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The Program in Latin America, Caribbean and Latinx Studies is glad to present

Christine Folch (Bacca Foundation Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Duke University), for her talk on the cultural history of Yerba Mate.

From Sacred Brew to Global Commodity: Anthropology, Yerba Mate, and the Changing Geographies of Consumption

Brewed from the dried leaves and tender shoots of an evergreen tree native to South America, yerba mate gives its drinkers the jolt of liquid effervescence many of us get from coffee or tea. By tracing yerba mate production and consumption as they change over time and place, from precolonial Indigenous beginnings to the present, Folch unravels the processes of commodification and their countervailing forces to show how accidents of botany intersect with political economic systems and personal taste. The stories behind the caffeinated infusions we prefer, she finds, are nothing less than the story of how the modern world is put together.

(Reception to follow)

If you would like to attend virtually, please join us at zoom: 880 923 6688 (https://zoom.us/j/8809236688)

Co-sponsored by the Department of Anthropology and LACLxS.