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 […]
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 […]
Our Impact So Far
On Saturday, May 16th, we held a fascinating whole-day event at the National Library of Wales, where our collaborators shared their views and experiences on the different drink and food products we are investigating and discussed what factors and processes are involved into making them authentic. As expected, we had a great participation from Welsh craft […]
We want to hear your view! Collaborators’ Workshop, 16 May 2015
This exciting, interactive whole-day event will give you the opportunity to share your views and experiences about authenticity and pulque / acarajé / flaounes / Welsh cider. It will also be an opportunity to visit the picturesque Aberstwyth and the internationally acclaimed National Library of Wales. When? Saturday, 16 May 2015 (10.00-16.00) Where? National Library […]
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 […]
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 […]
The Importance of Authenticity
As we outline on our project website, to designate a cultural product, like a particular food or drink, as authentic can be a politically, economically and culturally charged process, partly because the ways we think about time and history are deeply involved in this process. The slippery concept of authenticity is at the heart of […]
Introducing the Project
Consuming Authenticities is all about how history, as well as different categories of time and temporality, can be mobilised in making particular cultural products seem “authentic” – the “real” thing. The project grew out of a conversation about the workings of authenticity at a workshop designed to develop new projects that related to the AHRC’s […]
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