Tequila: Pulque’s Friend, Cousin, Usurper?
My route into the history of alcohol in Mexico took me through pre-Columbian, colonial and nineteenth-century history, so for me, this area of research has always been synonymous with pulque, the alcoholic beverage that predominated throughout this long time period. But, whenever I introduce myself as a historian of alcohol in Mexico, the first word […]
Cider in Unexpected Places? Rural Chile and the Cider Pressing
For most people the mention of authentic craft cider will probably lead to visions of Somerset and the West Country, so our project’s concentration on Welsh producers of craft cider posed some interesting questions. Contrary to some initial expectations, Emma-Jayne Abbots’s research has found that the Welsh-ness of the product is not that important to […]
The Story of Pulque Part 3: Ritual and Power in Aztec Mexico
In the story of pulque, we have so far thought about different origin stories about pulque and their role in political and cultural processes in Aztec Mexico. Being linked to the origin or discovery of pulque carried a certain prestige value, but why? In many ways, pulque was not singled out, but was one of […]
New Directions in Drinking Studies Conference, 6-7 June 2015
Our Consuming Authenticities project kicked off the papers in what would turn out to be a fantastic conference at the University of Leicester on 6-7 June. This was the New Directions in Drinking Studies conference that I mentioned in a previous post and that I have been organising with my Drinking Studies Network co-ordinator hat […]
“London Cider”- an inauthentic compound?
Whilst researching at the National Library of Wales I came across this book from 1842 (1819): “A practical treatise on breeding, rearing, and fattening all kinds of domestic poultry, pheasants, pigeons, and rabbits” by John Lawrence who was around from 1753 until 1839. At the back of the volume there was a quite in-depth section […]
The Story of Pulque Part 2: A Tangle of Origins
In the last post, I described one of the stories about the discovery of pulque that was recorded in the 17th century and purportedly related to historical events that took place some 7 or 8 centuries previously, in the last generations of the Toltec empire. However, differing accounts of pulque’s origins circulated in pre-Columbian and […]
The Aesthetics of Authenticity in the Modern Chain Pub
In the last post, I referred to the undercurrents of authenticity running through an edited volume I’ve been working on, Biographies of Drink. To mark the publication of this volume, I thought it would be good to reflect on the chapter that tackles the problem of authenticity head-on, as a means of analysing the design […]
Alcohol and Authenticity
For some reason I always expect January to be a relatively low intensity month in which some leisurely research and reading can be achieved, but it has never worked out that way. Aside from the usual flurry of marking of last semester’s final assignments and teaching preparation for the coming semester, two projects related to […]
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