and trust. This, in turn, affords producers economic and family stability. Another benefit of the direct relationship is that buyers and producers negotiate terms and expectations together, as opposed to having them imposed by an outside organization. This means that the trading relationship is tailored to the unique context of each producer and their farm. Because the model is flexible, a variety of farm sizes and structures can be included. While not certified by an independent party, Direct Trade roasters guarantee complete transparency, and are happy to reveal all to anyone who asks.

Question 27

What is the ideal story about fair trade?

Answer 27

• Works against the impersonality of the industrial food system
• Search for new markets niches – middle class – educated, left leaning?
• New forms of connectivity. Visiting and getting to know producers on a personal level.
• Alternative trade system hopes to challenge historically unequal market relations
• Slow vs. fast food
• From anonymity of transnational food chains to de-commodification of products
• From abstract trade relations vs. social reality
• From non-ethical ethos to corporate responsibility and social justice
• From free trade to fair trade

Question 28

What are the requirements and information about the single origin section of coffee on the Intelligentsia website?

Answer 28

• These coffees are lauded for highlighting specific flavors of a growing region, process or varietal.

Question 29

“Black Gold” film and reality check

Answer 29

• The farmers and producers of coffee are making very little money on any of the coffee sales

Question 30

Is fair and direct trade an emotional branding, marketing stunt or social justice?

Answer 30

• Yes, all of the above.
• Emotional branding and ideological marketing.
• Greenwashing –publicity stunt with little actual substance inexpensive marketing.

Question 31

Does fair and direct trade change the terms of worker’s lives?

Answer 31

• Yes, allows them to improve their products and practices. Brings them more money. Still a long way to go.