Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Drinking culture
(899 words)

Drinking (alcohol) together has since Antiquity served as a means of establishing social relationships and underscoring social and gender hierarchies. The idea that sharing a drink creates a bond or brotherhood between drinkers was rooted in the ritual of the contractual drink, a secular ceremony with spiritual overtones. All early modern contracts were concluded with a drink of wine or beer (the so-called Weinkauf, or Leikauf, “contract drink”) , and very often with a drinking bout, so that public houses functioned as points of contact for conducting a…

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Tlusty, B. Ann, “Drinking culture”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_SIM_029086>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20170626



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