Beer is quite the usual men’s staple in most watering holes. Generally taken to be the beverage of the uber cool younger generation who wants something light and easy to drink, beer has become the staple of the daily hanging out rituals. The society still remains quite biased with pushing women to order wine, especially red wine though, or maybe a white spirit like a vodka or gin. It appalls me to no extent when this happens. Everybody should be free to choose what they want to eat and drink.
But would you believe me if I said that women absolutely have, in all societies, throughout world history, been primarily responsible for brewing beer. Well, I am not saying that, actually. Theresa McCulla, the curator of the American Brewing History Initiative at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History said that, so I would suggest you believe her.
Women and the Ancient Art of Brewing
Beer and the Ancient Sumerians
The earliest known written record of beer, The Hymn to Ninkasi, is dated to ancient Mesopotamia to 1800 BCE. This is what Dr. Patrick McGovern says in his book Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer, and other Alcoholic Beverages. McGovern is the scientific director of biomolecular archeology project and adjunct professor of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania Museum.
Why is this a hymn, you ask? Ninkasi was the Sumerian Goddess of brewing. This hymn not only praises the Goddess Ninkasi (that’s what hymns are for, essentially), but it also provides a recipe to make beer from barley bread and even goes on to discuss brewing techniques! (This is something hymns don’t usually do, do they?)
The legend of the origin of beer
Ninhursag, the ancient Sumerian Goddess of the mountains was married to Enki, the God of water, knowledge, and creation. Now, like almost all ancient Gods, Enki was the player, not very different from Zeus – someone who’d sleep with anybody and everybody, even his own daughters. One day, Uttu, one of his daughters, who was a daughter of one of Enki’s other daughters and Enki, appeared before Ninhursag and told her that she was pregnant. Ninhursag ran out of patience and was done with tolerating her husband’s infidelities and insane behavior. She took the semen from Uttu’s womb and planted it on Earth. It is said eight plants blossomed out and had fruits along the riverbanks. One fine day, Enki noticed these weird plants and felt he should have a bite of each fruit. And he did that. Now it gets weirder (I know it was weird enough already). Enki gets impregnated with his own seed. This causes unbearable swelling in eight different parts of his body. It was very painful for Enki, though I would say, well-deserved. Just my opinion. Enki was about dying. Ninhursag’s heart goes out to her husband, seeing him in such pain (Ah, women!). So, she takes some of Enki’s semen and implants it into her body, going on to give birth to eight healing Gods to cure each of his ailments. One of these Gods, was Ninkasi, who healed her father’s mouth.
Ninkasi literally means ‘the woman who fills the mouth’ and she is the Goddess of beer and alcohol according to ancient Sumerian mythology. The clay tablet from 1800 BCE that praises Ninkasi and has the Hymn to Ninkasi on it praises Ninkasi. Here is a translation of the Hymn to Ninkasi:
HYMN TO NINKASI
Borne of the flowing water
Tenderly cared for by the Ninhursag
Borne of the flowing water
Tenderly cared for by the Ninhursag
Having founded your town by the sacred lake
She finished its great walls for you
Ninkasi, having founded your town by the sacred lake
She finished its great walls for you
Your father is Enki, Lord Nidimmud
Your mother in Ninti, the Queen of the sacred lake
Ninkasi, your father is Enki, Lord Nidimmud
Your mother is Ninti, the Queen of the sacred lake
You are the one who handles the dough and with a big shovel
Mixing in a pit, the bappir with sweet aromatics
Ninkasi, you are the one who handles the dough and with a big shovel
Mixing in a pit, the bappir with date – honey
You are the one who bakes the bappir in the big oven
Puts in order the piles of hulled grains
Ninkasi, you are the one who bakes the bappir in the big oven
Puts in order the piles of hulled grains
You are the one who waters the malt set on the ground
The noble dogs keep away the potentates
Ninkasi, you are the one who waters the malt set on the ground
the noble dogs keep away the potentates
You are the one who soaks the malt in a jar
The waves rise, the waves fall
Ninkasi, you are the one who soaks the malt in a jar
The waves rise, the waves fall
You are the one who spreads the cooked mash on the large reed mats
Coolness overcomes
Ninkasi, you are the one who spreads the cooked mash on large reed mats
Coolness overcomes
You are the one who holds with both hands the great sweet wort
Brewing it with honey and wine
You are the sweet wort to the vessel
Ninkasi, you are the sweet wort to the vessel
the filtering vat, which makes a pleasant sound
You place appropriately on a large collector vat
Ninkasi, the filtering vat, which makes a pleasant sound
You place appropriately on a large collector vat
When you pour out the filtered beer of the collector vat
It is like the onrush of Tigris and Euphrates
Ninkasi, you are the one who pours out the filtered beer of the collector vat
It is like the onrush of Tigris and Euphrates
As it often happens, the Sumerian society was heavily patriarchial (Weirdly all these millennia later, we still haven’t changed though). Brewing was the only profession in the ancient Mesopotamia where the citizens would call on the Goddess Ninkasi for protection and assistance. Sumerian women didn’t have many opportunities to earn a living but brewing beer was totally up their ally and they were ‘allowed’ to open their own taverns. Ancient Mesopotamia was governed by the Code of Hammurabi which was a set of about 300 laws. Sumer, being a part of ancient Mesopotamia was also governed by this code. By this Code, women were granted total jurisdiction of brewing and beer. If you look at the sculptures, carvings, paintings, and other forms of art from this era, you’ll find a lot of imagery of women brewing in them.
Beer and the Ancient Egyptians
Similar to the Sumerians, ancient Egyptians also had Goddesses who were invoked for blessing and protecting their brewing activities. For instance, the Goddess Hathor was believed to be the ‘inventress of brewing’. They even had an annual festival that celebrated her ‘drunkenness’. An annual festival to celebrate the ‘drunkenness’ of a Goddess, I definitely want to be a part of these celebrations, tell me where to sign up!
Beer and South America in history
Chicha or corn beer played a very significant role in the everyday lives of the people in parts of South America. In fact, in the times of the Incan Empire, during 1400-1533 CE, beer was used as a form of payment. It was imbibed at feasts and it played a very major role in different religious practices. And guess who brewed it?
The society’s elite women!
Medieval and Renaissance Times
Move on to medieval and renaissance times, women brewed and sold almost all the ale that England drank! I am not saying that, Judith M Bennett says that in her book Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England. In the 14th century England, beer was not just a beverage for social occasions but also a significant part of people’s usual diets. Beer was considered an important source of nutrients for the population at large. The English women who made beer were called ‘brewsters’. This term has almost completely disappeared from the lexicon.
Not just brewers, women were also ‘allowed’ to be ‘ale tasters’. These women would sample ales and decided whether those ales were being sold at a fair price or not.
If Richard W Unger’s Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance is anything to go by, then women in 13th century Holland were considered so important that there was actually a limit set on the number of men who could make beer, imposed by the government.
Records also go on to say that women ran taverns and breweries all across Germany and Denmark. In the 16th century, Anna Janssens owned and operated at least four breweries in Antwerp, Belgium. And based on discovered evidence, she wasn’t the only one with such enterprises to her name.
And then the Modern Times happened…
Once the money started rolling in and men saw how profitable the business of brewing was, women came to be cut off from the profession. The three chief factors that pushed women out of the brewing profession:
- Religion
- Politics
- Economics
Originally, when all beer was handmade, women were able to do it. With industrial revolution and mechanization, women did not have the capital to make those substantial economic investments to keep the business going. And like everything else, religion got poking its nose in this business to. How could women brew alcohol, such a sin, what blasphemy! And politicians who already grapple with controlling women’s bodies and what they choose to do with them, got going on this brewing business too. And alas, now women-owned breweries are unicorns!
What do you think of the legend of the origin of beer? Tell me in the comments below or find me on Instagram – @banjaranfoodie.
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