Adventures in Eating: Anthropological Experiences in Dining from Around the World

15: You Are What You Drink in Honduras

263 Biographical sketch. Joel Palka is an associate professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, where he holds a joint appointment with the Departments of Anthropology and Latin American and Latino Studies. He received his Ph.D. in 1995 from Vanderbilt University. Palka’s research and teaching interests include the archaeology and history of Mesoamerica and the Caribbean, Classic Maya culture, Maya hieroglyphic writing and art, cultural evolution, social inequality, and settlement patterns. His current research covers ancient Maya social differentiation, settlement archaeology, and the collapse of Maya civilization, along with his new historical archaeology project in which he examines Lacandon Maya culture change in Guatemala and Chiapas during the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. In the field, anthropologists learn to cope with and even eventually appreciate unusual food and drink. But they also experience “out of the ordinary” consumption etiquettes, behaviors, and ethics in those host communities as well. In most societies what is put into the body and how, when, and where the consumption of food or drink occurs communicate crucial information about C h a p t e r F i f t e e n Joel Palka You Are What You Drink in Honduras Joel Palka 264 the individual and his or her culture. Personal identity, ethnicity, perceptions of self, and how others perceive you are determined in part by what and how one eats or drinks. Moreover, it is important for anthropologists to be accepted by their hosts, to “fit” in their adoptive communities, and not to insult new friends. Being in a foreign country presents certain challenges to the visitor, and the adjustments regarding food and drink are among the most important and interesting field adaptations for anthropologists. The culture of drinking is just as significant and symbolic as the social life of eating, yet there are relatively fewer anthropological studies of drink compared to food (Douglas 1987; Garine 2001:1–3). The biological importance of drinking is universally acknowledged and drinking is a common social activity , from initial encounters between people of different cultures to rendezvous with close friends. Many times people only interact through the medium of drink, especially alcoholic beverages in public settings. Importantly, earlier literature in the social sciences often treated moral issues regarding drinking alcohol (Pittman and Snyder 1962), but more recently, anthropological studies in general recognize the less negative social significance of drinking and intoxication . The consumption of alcohol is often tolerated, if not encouraged, and it is significant for social group cohesion in many cultures. The use of alcohol and the associated behaviors and contexts of drink are culturally determined, and they communicate information about the self and one’s position in society (Garine 2001:5–7; Gonzalez Turmo 2001). Also, while drinking with acquaintances in a foreign land, you learn much about them, their culture, and eventually yourself. Furthermore, the sociability of drinking explains certain instances of alcohol consumption, its cultural contexts, and the specific use of alcohol (Douglas 1987; Eber 2000; Mandelbaum 1965; Partanen 1991; Patrick 1952), which will be revisited in the concluding section. In this chapter, I will concentrate on the symbolism of drinking and outsiders’ adaptation to drinking alcohol in Honduras rather than discussing factors of morality, age, religion, socioeconomic status, and gender with reference to drink. These other topics are important as well, but they can be taken up on another occasion. Thisnarrativetreatsmyexperienceswithlocalattitudes,beliefs,andbehaviors with regard to drinking in small-town and rural Honduras while participating in a long-term archaeological excavation. In a period totaling one and a half years in the late 1980s, I lived with people who were mestizos or Ladinos (persons of mixed European, indigenous, and African ancestry who spoke Spanish, wore Western clothing, and generally followed Western customs); I worked with them every weekday and also spent many evenings and weekends in their company. Drinking alcohol, mostly a beer or two, in social situations was an important part of being a young man in this cultural setting, and it signified that a person had the resources and friends for drinking. My observa- You Are What You Drink in Honduras 265 tions largely treat alcoholic beverages. I must clarify from the start that most young men in Honduras are not habitual drunkards, although alcoholism in the country can lead to health, social, and economic problems (Vittetoe 1995). These young men merely have interesting attitudes about drinking alcohol, including where it is consumed, who and...