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...and sociopolitical and economic relations. It is in relation to the formal cultural framework of which the beer-drinking register is part that individual agency is exercised and a reflexive engagement with social practice occurs, and through which the meaning of specific ritual events is negotiated. (Xhosa, ritual lexicon, beer-drinking register, indigenous commodities)
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The social nature of consuming alcoholic beverages has received considerable attention from anthropologists, many of whom have noted the importance of the conversation that accompanies drinking and which provides vital clues to its significance (Frake 1972). However, the language associated with the process of producing, distributing, and consuming the beverage itself is a neglected topic, as is evident, for example, from Douglas's (1987) collection of essays on drinking behavior and Heath's (1987a and 1987b) extensive reviews of work on the social use of alcohol. Much of the ethnography of drinking, concerned as it is with social messages or the relationship between drinking and other social phenomena, has ignored the indigenous terminology associated with the beverage consumed, failing to document it or explicitly recognize its role in the construction of the analysis. (1)
A variety of Xhosa beer-drinking terms are discussed in this article with a view to demonstrating how they contribute to an understanding of public beer-drinking events (hereafter referred to as beer-drinks). It becomes clear from a study of this kind that beer is not a homogeneous thing, but a social commodity that gives symbolic substance to a variety of ideas about moral and social relationships. Beer's status as a social commodity, based on its exchangeability, emerges in the nomenclature given to it and in the meaning and value attached to it in particular contexts. Expressed slightly differently, beer's social potential is fulfilled through the various naming and associated distribution (exchange) strategies applied to it. Through differentiating beer in a variety of ways and by linking it to other forms of symbolization based on the spatial and temporal features of beer-drinking encounters, the exchange and consumption of this alcoholic beverage are used by people to imaginatively construct their world. In this sense Xhosa beer-drinking is generally similar to the ritualized consumption of food in many parts of the world. As with feasting or other forms of ceremonial drinking such as kava in the Pacific, it facilitates the construction of identity and the negotiation of sociopolitical relationships (LeCount 2001; Turner 1992; Brison 2001).
The fieldwork for this study was conducted among conservative Xhosa-speakers in Shixini ward or administrative area of the Willowvale district of South Africa's Eastern Cape Province, in what was formerly the Transkei. Like other rural Xhosa-speakers, people in Shixini spend a great deal time attending a wide variety of events associated with drinking home-brewed maize beer (utywala or umqombothi). It is no surprise, therefore, that beer-drinking is associated with a specialized lexicon, a set of words and terms that constitute a beer-drinking register. Many of these are found only in association with beer, but others are everyday words used creatively to produce specific contextual meanings at beer-drinks. This lexicon is divided below into semantic groups according to different phases of beer-drinking. In the process it becomes evident that the words themselves are part of an elaborate etiquette that is used to impart cultural significance to drinking and the relationships involved in it. (2)
The formalization of a beer-drinking lexicon as an aspect of rural Xhosa culture imposes certain constraints on the range of meanings that may be associated with beer and restricts the uses to which it may be put. As Bloch (1975, 1977) argued with regard to ritual language in general, formalization limits the range of possible interpretations and provides little room for debate. Bloch also insisted that ritual speech "hides" social reality (i.e., the reality of political and economic disparities, including exploitation), reinforces the authority of those with power in society, and provides an idealized picture of the world that makes it difficult for anyone to challenge the established order. Although easily disputed (e.g., Werbner 1977; Gellner 1999), Bloch's views continue to receive support. For example, in a recent analysis of kava-drinking (Brison 2001), the author points to the link between the kava ceremony and wider political and cosmological realities. In particular, the ceremony is commonly seen as functioning to reinforce and legitimate notions of authority and rank, partly through the formalization of the language associated with kava-drinking (Feldman 1980). The formalization of speech at Xhosa beer-drinks, however, does not preclude creativity. On the contrary, it is a means of contesting and negotiating rather than imposing meaning (McAllister 1997). This can be extended to the beer-drinking register described here, and the formal semantic units linked to the production, distribution, and consumption of the beer itself.
The lexicon to be considered below concerns the process of brewing, the different occasions for brewing, the names of different kinds of beer distribution, and certain other aspects of beer-drinking etiquette. Certainly, some of these words and terms restrict meaning. For example, the terms describing different types of beer-drinks provide the brewers (a particular homestead in the first instance) with a way of signaling to the wider community what sort of event is to take place. However, choice usually is involved here. A homestead that decides to brew primarily out of the moral obligation to provide hospitality, for example, may lexically signal the event in a variety of ways. In other cases the obligation to brew arises out of particular social circumstances and the event is named accordingly (e.g., beer to mark the end of mourning). Whatever the case, the overall significance and meaning of the event have to be gauged in terms of the specific circumstances and actors involved. Having named the event, the host homestead creates a set of expectations regarding how much beer will be available, how it will be divided, who will receive allocations, and so on, according to local conventions. The lexicon allows these expectations to be expressed and negotiated in precise material terms. Again, although certain kinds of named allocations of beer convey particular symbolic messages, there is often choice concerning factors such as whether to make the allocation, to whom it should go, what size it should be, and at what stage of the proceedings to make it. Thus here, too, meaning is negotiated rather than imposed.
A core part of the Xhosa beer-drinking lexicon applies to almost any beer-drink, while other parts are more specialized and confined to particular types of events. However, there is considerable flexibility in practice concerning the amount of beer brewed, the ways in which it is divided, and the size and destination of the various divisions. These matters are contested and negotiated at every beer-drink, as will become clear below. So although there is a common set of expectations concerning beer allocation and consumption, exactly how this takes place varies with the amount of beer brewed, the people present at the event, the social and economic context in which the event takes place, and so on. The formalization of the lexicon thus provides a conventional framework around which meaning is negotiated in practice. Beer-drinks, their etiquette, and the associated speech provide evidence of an active and reflexive engagement with social realities.
Nonetheless, the common set of expectations linked to beer-drinking, much of which is embedded in the nomenclature of drinking and which can be viewed as a "habitus" (Bourdieu 1977), limits the extent to which agents are free to innovate. One of the most important restrictions at every beer-drink is that the individual brewer (i.e., the head of the homestead at which the event is held) is allowed to control only a small portion of the beer available. The bulk of it is controlled and allocated by the men of the territorial section in which the homestead falls, making every beer-drink not only the affair of an individual or an individual homestead, but also of a community. This partly accounts for the fact that maize beer has not become a commercial commodity in Shixini, as it has in many other parts of Africa (e.g., Holtzman 2001). It is sometimes sold, but the sale is severely curtailed by certain conventions, which receive expression in a set of specialized terms relating to the distribution and consumption of beer for sale. Communal control of beerdrinking of all kinds is linked to the economic interdependence between homesteads that makes life possible in Shixini. A digression is needed to explain this and to set the scene for an understanding of beer-drinks.
TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION
Shixini is divided into ten subwards, each with its own subheadman, who answers to the headman of the ward. Each subward is divided into informal, named sections, each consisting of from twenty to 30 neighboring homesteads. The sections are divided into subsections consisting of small groups of neighboring homesteads. Homesteads are widely scattered rather than clustered into villages, and it is the members of the subward and the subward sections which constitute the key structures for everyday interaction. Land administration, for example, formally in the hands of the headman of the ward (Shixini), in practice takes place at the level of subward and section. Applications for homestead sites (which automatically convey rights to land and other natural resources within the subward) are considered first by the sections, then approved by the subward moot, then communicated to the chief, who makes the allocation official.
Migrant labor and cash remittances are vitally important in maintaining household subsistence and providing agricultural resources, and thus in sustaining everyday local economic practice (livestock husbandry and cultivation), which provide most Shixini homesteads with a considerable part of their annual food requirements. Local agricultural activities turn on co-operation between homesteads and each homestead depends, in this respect, on its position within a network of local co-operating homesteads. It is through this network that shortages of implements,...
NOTE: All illustrations and photos
have been removed from this article.
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