Beer and Mind-Altering Substances in Religion - Essay Example

Beer and mind-altering substances Beer has been keeping the leading place in top of alcoholic drinks consumed nowadays in the whole world. Over centuries, it has become a beloved beverage for many people with more and more large breweries appearing and selling it in different countries. The first evidences of beer-making date back to ancient times: archeologists discover numerous evidences proving the importance of this beverage in prehistoric civilizations and giving the grounds to consider it as a crucial factor in their development. It is known that beer was an essential part in the diet of members of many ancient cultures including Egyptians, Romans, Greeks and others. Beer-making technologies were described by Herodotus, Hecataeus, Diodorus Sicilicus and Theophrastos. Being obduced with myths, origins of beer-making are believed to be connected either with Osiris in Egypt or with Ceres in ancient Rome. Though the raw material for this beverage differed in various civilizations due to natural conditions, soil and recipe peculiarities, it has been discovered that this practice was rather widespread, and beer posed much importance. Egyptians brewed beer either from barley malt or from wheat malt with a pinch of spices using no hop. Ancient Indians consumed beer made of sorghum, the Chinese preferred rice beer, and Precolumbian Native Americans practiced beer-making out of maize. The evidence of beer’s popularity is so abundant that many scientists now tend to develop the theory supposing beer-making (and not bread) be the driving motive of agriculture development in the ancient world. According to the experts’ claims, it was a prospect of beer-making and not bread baking that drove people to abandon the nomadic way of life and start to adopt crops cultivation (Webb). This theory casts doubt on the traditional approach that gives the paramount importance to bread as a catalyst for agricultural development of civilizations. As a result, the invention of bread and beer are now argued to be the main driving force that influenced people’s ability to build up civilization and evolve technology (Protz). The Sumerians and Mesopotamians are considered to be pioneers of brewing as archeologists claim to have found traces of it dating back to 8-10 thousand years ago. In the territory of modern Iran, the first evidences of ale on the pottery are 7 thousand years old. In Babylon, the prototype of modern beer existed as far back as 6 to 8 thousand years ago, and – what is peculiar – women are believed to have been the first brewers. This was a respectable occupation that gave privileges and even the divine protection. But women’s beer-making monopoly didn’t last for long: men realized commercial opportunities beer opened to them and took the matter into their own hands. Large Babylonian landowners supplied brew houses with cereal and other ingredients, and also stored up beer casks. At that time, people already used various sorts of malt for brewing: barley malt, wheat malt and the mixture containing wheat grain. The assumptions on the large scale of brewing at that time are corroborated with the fact that brewing utilized almost a half of the whole grain crop. At the same time, ancient brewers did not use hops; that’s why ancient ale must have had a sweetish taste without a bitter tinge modern people are used to. So, the importance of this beverage in civilizations’ development is hard to underestimate. Let us consider the maim aspects of its influence. It is well-known that the first inhabitants of our planet led the nomadic way of life practicing gathering or hunting. They moved from place to place and had to expend considerable efforts to get food. Of course, this process included certain risk as they could easily be killed by large animals, or plants, fruit and berries they gathered for food could prove to be poisonous. Food never came to ancient people easily –they had to go to it, subdue or kill it at first (Dornbusch). Difficulties and uncertainty of such way of life cause the transition to the principally new type of culture and creation of the first settlements. Mesopotamians were the first people to adopt the sedentary way of life and start growing cereals, baking bread and… making beer. The fact that invention of brewing goes together with the transition to agriculture is easily explained. Beer-making process requires much patience, time and consistent supplies of grain which was not even possible with moving from one place to another (Dornbusch). But as people started creating constant settlements they became able to grow crops and ensure production of bread and beer. According to Paul McGovern, beer possessed a number of advantages beyond tastiness and intoxicating effect (McGovern). In contrast to the modern meaning of this beverage as an intoxicating drink consumed mainly for fun or relaxation, ancient beer was also practical importance for people. Beer was probably easier to make than bread: initially it was only needed to make gruel out of barley and wait until natural yeast ferment that gruel – it was the simplest prototype of the beverage. As people discovered this phenomenon they eventually settled down and started to make beer on the permanent basis though on the domestic scale at first. Second advantage of beer was posed by its relative safeness. As water was predominantly dirty and could cause diseases, beer was much safer to consume as brewing killed bacteria and viruses; moreover, it was rich in B vitamin and amino acid lysine which is rather essential for human organism (McGovern). Chemical analysis of the ancient Nubians’ bones even showed that they regularly consumed tetracycline – that means that they probably used beer as an antibiotic medicine (Clark-Emory). Thus, as beer possessed good nourishing and even medical properties, it was a suitable alternative for bread and took roots in various cultures. Mesopotamians – nowadays known as the Sumerians – learned to brew beer and later passed their experience to the Babylonians who later began the process of commercialization for brewing (Mark). This factor initiated the development of beer-making “industry” in pre-biblical civilization and made it vital for the grain-growing civilizations around the world. Brewing was a commercially beneficial occupation throughout the history as it gained huge popularity among the members of all the social strata. In the Middle Ages, beer was widely spread along with another alcoholic drink, wine. Local popularity of these two depended predominantly on the climate peculiarities of the countries and territories. Whereas wine was mainly made in the southern regions as natural conditions are friendlier for grape growing there, beer cereals were easier to keep and thus rather widespread in northern regions. Though beer was very popular, it started to be perceived as a harmful drink with the development of science. Anyway, this drink stayed popular for centuries, and scientific progress added more and more to the technologies of its making. Louis Pasteur’s discovery opened new opportunities in brewing enabling longer storing of the produced product with help of a special. In the long run, beer became an essential driving force for the development of both agricultural civilization and trade. Taking into account the McGovern’s theory and numerous historical evidences, we can conclude, that beer invention had an important place in political and social evolution. Another significant aspect is the role of beer in religion, ceremonies and celebrations. In Sumerian civilization, brewing cult was patronized by the goddess Ninkasi. Brewers were female, predominantly priestesses (Mark). The Sumerians attached so much importance to beer that it has an important place in their mythology and is believed to be the creation of gods. The Sumerian Hymn to Ninkasi, an ancient song to the patron goddess of beer-making, contained also a recipe of the beverage (Mark). This tells about how important and even sacred craft beer-making was. Many cultures used beer in their rituals and ceremonies. Except the spiritual meaning, beer had practical use in religion, too. For example, in the 18th century, Paulaner monks in Germany were not allowed to eat solid food during the Lent. Instead of this, they usually drank beer as it had nourishing effect and helped them to stand the whole 40-days fasting (Desoto). Besides, many breweries were established in the monasteries. Beer played a significant role in religions such as paganism and – especially – Christianity. It was believed that beer could win the hearts of people (treblig.net). It was widely used by monks, and the phenomenon of fermentation was considered to be the gift of God (treblig.net). As churches were traditional gathering places for many people, breweries made special beer and brought it to the churches for celebrations. In fact, it can be said that beer-making and Christianity went hand in hand. Talking of the cultural meaning of beer, we can say that it has produced the great impact on the development of drinking culture in the world. Beer-making and society have experienced simultaneous development as beer was initially an inseparable part of life for people beginning with ancient civilizations. As a result, this beverage has evolved to an extremely popular though rather controversial drink (as an issue of excessive drinking appeared with the growth of beer’s importance and popularization). Another controversial but quite significant part of society’s life is various mind-altering substances. These substances also have an intoxicating effect and impact on the central nervous system and have been widely used throughout the history. Hallucinogens were used in rituals even in prehistoric times and later. For example, the Native Americans practices peyote cacti use for religious purposes as it contained mescaline (El-Seedi). Various hallucinogenic substances including psilocybin mushrooms and cannabis have been used in religious ceremonies for centuries. The drugs that are used in spiritual and religious context are referred to as entheogens, the substances that trigger the alteration of consciousness for carrying out religious ceremonies. Numerous archeological and anthropological evidences show that practice of entheogens use was rather widespread and important. Shamans and priests consumed psychoactive drugs in order to change the state of consciousness and plunge into entrancement, and this was of great importance as such state was vital for ceremonies. Intoxicating drinks as a type of mind-altering substances were also widely used in religion, for example, in Christianity. Alcoholic drinks and the effect produced out of them had such influence that they tended to be associated with the divine and left traces in religious scriptures and mythologies. Such cultures professing polytheism like the Sumerians and the Celts assigned an important part of the god of alcohol in their pantheons. Celts believed in Sucellos who was considered to be the god of forests, agriculture and alcoholic beverages; the Sumerians worshipped the abovementioned goddess Ninkasi. Christian traditions include wine consumption even nowadays: it is usually drunk during the Communion. Besides, it is notable that wine appears rather often in the Bible, though drink abuse is prohibited and condemned. Ancient Greek mythology relates to wine through the god Dionysos patronizing grape harvest, wine making, theatre, merry-making, and – except that – being a god of ritual madness. There was even a separate ritual patronized by Dionysos aimed at liberation and returning to a human’s natural state through usage of trance-inducing methods and techniques like ritual singing and dancing along with certain intoxicating substances. Except of being needed for religion and spiritual practices, intoxicating mixtures and substances can be widely used in military purposes –as dope for the soldiers and non-lethal chemical weapon. For example, the mixture of cocaine and gunpowder better known as brown-brown was given to child soldiers during the civil war in Sierra Leone. The example of ancient times is illustrated by Hannibal’s army which used belladonna to disorientate the enemy. At the same time, many countries pay attention to the researches in the field of psychoactive drugs for military purposes: they include methamphetamine and even LSD. To conclude, it should be said that such substances and an impact they produce are rather controversial and complex. Although they have inevitably been staying an essential part of people’s life, they might also cause considerable harm as well as influence history in its different aspects like culture, religion and even political matters; nevertheless, the risk is to be considered as these substances pose the danger of addiction and even lethal outcome. Works Cited: Beer and Religion, from: http://www.treblig.net/Beer_and_Religion.html Clark-Emory, Carol. Ancient Beer Brewed To Include Antibiotic, from: http://www.futurity.org/ancient-beer-brewed-to-include-antibiotic/ Desoto, Dustin. 5 Things You Might Not Have Known About God And Beer, from: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/11/03/242359207/5-things-you-might-not-have-known-about-god-and-beer Dornbusch, Horst. Beer: the Midwife of Civilization, from: http://www.aina.org/ata/20060827151956.htm-title=Beer El-Seedi H.R., De Smet Peter A. G. M., Beck O., Possnert G., Bruhn J. G., Prehistoric peyote use: Alkaloid analysis and radiocarbon dating of archaeological specimens of Lophophora from Texas. – Journal of Ethnopharmacology, vol. 101, - 2005. Mark, Joshua J., Beer. Ancient History Encyclopedia, from: http://www.ancient.eu.com/Beer/ McGovern P., Michel R. H., Badler V.R. The first wine and beer. Analytical Chemistry, vol. 65. Protz, Roger. Complete Guide to World Beer. – Carlton Books, 2004. Webb, Sam. Did BEER create civilization? Ancient man developed agriculture to brew alcohol, NOT to bake bread, claims scientist, from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2527074/Did-BEER-create-modern-society-Ancient-man-developed-agriculture-brew-alcohol-not-bake-bread-claims-scientist.html Read More