Why did the human being become sedentary? According to the theory that you are going to discover, the human being settled to have a greater quantity of grains with which to elaborate beer. Their disposition in the wild was subject to multiple ups and downs: pests, animals, climatic conditions ... Not to mention the distances that our ancestors had to travel on foot to collect some grain (Up to 60km!). We may have to thank the farming to this concoction that nourished and drunk our ancestors.</p>
Theory of why the human being became sedentary
La theory accepted about sedentary lifestyle is that climate changes they pushed the human to settle. They had their food reduced in the natural world and therefore began to grow food and raise animals. However, many studies disagree. There is a certain consensus that climate changes were never decisive for human sedentarization. Everything indicates that the reasons were primarily cultural, since there was still enough food in the environment.
kartz y Voigt They are the authors of an important article on this subject from the XNUMXs. For them the keys to why the human being became sedentary they were two. They talk about the germination and fermentation of the grain. All the findings show that humans began to feed on crops thousands of years after learning about these processes. That is why the use of cereals It did not begin in the Neolithic, but in the Epipaleolithic. This was a transitional stage.
It is also known as Natufian period. This name comes from the Israeli site of Wadi-en-Natuf. In this they have been grains of the time of eight species that differ from the wild varieties. That is why we speak of the beginning of agriculture. However, human remains indicate that the diet barely ingested cereals. We talked about about ago thirteen thousand years ago.
Porridge and beer
Both researchers emphasize that man already knew how to do gruel. This process is very similar to that of beer. First they grind the germinated grain or not. Afterwards, they mixed the result with water in a leather bag or a wooden container. Later, they introduced hot stones taken from the fire to bring the liquid to a boil.
For brew beer, both anthropologists add a step. They suggest they left the liquid outside at night to be infected. wild yeasts. They doubt that these human beings emphasized bread instead of beer. The reason is the absence of burned grains by the fire among the organic remains that have come down to us. However, they also do not provide definitive evidence that beer drove the domestication of the wheat and barley.
And is that the teacher Joseph H. Reichhof of the University of Munich also does not see enough the explanation of the climatic changes. It suggests that the human being specialized in the cultivation of grains in order to celebrate Banquet y get drunk more easily. With sedentarization, a surplus of grain would end up. This is the reason why the social classes. The dominants could make deals with other settlements, such as favorable marital arrangements, at these banquets.
In addition, it relates it to shamans. They knew only too well substances that lead to the abandonment of the body and the arrival to a state of transcendence. Group unity was fostered through alcoholization and collective joy. Of course, they had to ration beer at first. Before growing it in large areas, they did not have enough.
Historical evolution of beer
It is so old that its allusions to barley in the Hammurabi Code they are constant. It also appears in the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh. In Egypt It was the monopoly of the Pharaoh, although the priests were the ones who profited. Wheat, barley and millet were crushed. Then a part was separated, moistened and left in the sun while the rest was lightly toasted. The roast it prevented the enzymes from being destroyed. After that, it was fermented with water and added yeast of beer or old ale.
The result was a very thick liquid that had to be drunk with straw. His graduation was approaching fifteen degrees, unlike the Mesopotamian that was softer than the current one. The Greeks became fond of this drink. Despite this, those who brought it to our peninsula were the Phoenicians. However, it did not enjoy great fame in the classical world. For them it was the business of "uncivilized" barbarians, Gauls and Germans. In the Middle Ages it was made by women as a household chore until the XNUMXth century.
At thirteenth century it became professionalized and became similar to the current one. The monks brought advances such as the hop and aromatic flowers. Already in the nineteenth century Today's beer arrives with studies on fermentation of Louis Pasteur. It got rid of a lot of alcohol.
Today it is one of the most famous drinks in the world. If the investigations in this regard advance, maybe one day we will toast with her for the civilization that he may have left us. Why the human being became sedentary It has in this theory a reason linked to the palate.
