Brewing Beer: Status, Wealth and Ceramic Use Alteration among the Gamo of South-WesternEthiopiaAuthor(s): John W. ArthurReviewed work(s):Source: World Archaeology, Vol. 34, No. 3, Luxury Foods (Feb., 2003), pp. 516-528Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3560201 .Accessed: 01/05/2012 17:04

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Brewing beer: status, wealth and

ceramic use alteration among the

Gamo of south-western Ethiopia

John W. Arthur

Abstract

Ethnoarchaeological research among the Gamo people of south-western Ethiopia indicates that pottery vessels used for beer fermentation have characteristic interior surface attrition. The Gamo's strict social hierarchy orchestrates who produces and consumes beer: ritual-sacrificer households are able to produce and consume more beer than non-ritual-sacrificer households and this pattern also was found in the ceramic inventories of the two types of household. The Gamo example suggests that the study of ceramic use alteration can be an additional tool in identifying the produc- tion of beer, the essential ingredient of feasting.

Keywords

Beer; pottery; ceramics; use alteration; wealth; status; Ethiopia; Africa.

Introduction

In recent times one-eighth to one-third of grain crops in Africa has been processed and consumed as beer, which attests to the importance of beer in this continent (Platt 1964). In many African societies, beer is a highly desirable luxury foodstuff that socially binds

people together and serves to reinforce social hospitality and communality during cere- monial and everyday activities (Mandelbaum 1965). It represents a common cultural marker of wealth and status; it is a commodity of reciprocity, hospitality and communal-

ity; it may represent a payment of tribute to chiefs, and is an essential food in the redistri- bution of wealth. The processing and consumption of beer pervades many cultural acts

and, because of its great social, economic and political value, it is of great significance, both as a dietary staple and as a 'luxury' food. Even though beer is commonly a crucially important foodstuff and associated with status and wealth activities, few archaeological studies have attempted to identify beer production and consumption in Africa (but see Dietler 1990; Edwards 1996; Samuel 1996).

) Routledge World Archaeology Vol. 34(3): 516-528 Luxury Foods | Taylor &rancs Group ? 2003 Taylor & Francis Ltd ISSN 0043-8243 print/1470-1375 online

DOI: 10.1080/0043824021000026486

Brewing beer 517

This paper first reviews the importance of beer as a luxury food among a diverse set of African societies, and then discusses ethnoarchaeological research among the Gamo of south-western Ethiopia, focusing on the ceramics used in beer production. The results

may be of wider relevance to the study of beer production and consumption.

Beer as a marker of status and wealth in African societies

Apart from requiring a substantial amount of grain, producing beer is a time-consuming activity that entails a considerable degree of labour, predominantly for African women. Beer production among the Mabaso women of South Africa, for example, requires ten to twelve days (Reusch 1998: 24). The Maale of southern Ethiopia produce beer in five days (Donham 1999: 153-5). Commonly, the first step in beer processing is to let the grain sprout in a damp pot and then, with additional grains, grind on a stone for hours. In addition, women have to bring large quantities of water from up to a mile away to mix with the ground grain and then boil the malt and flour in large pots. After finally boiling the mixture, women then ferment the beer in large gourds. The Pondo women of South Africa bring their own grindstone to a specific household and grind grain together long into the night to produce enough beer for a feast (Hunter 1979: 104). In Tanzania, the

Haya make a beer using a combination of bananas and sorghum (Carlson 1990). They use

ripe bananas because of their high sugar content, which will assist in the fermentation

process. The bananas are smashed with the help of dried grass, and then water is added in equal proportion to the banana liquid. After the water is added, dried sorghum is mixed into the water and banana solution and left to ferment for twenty-four hours.

The use of beer in everyday life does not negate its role as a luxury food. Processing grains into beer instead of bread emphasizes one of its major social roles: communal

consumption (Dietler 1990). Beer is often considered a food, rather than a beverage, and the consumption of beer adds considerably to daily calories (Gardiner 1836: 266; Green 1999: 414; Haggblade 1992: 395; Karp 1980: 85; Moore and Vaughan 1994: 192; Richards 1939: 80; Saul 1981: 746-47). Sorghum beer provides one-third of the total energy consumed in a year among the Koma of northern Cameroon and bonds age sets and estab- lishes a hierarchy between each one (De Garine 1996: 210). Upon visiting a household, the Tiriki people of Kenya offer beer to visitors as a sign of friendship (Sangree 1962: 11), and the Baganda of Uganda use beer as a way to bond two men obligatory together (Robbins 1979: 371). The Tiriki and the Iteso people of Kenya have communal beer pots around which men congregate every day to discuss social issues, disputes, and tell stories

(Karp 1980; Sangree 1962). The Kofyar of northern Nigeria conduct all aspects of their

daily life around beer (Netting 1964). The Kofyar use beer as an award and as a punish- ment against not taking part in work parties, verbal or physical violence, disrespect of a clan member or minor theft. The Haya pay respect to fathers by offering them a gourd of banana beer, which must be done before others can be served (Carlson 1990). In addition, the Haya will offer a sacrifice of a gourd of beer at the ancestral altar to a father.

The payment of tribute with beer indicates its economic and political importance. Beer is presented to kings as tribute among the Haya of Tanzania (Carlson 1990: 303-4) and the Kofyar of Nigeria (Netting 1964: 376-7). The Haya pay their tribute in the form of

518 John W Arthur

beer, livestock, barkcloth and iron products. With each brewing episode, the Haya must

pay their king four or more gallons of banana beer. Men make banana beer and they must be sexually abstinent while brewing the banana beer. The Haya present the king with

special gourds of beer that have wrappings of banana fibre covering the gourds and are tied with twigs and leaves from a plant that symbolizes purity and strength. As with the

offering of beer to the deceased father, the Haya king also offers a sacrifice to his ances- tral altar for the welfare and fertility of his kingdom (Carlson 1990: 303-4). When the

Kofyar brew beer for sale, the producer is entitled to give a portion of the beer to the

village head (Netting 1964: 376). Dietler's (1990: 370-1) interpretation of Gutmann's (1926: 346) account of the Chagga

of Tanzania indicates that the chiefs gave generous supplies of beer, which fulfilled their redistributive obligations and supported the warriors, who would fight on his behalf. The

Chagga chiefs would collect this beer through a tax that the people were happy to pay so that they might socialize with the chief. A sign of a good Baganda chief is the redistri- bution to the people in the form of 'beer, meat, and politeness' (Mair 1934: 183). As with the Chagga, the Baganda chiefs obtain their beer through a tribute system (Robbins 1979:

371). Thus, the payment of beer forms a social, economic and political reciprocal bond between commoners and leaders.

Brewing beer in association with slaughtering cattle among the Koma of Cameroon also

provides a means to improve an individual's status (De Garine 1996: 210). The cattle dance ceremony, which celebrates the hard work and good qualities of a husband's wife, is a redistribution feast that distributes meat and beer to the kin and religious leaders. The cattle dance ceremony requires seventy-five pots of beer, while the other age grade cere- monies consume seventy pots of beer, which is equivalent to 490 litres or 100 kilograms of cereals, causing an economic hardship to the household. In addition, when a woman is buried, thirty-seven pots of beer are produced and consumed.

In order to gather a work party, beer is essential and, without beer, it is impossible to

bring together people to co-operate on the task at hand. Work feasts are a type of commensal politics (Dietler 2001; Dietler and Herbich 2001), where people are organized to work on a specific project and then are served beer for their labour. Beer in work parties provides a social alliance between the work-party sponsor and the people involved in the work party. Beer changes the context of the group, by becoming the 'social focus' for all of the work party members, but also for people associated with the party members

(Donham 1999: 155). The quality and quantity of beer as a motivational force to gather people for a work party is seen among the Konso of southern Ethiopia (Watson 1998: 148). If a person produces a high-quality beer in sufficient quantities, then they can expect a

range of twenty to fifty people to help them in the fields. There are a number of different

types of work parties, which involve fixed or volunteer groups, costing the sponsor approximately fifty to 150 Ethiopian birr (US $7 to $21) depending on the size of the work

party. Feasts also accompany work parties, as in Southern Africa, where chiefs and wealth- ier commoners organized large work parties and then provided an abundance of beer

(Crush 1992). The Pondo of South Africa rate beer feasts higher than meat feasts, because beer makes the work seem more like a party (Hunter 1979: 89-90). Among the Kofyar of

Nigeria, beer is the primary means of repaying voluntary labour to hoe and harvest agri- cultural fields and to build corrals and houses (Netting 1964).

Brewing beer 519

Thus, beer in African cultures is a critical component of the social, economic and

political structure of society (Carlson 1990; Netting 1964; Robbins 1979; Sangree 1962). Although people could process grains into bread, they spend a considerable amount of labour and time processing beer with which to establish alliances. Beer binds these different groups together by providing a means of establishing reciprocity in the form of labour and social and economic coalitions. Furthermore, the importance of beer in the form of symbolic respect to the living and to ancestors exemplifies its significant role to the well-being of societies.

Beer, status and wealth among the Gamo

The Omotic-speaking Gamo live in the highlands of south-western Ethiopia along the Rift

Valley and produce beer for ceremonies and everyday subsistence (Fig. 1; Arthur 2000). I spent two years (1996-8) conducting an ethnoarchaeological study of Gamo pottery production, use and discard, focusing on 1,058 low-fired earthenware vessels from twenty households each in three villages (Zuza, Etello and Guyla). The Gamo produce beer by two different methods, but both involve the use of ceramic vessels. The highland Gamo

produce beer by boiling water in a large ceramic cooking jar (otto) and then pouring the water over the flour and stirring it in a large serving bowl (shele), where it is left to cool. It is then poured into a beer jar (batsa) to ferment for five days. The second way to

produce beer, which occurs in the lowland areas, is to combine and boil water and flour and then store this mixture in large beer jars for fermentation (Plate 1).

The production of beer is associated with the wealthy and high-caste Gamo households.

They use different types of grains depending on their ecological zone, which determines whether they subsist more on maize or barley and wheat. The northern and central regions of Gamo have a strict social organization consisting of three castes, in order of rank: 1) mala, 2) mana and 3) degala. In the southern Gamo region, there are only a two castes, mala and mana. The mala caste is the highest-status caste group. The mala caste controls the Gamo political, economic and religious systems. They are associated with farmers and merchants, whereas the mana castes are potters and the degala are associated with iron-

working, hide working and grindstone manufacturing. The mana and degala castes have no political control in Gamo society. This strict social organization determines who is able to engage in the production of beer for feasting or everyday consumption.

The mala caste controls the vast majority of farmland in the region, thereby producing the wheat, barley and maize that are the essential ingredients for beer production. The

political and religious aspects of Gamo life are under the authority of the mala caste. The

production and consumption of beer occurs at all political and religious ceremonies such as at initiation feasts for ritual-sacrificers (halakas), weddings and at ceremonies cele-

brating saints' days. In certain parts of Gamo, the mana and degala caste members have their own halakas and produce their own feasts, but not on the grand scale of the mala halaka. The mana and degala must beg for grain to produce beer for their feasts from their mala patron.

The mala ritual-sacrificers must demonstrate their generosity through beer feasts. The wealthiest mala are 'caught' by the other mala members to become ritual-sacrificers

520 John W. Arthur

La3ke Za

Shashamane

Lake A wasa

Lake Abaya

N

10 100 1 Y,71 A s - KMI

Figure 1 Map of the Gamo region within Ethiopia and Africa.

Brewing beer 521

Plate I A Gamo woman making beer by putting beer dough into a jar to boil with water.

(halaka) (Halperin and Olmstead 1976). If the people choose a person to become a ritual- sacrificer, his duties are to perform animal and beer sacrifices in which he prays for the health and fertility of his people, crops and animals. Gamo ritual-sacrificers are always men, who must be circumcised, married, wealthy and morally respected (Sperber 1975:

215). However, to become a ritual-sacrificer, a person has to perform two beer feasts

(perso oosha), which include producing enough beer for the people who reside in his

political region (dere) (Freeman 1997). This ritual-sacrificer must have enough farmland to provide for producing large amounts of beer and other types of high-status foods. This redistribution of wealth cannot be refused by the chosen ritual-sacrificer (Sperber 1975). He must organize two different feasts, one at his house and the other in the area of

community gatherings (Freeman 1997). At both feasts, the participants must wait to start

drinking until the halaka-to-be and the elder-sacrificer pour beer on the ground as an

offering for the spirits. Each redistribution feast can comprise up to 300 people and

requires 800kg of wheat for beer production (Halperin and Olmstead 1976). Feasting is not the only context where Gamo people drink beer. The Gamo consider

beer as a type of food and drink it in everyday affairs. It is not uncommon to have the mala carry beer for their midday meal, if they are travelling, or purchase it at one of the

weekly markets. However, only the wealthiest households with the available farmland and labour to cultivate the grains are the ones who can produce and consume beer on a daily

522 John W Arthur

basis. Thus, ritual and everyday beer production is in the domain of the high-status and wealthiest households.

Beer production and consumption in the archaeological record

Archaeological signatures

There are several potential signatures denoting the use of beer, such as context, ceramic

morphology and ceramic use alteration. In terms of context, a critical component of African beer is its use during feasts and, whether it is redistribution, tribute or work feasts, a number of attributes of feasting should be apparent. Wiessner (2001: 116) outlines several contextual features of feasts. First, feasts are an aggregation of people and this

may be identifiable based on a large site or with the presence of great diversity of arte- facts. Second, feasts may be an indication of social inequality between hosts and guests. Third, feasts require abundance and the consumption of large quantities of beer and this

may be identifiable from households that are in charge of converting grains of millet, wheat, barley or maize into beer.

Another method of identifying the processing of beer in the archaeological record is

through the analysis of use alteration on pottery vessels. Use-alteration analysis includes carbon deposition, surface attrition and/or residue analysis on both the interior and exterior walls of the vessels. These different types of signatures left on the ceramic wall can inform the archaeologists how the vessel was used in the past (Skibo 1992: 79-102). Surface attrition on the interior of the vessel may be particularly useful in identifying beer

production. Different types of surface attrition include erosion, pitting and scratches on the ceramic wall. These are caused by non-abrasive attrition such as the chemical reaction of foods or abrasive attrition caused by some mechanical contact between an abrader and the ceramic wall (Schiffer and Skibo 1989: 101-2; Skibo 1992: 106).

The Gamo

The ethnographic evidence suggests that large jars have a strong association with the

production and consumption of beer (De Garine 1996; Dietler 2001; Donham 1999: 153-5; Reusch 1998) and this is also true for the Gamo who use large jars (84.1 per cent) for

cooking, fermenting and storing beer. These vessels are, on average, 33.6 litres in volume

(N = 52, min 2.8, max 124.7, SD = 24.8). However, the Gamo use large jars for other func- tions besides brewing beer. So, how do archaeologists tell the difference between a vessel that was used for producing beer from one that was used for some other purpose? An

analysis of the interior surface attrition and of context may help provide the answer. First, the spatial distribution of these vessels may offer information. It is common for

the Gamo to congregate and conduct feasts within a ritualized meeting place called a dabusha. However, as most of the objects will be carried back to their respective house- holds after a feast, it may be easier to identify such feasting by looking at the inventories of individual households. Those that are in charge of producing beer will have larger pots, more grindstones and possibly a higher ubiquity of grains than households that do not

Brewing beer 523

have access to, or are not responsible for, producing beer. Among the Gamo, beer

processing occurs within kitchens and storage buildings, where large jars are placed along the outer edge of the interior of the building (Plate 2). Only the wealthiest households have the land and the capital to build these specialized buildings. The ritual-sacrificer households have an average of 3.4 structures per household compared to an average of

only 2.0 structures for non-ritual-sacrificer households.

Among the Gamo there is inequality between groups, with the wealthier, high-caste groups able to attend political and social feasts, while the poor artisan low-caste groups are excluded from attending. Gamo high-caste and wealthy households have access to

grains because of their monopoly on land ownership. This authority over grains enables the high-caste and wealthier households to produce and consume more beer than lower- caste and poorer households. The feasting requirements for Gamo ritual-sacrificers

suggest that they should have the material culture indicative of the hosting of feasts. On the basis of the inventories recorded during my ethnoarchaeological research, I estab- lished that the ritual-sacrificer households do indeed have more vessels used for the fermentation of beer. Ritual-sacrificer households (n = 8) have an average of 3.1 vessels for fermenting beer per household, which compares to only 0.7 beer vessels at non-ritual- sacrificer households (n = 52). In addition, ritual-sacrificer households have a larger number of gourds for drinking beer (7.8 per household) than do non-ritual-sacrificer households (2.8 per household). Furthermore, the occurrence of grindstones for grind- ing grain is another useful indicator. The average number of grindstones found in the

Plate 2 Storage of large jars for fermenting beer.

524 John W. Arthur

ritual-sacrificer households is 3.6, which compares to an average of only 1.7 grindstones for non-ritual-sacrificer households.

As well as being marked in the character and size of ceramic inventories, beer produc- tion is also readily apparent in wear patterns within individual vessels. Among the Gamo, every vessel (n = 63 vessels) used for processing beer showed severe pitting or the

complete erosion of the interior ceramic wall (Arthur 2000). The Gamo informants told me that over time the beer wears down the ceramic wall - just over half (52.4 per cent) of the sixty-three vessels used in processing beer were used for storing beer during the fermentation process. A possible explanation is that the beer-fermentation process produces lactic acid-forming bacteria that reduce the pH, resulting in a highly acidic substance (Oura et al. 1982: 113). The Gamo do not use utensils while producing their beer, so utensils are not the cause of this severe interior surface attrition. The pitting and/or surface attrition usually occurs from the rim to the base of the vessel (Plate 3). Although Gamo potters live throughout the region and use different clays, all the pots showed evidence of severe surface attrition, indicating that the fermentation process affects all clay types. Thus, this ethnoarchaeological research indicates that vessels used for processing beer have a higher rate of attrition and erosion of the interior wall than other vessels. Consequently, the presence of such surface erosion can be used as an

important new indicator for the production of beer. A quantitative analysis of the inventories confirmed the observed association between

beer brewing and beer consumption and ritual-sacrificer households. A chi-square test indicates that there is a significant difference between ritual-sacrificer and non-ritual- sacrificer households in the number of beer processing vessels with surface attrition

present (X2 = 19.86; df = 1; p<0.05). These ritual-sacrificer households include halaka households, which in the past had to conduct redistributive feasts during the halaka initiation period.

The evidence of this case study also suggests that in some instances it might be easier to identify beer production in the archaeological record than beer consumption, because beer consumption frequently uses organic vessels, which usually will not survive archaeo-

logically. For example, the Gamo use gourds, the Luo of Kenya (Dietler 2001: 96-9) use a long vine-stem straw dipped in a large ceramic pot, though the Zulu of South Africa use ceramic vessels (three different sizes) for drinking beer (Reusch 1998: 29-32). The Iteso of Kenya and Uganda drink finger millet beer from ceramic pots using a siphon, but they use gourds or glasses when beer is made either from bananas or maize (Karp 1980: 85).

Conclusions

The pervasiveness of beer in African societies and its central role in the construction and maintenance of social, economic and political relationships suggests that the identification of this luxury food in the archaeological record will be worthwhile. The Gamo case study indicates that the size and morphology of ceramic vessels, their context and especially the

presence of a certain type of surface attrition on the interior walls of these vessels provide valuable signatures for the identification of beer production. The consumption of beer often takes place outside the household, such as at specific feasting areas, but in this case

Brewing beer 525

Plate 3 A large jar showing severe interior surface attrition caused by storing beer.

study the majority of beer production took place within the household. Among the Gamo there is a strict social hierarchy and beer production and consumption is associated with the wealthier households. This ethnoarchaeological research has identified that these

wealthy households have specialized areas for brewing beer, a higher frequency of large ceramic vessels and interior surface attrition of these vessels, as well as a higher frequency

526 John W Arthur

of grindstones and gourds. The surface attrition on ceramics as identified here, provides a new and direct indicator of beer production and, combined with a study of the spatial distribution of such vessels across individual households, it can help identify the social context of who is producing beer.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Steven Brandt for introducing me to the cultures of Ethiopia. I would like to thank Ethiopia's Ministry of Culture and Information's Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage for their support and for facilitating my fieldwork. I would also like to thank the Gamo people and Berhanu Wolde and Gezahegn Alemayehu for enhancing my fieldwork. I greatly appreciate Ken Sassaman, Kathryn Weedman, Marijke van der Veen and two anonymous reviewers for reading earlier drafts and for their insightful and productive comments. This research was supported by a National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement grant # SBR 97-05781.

Department ofAnthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA

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