Driven by drink: The role of drinking in the political economy and the case of Early Iron Age France

The practice of drinking alcoholic beverages has several characteristic important social roles in traditional small-scale societies, particularly in terms of political economy. Cross-cultural survey of ethnographic data reveals that drink is very frequently a fundamental social artifact which plays an integral role in implementing the social relations expressed and created through hospitality. This intimate association with the institution of hospitality, and its frequent ritual and symbolic significance, imbue drinking with a potent social value which is important in its many economic and political roles. It is widely employed in the work-party feast as a mechanism of labor mobilization, and in the implementation of both institutionalized political authority and the informal power associated with leadership in societies without specialized political roles. Moreover, drinking can have a profound influence in producing changes in social relations, and consideration of drinking patterns can be very informative about society and culture in general. The relevance of this anthropological perspective on drinking to the analysis of archaeological data is demonstrated through a model which offers fresh insights for the interpretation of a specific archaeological problem: the process of trade and culture contact between the Greek and Etruscan states and the indigenous peoples of Early Iron Age France.