World History in Today's World: The World's First Beer
This activity corresponds to the "World History in Today's World: The World's First Beer" feature in your textbook. Once you have answered the Comprehension questions, submit your answers and move on to the subsequent questions included in the Analysis and Outside Sources sections. Each section is designed to build upon the one before it, taking you progressively deeper into the subject you are studying. After you have answered all of the questions, you will have the option of emailing your responses to your instructor.
Introduction
One of the defining features of complex society might be a heightened appreciation of sensual experience. Consider the domestication of the uncivilized Enkidu in the Epic of Gilgamesh: he joins complex human society when he enjoys good food, good drink, and pleasurable sex. The Epic is not unique. Ancient Mesopotamians and Egyptians valued the finer things in life, and their art and literature abounds with celebrations of all that could intensify bodily experience. The questions and links below will help you to learn more about people of these complex societies ate, drank, and loved.
Comprehension
1. What were the two basic foodstuffs of the Sumerians, and why was Enkidu unfamiliar with them?
2. How might the early Sumerians have discovered how to make beer?
3. How widespread was brewing in the ancient Near East?
Analysis
1. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh exclaims, "Enkidu did not know how to eat bread, / Nor had he ever learned to drink beer!" Obviously Enkidu knows how to drink and feed himself. Why do you think the text presents the consumption of beer and bread as a learned behavior?
2. As you know, brewing spread throughout the ancient Near East, "so that people living in Egypt and Mesopotamia all learned how to make beer." Review Chapter 2: what historical factors might explain the bread regional spread of brewing?
3. Review "Sumerian Religion" in Chapter 2 of your textbook. What might account for the fact Sumerians regarded beer as an appropriate gift to their gods?
Outside Sources
1. To learn more about the history of beer, go to http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~reli205/andrew_beer/beer.html. What is the earliest evidence of beer consumption, and what was its place in the diet of ancient Mesopotamia?
Make sure to read the two Sumerian poems included on this page. What do they suggest about the role of beer in Sumerian culture?
2. Go to http://www.thekeep.org/~kunoichi/kunoichi/themestream/egypt_alcohol.html and learn more about ancient Egyptian alcoholic drinks. What were the social and economic functions of beer in ancient Egypt? How did alcoholic drinks serve as markers of class distinctions?
3. Ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians also celebrated love and sexuality. For samples of Sumerian love poetry, go to http://www.humanistictexts.org/sumerlove.htm; you can find examples of Egyptian love songs at http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/people/lovesongs.htm. Read any three poems from both collections. What aspects of love did these Sumerian and Egyptian poets emphasize? How would you describe the similarities and differences between the Sumerian and Egyptian conception of love?