S ocial D rinking

T he five books that inform this essay examine how drinks-coffee, guaran, and mate-helped to "shape," "transform," or "define" national identities even as the plant-derived beverages spilled across geopolitical boundaries.All three are sourced from tropical/subtropical "woody" plants (i.e., bushes or trees) whose biological origins lay in forested ecosystems.Their cultural origins lay in stories involving people, animals, and spirits.In between harvesting and consumption, the seeds of guaran and coffee, as well as yerba mate leaves, undergo elaborate processing that includes drying and heating.Guaran and yerba mate are plants first cultivated by Indigenous groups in South America; arabica coffee was first cultivated in the highlands of Ethiopia.Today, guaran and yerba mate are popular beverages and expressions of national identity in South American nations large (Argentina and Brazil) and small (Uruguay and Paraguay); coffee is widely and frequently consumed outside of Latin America in Europe, North America, and increasingly, East Asia

Consumption (sociology · Production (economics · Productivity · Quality (philosophy · Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Politics and Society in Latin America