0 or 3 credits
Spring 2025 Lecture Distance Learning Lower DivisionJEDI
Alcoholic beverages are an important aspect of foodways, the cultural practices and values surrounding food and drink. This course provides an overview of the ancient origins of beer and other alcoholic beverages globally, and examines the cultural context and social role of these innovations through a combination of archaeology, material culture studies, historical texts, and ethnography. In addition to examining archaeological case studies of the production and consumption of beer and other alcoholic beverages, topics to be covered include: evolution of brewing and fermenting technology, biology and chemistry of brewing and fermentation, residue and materials analysis, origins of agriculture, emergence of social complexity, sexual division of labor, social identity (gender, class, ethnicity), and recent trends in production and consumption.
Learning Outcomes1Identify the role of Anthropology in understanding the production and consumption of alcohol in cultures past and present.
2Evaluate several different theoretical and methodological approaches within the field of Archaeology.
3Assess and debate the role that the innovation of alcohol might have played in the origins of agriculture and social complexity in different times and places in the past.
4Analyze and explain innovations in brewing technology over time.
5Describe and explain the way in which identity is shaped by the production and consumption of beer. These learning outcomes will be achieved by reading, evaluating, and summarizing course material (lectures, readings, and films) at regular intervals throughout the course and by engaging in regular group discussions.
6Outcomes will be assessed by examining student performance on quizzes, exams, and article summaries, as well as participation in class discussion.
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