Beer & Civilization: Is Beer The Secret To A Stable Society?

That’s what some scientists think. And, of course, we’ll drink to that.

Here’s the deal…

For a thousand years ago, the vast Wari empire dominated Peru.

At its peak,” it covered an area the size of the Eastern seaboard of the US from New York City to Jacksonville and It lasted for 500 years, from 600 to 1100 AD, before eventually giving rise to the Inca” according to Eurasia Review.

That’s a long time for any empire to rule and now a new study is suggesting that the secret of its stability may have been a steady supply of beer.

Now a team of anthropologists from the Field Museum in Chicago has concluded that beer helped form unity among the people of the ancient civilization, a more cohesive  identity and shared cultural practices (read: drinking together) that help stabilize a number of societies that were part of Central Peru’s Wari Empire.

And Ryan Williams, Head of Anthropology at the Field Museum and the lead author of the new study in Sustainability its finding’s remain relevant to societies today…

“This study helps us understand how beer fed the creation of complex political organizations. We were able to apply new technologies to capture information about how ancient beer was produced and what it meant to societies in the past.”

For several centuries, the Wari leaders held festivities together with the local communities. At Cerro Baúl, they drank vessels of the beer-like beverage called chichi, a sour brew that was made from fermented corn and pepper berries according to Tech Times.

“The researchers estimate that the brewery at Cerro Baúl was able to produce 400 to more than 500 gallons of chicha at a time.”

“People would have come into this site, in these festive moments, in order to recreate and reaffirm their affiliation with these Wari lords and maybe bring tribute and pledge loyalty to the Wari state,” said Ryan Williams

To further understand the importance of beer in the Wari society, the researchers (which also included members from a University of Illinois at Chicago, University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Eastern Michigan University) reportedly “analyzed the pieces of ceramic beer vessels from Cerro Baúl at a molecular level to gather new information about the ancient beer production of the Waris.”

“This research is important because it helps us understand how institutions create the binds that tie together people from very diverse constituencies and very different backgrounds,” said Williams.

And yes, we’ll drink to that…