Ava Chiang
April 22, 2019
Biology Odd / C
Current Event 9
Schwartz, Alex. “Archaeologists Unearth More Evidence That When a Civilization Drinks Together, It Stays Together.” Popular Science, 22 Apr. 2019, www.popsci.com/beer-ancient-civilization-wari-empire-sustainability#page-4.
The article I read for current event 9 is called “Archaeologists unearth more evidence that when a civilization drinks together, it stays together” by Alex Schwartz. This article explored the importance of alcoholic beverages and how most ancient civilizations have their own type of alcohol that’s often used as currency, offering for gods, and ceremonial offerings. For example; there’s rice wine from China and barley beer from Iran. Ancient Greek and Roman civilizations would also use wine and beer as offerings to deities and ancient Egyptians used beer to pay workers that built the pyramids. In fact, mortars found in Israel in 2018 suggested that human ancestors from 13,000 years ago brewed beer; this was before cultivation of crops for bread. The researchers for the study featured in this article looked at the “Wari empire, an ancient Peruvian civilization that predated the Inca” with sophisticated “advances in agriculture, art, architecture, and warfare.” The empire collapsed before European settlers arrived in South America but they had important cultural impact on the development of the Inca Empire. Ryan Williams, an archaeologist at the Field Museum in Chicago stated that the purpose of this study was to try to “to understand how Wari civilization sustained itself for so long” and how they united “ otherwise disparate groups of people throughout their territory” through beer. The Wari type of beer is called chicha and is still made today, the best preserved brewery to date is at Cerro Baúl and had survived for four centuries. Its created by fermenting corn or pepper berries (a type of fruit that survives droughts). The availability of the material and the ease at which it can be produced makes drinking chicha a unifying experience throughout the Wari empire despite the wide variety of environment. Therefore, its less likely that getting drunk off alcohol together was what made different communities get along, it's the shared cultural concept that mattered.
This article is very relevant to society today because even in modern times, the shared experience of consuming alcohol unites people regardless of their backgrounds. It’s a common drink in many social setting, both formal and informal, and it’s often used to celebrate happy times. Not to mention that certain types of alcohol have very high cultural and/or monetary values. This shows that alcoholic beverages is a shared cultural concept that can be found through history and in multiple cultures.
This article was a very interesting read and I enjoyed it very much. It incorporated examples from many cultures (ex: Greek, Israel, and China) but there was also a more detailed research that the article focused on. However, despite all this I find that there can still be room for improvement. For example, the subtopics of this article was a bit scattered. It went from the context of the Wari empire, to examples of alcohol throughout history, to how to brew Wari chicha. I wished it was a bit more organized but otherwise the grammars great and the information learned was very interesting.
Chris Aherne
ReplyDeleteMr. Ippolito
Core Bio
4-30-19
Schwartz, Alex. “Archaeologists Unearth More Evidence That When a Civilization Drinks Together, It Stays Together.” Popular Science, 22 Apr. 2019, www.popsci.com/beer-ancient-civilization-wari-empire-sustainability#page-4.
For current event 10 I decided to read Ava's review of Alex Schwartz's “Archaeologists Unearth More Evidence That When a Civilization Drinks Together, It Stays Together.” In her review she covers how societies that drink together stay together, and how alcohol can strengthen bonds. Ava does a great job of providing context into how this can positively affect a society. As mentioned in the first paragraph, alcohol used to be a form a currency, making it far more valuable and more appreciated when received. Without this background it would have been harder to understand why these drinks meant so much. I also liked how she was very thorough in her research. It felt as if she knew what she was talking about. Lastly, I find it very helpful that went to some outside sources to find information. It gave her review a more complete feel to it.
Although Ava's review did many things well, there were a few things that she could have worked on. Firstly, I felt as if she could have been less wordy. The review was harder to read like this and it felt unnecessary. Secondly, she did not use enough rhetoric to make the review more intriguing. I felt as if I kept dozing off due to lack of interest.
Despite some flaws, Ava's article taught me a lot about the history and importance of alcohol in culture. This review was chosen simply because it caught my eye in the feed of the blog. But it was definitely worth the read. After reading this it gave me a different view of what we as people find valuable, and how quickly material things can disappear.
Schwartz, Alex. “Archaeologists Unearth More Evidence That When a Civilization Drinks
ReplyDeleteTogether, It Stays Together.” Popular Science, 22 Apr. 2019,
www.popsci.com/beer-ancient-civilization-wari-empire-sustainability#page-4.
In Ava’s review of the article “Archaeologists Unearth More Evidence That When a Civilization Drinks Together, It Stays Together” by Alex Schwartz, she explains a summary of the article, how it is important, and her critiques of it. There are many aspects of her review that are great. For example, she gives specific examples for each point that she makes. She uses quotes in her summary, and adds different cases throughout history of how alcohol was used to connect cultures. Furthermore, Ava had clear and well stated ideas throughout her paper. Every point that she made was clear, concise, and well supported with specific examples. For instance, when she states that even in modern times, consuming alcohol creates a culturally shared experience it, she explains her point and uses evidence to create a logical argument. Finally, Ava’s relation of her topic to current times was great. As aforementioned, her argument was clear and well-explained. However, it was also very relevant and specific. Her argument was that alcohol provided a cultural experience among peoples, and that it also provided monetary value. She explained how this was true and relevant very well.
However, in Ava’s review, there were a few edits that she could have made to further improve her review. For example, she did not cite each quote hat she used. Although it might have seemed repetitive to cite each quote, it is the more correct way to write a paper using MLA citations. Her quotes were used well, but citing them with the author’s name could have been helpful. Also, in the third paragraph, she tends to change from the past to present tense. The tense switching was somewhat distracting, and if she were to keep the tense consistent, it might be less distracting. However, both of these critiques are relatively small.
An epiphany moment in Ava’s review for me was that alcohol is so helpful in bringing cultural unity. Although it makes sense, I was unaware of how important it was. Ava makes sure to note that it was the cultural concept of alcohol that mattered rather than the act of getting drunk. Explaining how alcoholic beverages have the ability to connect people who are otherwise incredibly different is a very interesting idea. Ava’s review of Alex Schwartz’s article was, aside from a few small grammatical errors, clear, concise, and well-supported, and had a great relation to modern society.
Griffin Patterson
ReplyDeleteBiology/ Ippolito
Core Bio
5-16-19
Schwartz, Alex. “Archaeologists Unearth More Evidence That When a Civilization Drinks Together, It Stays Together.” Popular Science, 22 Apr. 2019, www.popsci.com/beer-ancient-civilization-wari-empire-sustainability#page-4.
For current event 12 I decided to take a look at Ava's review of Alex Schwartz's “Archaeologists Unearth More Evidence That When a Civilization Drinks Together, It Stays Together.”. Ava did a great job of summarizing this article and telling the reader that alcoholic beverages were used as currency and were used as a strengthener for society. First of all Ava did a great job of explaining and giving context of her information. In the first paragraph she states “there’s rice wine from China and barley beer from Iran. Ancient Greek and Roman civilizations would also use wine and beer as offerings to deities and ancient Egyptians used beer to pay workers that built the pyramids”. This example was great in the context that it explained that beer was used to even pay people. Another thing Ava did well was she used outside information in her review. She mentions where the beer was made and how often the workers get the beer for there pay. This really expanded her review to make it the best it could be. The last thing Ava did well was the consistency with all of the ideas and points in the article. All her ideas that she used in the article were very precise and well thought through.
Although, this review was very well written there were some areas she could improve on. The first thing she could work on was citing her quotes. Even Though this isn't that big of a mistake it is still more professional to cite a quote. This could also help the reader if they want to go in the actual article to find the information. Another thing Ava could have worked on in her article was to stay to the basics. I felt like this article was lacking in freshness with the word choice, which got me a little disinterested in the article.
Even Though, there were some mistakes, this article overall was very well done. I liked learning about this topic and the idea of how alcohol was used back then really interested me. Before reading this article I wasn't aware that alcohol was so important back then in the economy. Overall, this article was very interesting and I enjoyed reading it.