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Beer in Mesopotamia and Egypt

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Submitted By eternalvendetta7
Words 252
Pages 2
One can learn many things about class and social structure (as well as

religion) by studying beverages (and/or food). For example, as stated in the

reading selection; thanks to the discovery of beer, agricultural advances

began which lead to the beginning of civilization. Growing the food instead of having

to travel as hunter-gatherers replaced the nomadic lifestyle that humans had been

following for millions of years, for a more stable and civil one. Also thanks to the food

surpluses, a small amount of people didn’t have to gather their food and began

specialization. This allowed people to develop and concentrate on ways to improve

their daily life such as the discovery of pottery and advancement in art. These

accomplished led to new ones and started a chain of inventions and advances that

would eventually lead to the modern civilization that we live in today. Yet the

contribution of foodstuffs is likely only part of the reason why humans stopped their

nomadic way of life. Other factors such as climate changes would have most likely

influenced the decision as well. One paragraph in the article stated how maybe early

humans might have hunted one of the animals that they depended largely on for food

to extinction, maybe forcing them to turn to agriculture or starve. The influence of food

advancements would also cause it to be used as a way of trading and thus writing was

needed to keep track of these events and its usefulness would evolve in time.

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