Remembrance of Drinks Past: Wine and Absinthe in Nineteenth-century French Algeria

Tür:

Kitap Bölümü

Yazar:

Nina Salouâ Studer

Yayın yılı:

2021

Dil:

en

This chapter drawslinks between the colonisation of French Algeriain the nineteenth century and the production, and especiallyt he consumption, of alcohol. The military confrontation with abstentious Muslims prompted many nineteenth centuryF rench authorst oh ighlight the correlation between French identity and certain alcoholic drinks. In France'sc ollective memory,w ine and absinthe werel inked with the conquest of Algeria, with drinks boths ervinga s an aide-de-mmoire for settlers returned to France and,m orei mportantly, as an emblematic symbolf or Algeriai tself. Whether ap erson consumed or abstainedf rom alcohol became one of the principal dichotomies in the settler worldview,e ncapsulatingp erceivedc ulturald ifferences, with thoseM uslim men who began to drink alcohol after France'sb rutal conquest of Algeria often framed as embracing French civilisation or as mimicking French culture. Even French authorsw ho feared the overconsumption of alcohol amongst French settlers and the spread of alcoholism amongst local communities agreed that alcohol playedapositive role in the colonisation of Algeria, as settlers both relied on it for comfort and usedi tt or einforce social contacts.T hisc hapter shows how descriptions of the drinking habits of the French in colonial Algeria helped to define the group identity of adominant minoritysurroundedbyanoppressed majority,w hile also examining whyl aterF rench colonisers so often chose to recall with nostalgia the earlyc olonisa…

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