Fazal Masood Malik, Prince Edward Island, Canada
The works of the Promised Messiah (as) are a reflection of Qur’anic teachings and contain treasures awaiting exploration by Ahmadi Muslims. One such nugget that piqued the interest of this author is the statement:
عرب کے ملک میں بھی عیسائ لوگ ہی شرآب لے گے
which approximates to ‘Christians introduced sharab (wine) in Arabia'[1]. Explaining the culture that came with the introduction of wine, Hazrat Ahmad (as) writes:
‘It is notable that the rustic Bedouins of Arabia did not know anything about wine. When Christian migrants arrived, and gave a gift [of wine] to some of their new converts [to Christianity], then this evil culture of intoxication – which they were initiated into, by observing others – spread rampantly and became a habit.[2]
The Promised Messiah (as) made this statement while discussing the moral condition of Christians from before the advent of Islam to a few centuries later.
It is important to analyse the statements of Hazrat Ahmad (as) and establish the veracity of his claims as there does not seem to be an apparent correlation between Christianity and wine in Arabia. This short article analyses historical facts to provide evidence in support of the statements of Hazrat Ahmad (as).
Introduction
The fundamental role wine plays within Christianity cannot be over-emphasized. From its presence at the Last Supper, where wine was in the cup that Jesus (as) passed around amongst his disciples [3], according to the Gospels, to its weekly use in the ritual of Communion [4], wine forms a sacred and integral part of the Christian faith.
The presence and consumption of wine, therefore, spread alongside the spread of Christianity in both its early and later periods as an important religious practice [5]. Writing in the mid-second century, Justin Martyr – perhaps the most famous early Christian apologetic, explained to a group of pagans the meaning of Christianity by specifically describing wine’s usage in the Last Supper. The third-century theologian Hippolytus, also emphasized the use of wine amongst the proper practices of Christians [6]. The importance of wine to the church ensured that viticulture spread wherever missions were established. The Church helped spread the practice of wine drinking, as it became a symbol of religiosity, prestige, and cultural advancement.
Up until the advent of Islam, Christianity had spread from Jordan down to the Makkan city of Ta’if via the Ghassanids; and from Iraq to Yemen through the efforts of the Christians of al-Hira, who were known as the Ibad. Christianity also spread to the large western area of Hejaz (comprising the key economic hubs of Yathrib and Makkah), as well as Najd [7] (the desert area occupied by the Bedouins) but did not gain prevalence in these areas. The wine culture, however, was adopted freely.
In these centuries preceding Islam, wine drinking became so prevalent that taverns would invite the town folks for drinking five times a day. And five times a day, the Bedouin and non-Bedouin alike would respond to the call of the saqi, the wine bearer.[8]
In pre-Islamic Arabia, wine was generally associated with Arabs settled in places like al-Hira, Makkah and Madinah. The monasteries serving these communities were surrounded by vineyards and groves of trees, where they would set up the drinking booths and host various Christian festivals. The expensiveness of wine made it a profitable business.
In short, the Christian mission penetrated far into Arabia and did succeed in spreading some knowledge of Christianity; however, the people of the Arabian Peninsula rarely embraced the values of Christianity as eagerly as they accepted the wine culture. According to Hazrat Ali (ra), ‘those Arabs who converted to Christianity, learned nothing from it, save the drinking of wine.”[9]
Understanding the Time Period
To understand the spread of Christianity and adoption of wine culture into Arabia it is beneficial to understand the social and cultural geography of pre-Islamic Arabia during the first millennium BCE. The time was marked by significant migration, coupled with an exploding trade of frankincense and myrrh. This trade and migration gave rise to a shift in culture, language and religion as different peoples and ideas came together and branched out.
This millennium in Arabia saw the rise of the Sabean kingdom in the West, Yemen in the East, and Oman towards the south of the peninsula. Eastern Arabia came under the control of the Iranian Parthians and Sassanians while the sun set on the Nabateans in the Northwest. One of the major cultures that dominated the Arabian Peninsula in the six centuries preceding the rise of Islam, was that of the nomadic Bedouin people.
The pre-Islamic religions in Arabia consisted of polytheistic beliefs, Judaism, Arabian Christianity, Nestorian Christianity, and Zoroastrianism.
Who are Arabs?
Given that varying groups of people inhabited Arabia, who exactly were the Arabs that the Promised Messiah (as) referred to in his statement? The Arabs were never a distinct ethnic group, similar to how being a Canadian does not reflect ethnicity; nor is language a sufficient criterion of Arabness, since there are many Arabic-speaking Jews who are not normally called Arabs. Categorizing the Arabs as a political entity is also insufficient, as the only time they became politically united was from the advent of Islam to the conquest of Spain.
There was, however, one major group among Arabs that shared some commonality in culture. This was the homogeneous group identified by Hazrat Ahmad (as) as the Bedouin of Arabia [10] who lived in the Najd region.[11] The Bedouin [12] lived in nomadic or semi-nomadic tribes, traveling to grazing pastures, chasing the elusive necessities of food and water throughout the year. The tribes organized themselves around clans of extended family members, as the Bedouin were more tribal than nationalistic.[13]
The mostly arid environment of Arabia prevented the local production of wine, making it a particularly expensive commodity. It was imported from the adjacent regions; mainly from the Eastern Mediterranean, but also from Persia.[14] The Bedouin, whose loyalty resided with the tribe, refused to be bound by the demands of the land. Their world was a cloudless, cool moonlit night, the sharp, throbbing heat of the sun, and the ever-faithful camel. Each tribe subscribed to their own faith, but a common deity found among them was the Semitic God, El.[15] The Bedouin often maintained a symbiotic relationship with one or more oases, which also served as their religious centers. Priests and other guardians of the oases remained fixed, serving the tribes that would visit them when the rainy season was over.[16] Suffice to say that wine was a foreign import, not indigenous to Najd. It was an unknown entity to the wandering Bedouin.[17]
Wine Comes to Arabia
The Bedouin faith and its lack of traditions stood as a challenge to Judaism and Christianity. In the late 3rd century, Christianity was introduced to the Northern Peninsula by way of missionaries called the Ibad (short for Ibad ul Masih) meaning ‘Servants of the Messiah’ [18]. They were named so to reflect their Christian values and their desire to preach.[19] The Ibad especially thrived in the city of al-Hira, which was a hub of Aramaic and Persian culture, intellect, and literature.
The state of Ghassan to the south of Syria and of the Lakhmid Kingdom of al-Hira were home to many Christian sects, such as the Nestorians, Monophysites, Jacobites and even some Melkites.[20] The Christianity that was known among the Arabs in pre-Islamic times was largely of the Syrian type, either Jacobite or Nestorian. In the kingdom of Ghassan the Monophysite Christians were dominant.
From these two states, Christian ideas percolated into the desert, and in particular, by means of the ‘Ibad of al-Hira, who would hold trade fairs for that purpose in the desert, and wine would flow freely to all participants. Some scholars have considered the ‘Ibad as the schoolmasters of the Arabs. The religion and culture of the ‘Ibad were conveyed through various channels, one of them being the trading of wine.[21]
Though Christianity was known only among the wine-traders of al-Hira and Syria, an area dominated by the ‘Ibad, they were, in reality, unofficial missionaries. In the trade fairs they held, the Christian bishops, hermits and wine-traders would discuss Christian doctrine with the Arabs, discussing topics such as the Day of Judgement as well as heaven and hell.[22]
As wine was imported to Arabia by the Church, it was an expensive indulgence and became the primary means to attract the masses towards the message of Christianity.[23] Wine of excellent quality could cost as much as a three-year old baby camel, a highly prized possession of the Bedouin.[24] The importation of wine was initially facilitated by the ‘Ibad, who ultimately became the torchbearers of the wine-culture. They carried with them wine, among other expensive commodities, as tools of preaching.[25] Ultimately, it was in the wine shops that the Gospel had been made known to the Bedouin.[26]
A Note on Wine in Christianity
There is a general belief that the wine mentioned in the Holy Bible in reference to Hadrat Isa (as) (Jesus (as)) and the Marriage at Cana,[1] and the Last Supper,[2] is the same type as we find on the shelves today. For much of human history, ordinary drinking water was not clean or safe. Water-borne pathogens such as cholera, dysentery, and malaria resulted in epidemics and mass deaths. Because of the lack of pure drinking water, beer and wine have long been staples of the human diet,[3] including that of Jews and Christians. The wine was used during worship, festivals, and celebrations [4] and Jewish daily life.[5] Early Christian monks have been known to brew beer and ferment wine.
The words translated to wine in the Holy Bible could refer to any product derived from the grapes. It could have been anything from fresh or reconstituted grape juice to a naturally fermented beverage with a lower alcohol content than the modern wine.
It appears that sometime during the middle of the first century of Christianity, wine culture became prevalent among Christians. This shift towards the wine culture could have been due to Christianity’s spread among wine-drinking nations, such as the Romans.
ENDNOTES
[1] John 2:1-11
[2] Matthew 26:17–30, Mark 14:12–26, Luke 22:7–39 and John 13:1–17:26.
[3] Tulchinsky, Theodore H., and Elena A. Varavikova. “A history of public health.” The New Public Health (2014): Chapter 1.
[4] Numbers 15:10; Luke 22:14–20; John 2:1–11.
[5] Genesis 14:18; Psalm 104:15; Ecclesiastes 10:19.
The Language of Wine
There are a few ways in which we can trace the origins of wine in Arabia. One way is through the language and literature of Arabs, which is intrinsically linked to Arab history. The monotony of nomadic life, the raids, conquests, the luxury of cities, the interaction with other religions, the helplessness, the misery and constant migration—these are all faithfully reflected in Arabic literature and preserved in ‘diwan-al-Arab’, or the register of Arabs. It served as the main repository and tool for negotiating the social, cultural and linguistic identity of the Arabs.[27]
It is interesting to note that not only did the Christian faith from the Nestorian Church in Syria travel to Arabia via al-Hira, but so did the language of Syria, the Aramaic language. Tracing the roots of some keywords, we find that khamr, the word for wine, came from Aramaic. Even the word for date-wine, nabidah, is a loan word from Aramaic, just like the words used to indicate places where wine was available, for example punduk or the tavern, which eventually became funduk (or hotel) in Arabic.[28]
A similar pattern can be seen within the literature of pre-Islamic Arabia. Poets at the time were highly esteemed and considered torch-bearers of culture. Their influence within a tribe was so great that occasionally, in lieu of wars that would shed blood, some tribes would hold poetry duels with their rivals, to determine the fate of the tribe.[29]
Two famous poets of this era were Umayya bin Abi al-Salt [30], who flourished in Ta’if, a city influenced by the Ghassanids and their overlord, Byzantium. Another pre-Islamic Christian poet [31] of significant influence was Adi bin Zaid [32] of al-Hira.
The poetry of Umayya bin Abi al-Salt is full of biblical stories, and he would often use words that the Arabs of his time did not understand. History indicates that he used the Gospels as his source. The poems of Abi al-Salt, together with those of Adi bin Zaid, held a significant influence over the people of the desert.
Their praise of Christianity, their worship of wine and the depiction of wine-culture portrayed a sense of indulgence and security that transported the Bedouin from their harsh life into a realm of pleasure. These narratives were attractive to the minds of the Arabs and encouraged some of them to abandon their idolatry. One such person who had travelled the length of Arabia in search of the truth was Waraqah bin Nawfal, the cousin of Hazrat Khadijah (ra). It was Waraqah bin Nawfal whom the Holy Prophet (sa) spoke to after the first revelation at the Cave of Hira. Influenced by the poetry of Adi bin Zaid, Waraqah refused to eat the meat of the ‘ata’ir (the idol sacrifices), became a devoted Christian, and spent much of his time reading and translating the Gospels to Arabic [33].
Another form of Arab literature affected by this wine culture was the poetic form known as Ghazal. Ghazal was usually sensual in nature and described the nobility of wine festivals, focusing on the saqi (wine servers) and the singing girls. Mostly, these roles would be played by women of Christian or Zoroastrian origin. These poems would also, quite often, celebrate the beauty of nuns; this was due to the fact that the wine-shops were usually situated near monasteries that provided them with wine. The Bedouins were encouraged to halt for a while and spend a night or two in those religious places, thus having the opportunity of seeing the nuns and portraying their charm in their verses.
The emergence of Islam in the 7th century changed the dynamics of the Arabian society. Bedouin, farmers, traders, and city dwellers alike found a path freeing them from the burden of false hatred and expectations. The society, no longer needing to sink their sorrows in wine, found a new meaning. And Allah’s love turned the five daily calls from the tavern, inviting the folk towards drinking wine, to five daily calls inviting them towards prosperity and goodness.[34]
Wine and Christianity: A Connection in the Modern World
The case of khamr being introduced to a society by Christian missionaries is not unique by any measure. As little as 200 years ago, the Maori of New Zealand [35] did not know of alcohol, or intoxicants for that matter. When missionary traders came to Alaska [36] (Western America) and Inuik [37] (Northeastern Canada) in the mid-1700s, they introduced alcohol and guns to the native population.[38] Furthermore, even though the Indigenous population of the Central and South American continent had been brewing intoxicants for over a millennia, it was only with the arrival of Christopher Columbus and Christian Europeans in the 1400s that wine-drinking became prevalent in the region.[39]
Future Research Directions
The Arabian Peninsula played a vital role in the wine trade from the 2nd century BCE to about the 7th century AD. However, a vast region of the desert did not adopt the wine-culture or wine-drinking. Even the areas that facilitated wine-trade, such as Makkah, Najran, Himyar and Northern Arabia where Nabateans thrived, wine-drinking did not take root till about the 3rd Century AD. While this paper establishes the influence of the ‘Ibadis as the wine traders and that of Jews and Zoroastrians (who operated the taverns); it does not investigate the influence of Nabateans and the post-Nabatean era of the Byzantine on the wine-drinking culture in Arabia. Further research in this area is needed to provide further evidence in support of the statement of the Promised Messiah (as) that wine-drinking culture was established in Arabia with the advent of Christianity.
About the Author: Fazal Masood Malik is an avid educator of Islamic values in contemporary society. He has travelled extensively in Atlantic Canada and the Prairies, educating people about Islam. His biography of the Promised Messiah (as) is currently under publication review. His articles have appeared in various publications, such as Kindly Heretics (a biography of Ahmadi Muslims worldwide).
ENDNOTES
[1] Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), Nur al-Qur’an 1, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 9 (2008), page 351.
[2] Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), Nur al-Quran 1, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 9 (2008), page 352.
[3] The last meal that Jesus (as) shared with his disciples is described in all four canonical Gospels (Matthew 26:17–30, Mark 14:12–26, Luke 22:7–39 and John 13:1–17:26).
[4] John 6:53-56 ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.’
[5] For a superb discussion of how the early church attracted and maintained membership and spreadout to rest of the world, see: Alikin, Valeriy A. “The Origin Of The Weekly Gathering In The Early Church.’ In The Earliest History of the Christian Gathering: Origin, Development and Content of the Christian Gathering in the First to Third Centuries, 17-78. LEIDEN; BOSTON: Brill, 2010. www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctt1w76wv6.6.
[6] Hippolytus (Antipope), and Gregory Dix. Apostolikē Paradosis: The Treatise on the Apostolic Tradition of St. Hippolytus of Rome, Bishop and Martyr (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1992) pp. Xl, 3, 10, 40, 41, 77.
[7] Sharifah M. AlOboudi. “Najd, The Heart of Arabia.” Arab Studies Quaterly 37, no.3 (2015): 282-99. https://doi.org/10.131169/arabstudquar.37.3.0282.
[8] Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), Nur al-Quran 1, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 9 (2008), page 352.
[9] al-Musannaf by ‘Abd ar-Razzaq as-Sana’ani (d. 827 CE), ed. Habib ar-Rahman al-A’zami, 1970, Beirut: al-Majlis al-‘Ilmi, vol. 7, pg. 186
[10] Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), Nur al Qur’an 1, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 9, pp 351-2, footnote.
[11] Kurt Franz, “The Bedouin in History or Bedouin History?.” Nomadic Peoples 15, no. 1 (2011): 11-53.
[12] “Bedouin.” in The Oxford Dictionary of Islam., edited by John L. Esposito. Oxford Islamic Studies Online, https://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e330 (accessed 14-Nov-2019). The subject of Bedouin is a fascinating one. For an interesting account see: Katsap A., Silverman F.L. Bedouins. in: Ethnomathematics of Negev Bedouins’ Existence in Forms, Symbols and Geometric Patterns. SensePublishers (Rotterdam, 2016). https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-6209-950-0_2. Also, see Hitti P.K. (1970) “Bedouin Life”. In: History of the Arabs. (London: Palgrave, 1970).
[13] For a detailed background on the geography of Bedouin, their settlement and role in the first 6 centuries, and early post-Islamic period see Holt. The Cambridge History of Islam, Vol. 2B. (1970): pp. 443-468. Also ” Bedouization of Arabia”
[14] On Flora in Araba, see Hazrat Mirza Bashir Ahmad (ra), The Life & Character of the Seal of Prophets (sa) – vol I. pp 55-61. On viticulture in Arabia see: Heine, Peter. Weinstudien. Untersuchungenzu Anbau, Produktionund Konsumdes Weinsimarabisch-islamischen Mittelalter. Wiesbaden 1982; Lutz, Henry Frederick. Viticulture and Brewing in the Ancient Orient. Leipzig 1922; and Jacob, Georg. Altarabisches Beduinenlebennachden Quellengeschildert. Berlin 1897:96–109.
[15] Henninger, Joseph. “Pre-Islamic bedouin religion.” The Arabs and Arabia on the Eve of Islam (1999): 109-128. For more details of concept of God among the Semities, see: Curtiss, Samuel Ives. “Conceptions of God among Modern Semites.” The Biblical World 19, no. 2 (1902): 122-131.
[16] Henninger, Joseph. “Pre-Islamic bedouin religion.” The Arabs and Arabia on the Eve of Islam (1999): 109-128.
[17] Cassius Dio, Dio’s Roman History, trans, volume VI. Book LIII. pp. 269-71. See also: Ammianus Marceliinus, The Roman History, trans. C.D.Yonge, section IV. p. 11-12
[18] Hunter, Erica CD. The Christian matrix of al-Hira. (2008): 41-56. To understand how al-Hira influenced Arabia, from Hejaz to Bahrain, see Kister, M. J., and Ali Aksu. “Some notes on its relations with Arabia.” Cumhuriyet Ilahiyat Dergisi-Cumhuriyet Theology Journal 9, no. 1 (2005): 29ff. Also see: Wood, Philip. “Al-Ḥīra and Its Histories.” Journal of American Oriental Society 136, no. 4 (2016): 785-799.
[19] Aloys Grillmeier, Theresia Hainthaler. Christ in Christian Tradition. V2. P315, footnote 56. The Ibad were attached to the Nestorian Christianity and were strong in wine trade, especially to Arabia; see Rothstein, Gustav. Die dynastie der Lahmiden in al-Hîra: Ein versuch zur arabisch-persischen geschichte zur zeit der Sasaniden. Vol. 1. Reuther & Reichard, 1899. p 21-25.
[20] De Lacy, O’Leary. Arabia before Muhammad. Routledge, 2013. p 125-149. An excellent introduction to the subject of Christianity in the Arabia during the first 6 centuries, is given in the two gunning lectures by Richard Bell. See Bell, Richard. “The Origin of Islam in its Christian Environment: The Gunning Lectures, Edinburgh University, 1925 Islam and the Muslim World, Edited by John Ralph Willis.” Abingdon, UK: Frank Cass & Co (1968).
[21] Aloys Grillmeier. Theresia Hainthaler. Christ in Christian Tradition. V2. P315, footnote 56. The Ibad were attached to the Nestorian Christianity and were strong in wine trade, especially to Arabia; see Rothstein, Gustav. Die dynastie der Lahmiden in al-Hîra: Ein versuch zur arabisch-persischen geschichte zur zeit der Sasaniden. Vol. 1. Reuther & Reichard, 1899. p 21-25. See also Nicholson, Reynold A. Literary history of the Arabs. Routledge, 1993. Opinion cited p. 39. And Jeffery, Arthur. The foreign vocabulary of the Qur’ān. Brill, 2007. pp 21-22. And Power, Edmond. “The Prehistory of Islam.” Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review (1913): 204-221. See also Thompson, Andrew David. “Ibadi Theology and Christian Engagement.” In Christianity in Oman, pp. 53-84. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2019.
[22] Irfan Shahid, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fourth Century. (Dumbarton Oaks, 1984), pp. 525ff. See also: Shahid, Irfan. “Chapter Six: The Rise of Eastern Churches and their Heritage (5th-8th Century) The Arab Christian Tradition.” Christianity: a history in the Middle East (2005).
[23] Thompson, Andrew David. “Beginnings: The Early Church.” In Christianity in Oman, (Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2019) pp. 27-51.
[24] Toral-Niehoff, Isabel. “Late Antique Iran and the Arabs: The Case of al-Hira.” Journal of Persianate Studies 6, no. 1-2 (2013): 115-126.
[25] This trading of the ‘Ibad gave rise to the term tajir (trader).
[26] One filled wine-skin could cost as much as a three-year old camel, see: Jacob, Georg. Altarabisches Beduinenlebennachden Quellengeschildert. Berlin 1897:104, and also Lutz, Henry Frederick. Viticulture and Brewing in the Ancient Orient, Leipzig 1922: 151. Also Hurat, C. Une Nouvelle Source du Quran, Journal Asiatique Dixieme Serie, Tome IV, Paris. 1904. pp 129-31. For discussion and understanding of Gospel being taught in the tavern see Feins, Daniel Scott. “Wine and Islam: the dichotomy between theory and practice in early Islamic history.” PhD diss., University of Edinburgh, 1997. Also No shortage of taverns Morony, Michael G. Iraq after the Muslim Conquest. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984. p. 370.
[27] Allen, Roger. Arabic Literature in Encyclopaedia Britannica (2018). https://www.britannica.com/art/Arabic-literature Site Accessed on: November 19, 2019
[28] See entry on aHmar and Xamr in Shivtiel, Avihai. “Judaeo-Romance and Judaeo-Arabic Word-list from the Genizah.” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 34, no. 1 (2007): 63-74. For etymology of word Khamr, see Elatri, Saleh. “Les Rapports Etymologiques et Semantiques des Langues Classiques et de la Langue Arabe.” 1974. pp 337-8. Cf. ‘khamr’,EI1 (A. J. Wensinck), EI2 (A. J. Wensinck – J. Fadan); ‘nabidh’, EI1 (A. J. Wensinck), EI2 (P. Heine)
[29] To gain a better understanding of this topic, see Nicholson, Reynold A. Literary history of the Arabs. Routledge, 1993
[30] Mongomery, J. E., “Umayya B. Abi-I-Salt”. EI-2, v 10. p 839.
[31] Adi b. Zaid of al-Hira reflects a considerable extent the Christian doctrine in the form in which it was adopted by the Arabs. Scholars such as Isabel Toral-Niehoff, have drawn attention to the significant Christian themes in Adi’s poetry.
[32] Gabrieli, F. ”Adi B. Zayd,” EI-2. V.1. p 196.
[33] ʻAbd al-Malik Ibn Hishām, Alfred Guillaume, and Muḥammad Ibn Isḥāq. The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ishāq’s Sīrat Rasūl Allah, with Introduction and Notes by A. Guillaume. Oxford University Press, 1967. p.99
[34] Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), Nur al-Qur’an 1, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol.9 (2008), 352.
[35] Hutt, Marten. Te Iwi Maori Me Te Inu Waipiro: He Tuhituhinga Hitori: Maori & Alcohol: a History. Health Services Research Centre for Kaunihera Whakatupato Waipiro o Aotearoa/Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand (ALAC), 1999.
[36] Lee, Nella. “Impossible mission: A history of the legal control of native drinking in Alaska.” Wicazo Sa Review 12, no. 2 (1997): 95-109.
[37] Heath, Dwight B. “Alcohol Use among North American Indians A Cross-Cultural Survey of Patterns and Problems.” In Research Advances in Alcohol and Drug Problems, (Springer, Boston, MA, 1983.) pp. 343-396.
[38] Göcke, Katja. “Recognition and Enforcement of Indigenous Peoples’ Land Rights in Alaska, the Northern Regions of Canada, Greenland, and Siberia and the Russian Far East.” The Yearbook of Polar Law Online 4, no. 1 (2012): 279-304. Some parts of Northern Canada did not have alcohol til mid-20th Century, for example, see Honigmann, John J., and Irma Honigmann. “How Baffin Island Eskimo have learned to use alcohol.” Social Forces 44, no. 1 (1965): 73-83.
[39] Pierce, Gretchen, ed. Alcohol in Latin America: A Social and Cultural History. University of Arizona Press, 2014. See section 1 (Chapters 1 to 3) for a comprehensive overview. And Harvey, Sean P. “Ideas of race in early America.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History. 2016. See also, Colpitts, George. “Commerce and Imagination in America’s Indian Trade. In North America’s Indian Trade in European Commerce and Imagination, 1580-1850, pp. 1-21. BRILL, 2014.
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