For prayer and profit: the ritual, economic, and social importance of beer in Gwembe District, Zambia, 1950-1982

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Title:	For prayer and profit: the ritual, economic, and social importance of beer in Gwembe District, Zambia, 1950-1982
Authors:	Colson, Elizabeth Scudder, Thayer
Year:	1988
Pages:	147
Language:	English
City of publisher:	Stanford, CA
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
ISBN:	0804714444
Geographic term:	Zambia
Subjects:	Tonga (Zambia, Zimbabwe) drinking customs beer
Abstract:	In this study of radical social change, the authors examine shifts in alcohol consumption and drinking patterns over a period of three decades among the Tonga people of Gwembe District, Zambia. The book examines why people drink, what they believe they gain from drinking, and the importance of drinking to the local and national economy. For Zambia, the past 30 years have seen rapid political and economic change, massive resettlements, guerrilla warfare, and near-bankruptcy. The last decade in Gwembe District has seen increasing interpersonal hostility and accusations of sorcery, as well as increased beer consumption. Village beer, traditionally produced by women, and drunk primarily by men in a ritual or work-party context, became commercialized in the 1950s, and then more recently began to give way to factory-brewed beer, with serious consequences. Many spend most of every day drinking, chiefly in and around beer halls. A few women, whose livelihood and independence often depended on the local production of beer, now drink as heavily as the men.