Sharing Yerba Mate - by Rebekah E Pite (Paperback)

About the Book

"Rebekah Pite's examination of mate consumption offers a lens into the everyday life and identity formation in a region often studied individually by country or through comparative politics. The book travels through the top-consuming nations of Argentina and Uruguay; visits Paraguay, the original home of yerba mate; and enters southern Brazil, the second largest producer after Argentina, the main supplier of the Uruguayan market, and a significant consumer in its own right. Pite also analyzes ... the promotion and consumption of yerba mate in other global markets in South America (especially Chile), the Middle East, Europe, and the US, where yerba mate is widely sold in health food stores, online, and in cafes, especially in California, which has a robust 'super food' market and culture"--

Book Synopsis

Drinking yerba mate is a daily, communal ritual that has brought together South Americans for some five centuries. In lively prose and with vivid illustrations, Rebekah E. Pite explores how this Indigenous infusion, made from the naturally caffeinated leaves of a local holly tree, became one of the most distinctive and widely consumed beverages in the region. Latin American food and commodity studies have focused on consumption in the global north, but Pite tells the story of yerba mate in South America, illuminating dynamic and exploitative circuits of production, promotion, and consumption. Ideas about who should harvest and serve yerba mate, along with visions of the archetypical mate drinker, persisted and were transformed alongside the shifting politics of class, race, and gender.

This global history takes us from the colonial Río de la Plata to the top yerba-consuming and producing nations of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, with excursions to Chile, the Middle East, Europe, and the United States, where yerba mate is now sold as a "superfood." For readers eager to understand South America and its unique drink, Sharing Yerba Mate is an essential text that delves into an everyday ritual to expose systems of power and the taste of belonging.

Review Quotes

"Pite, however, introduces her readers to what is, most likely, unknown to them: a multifaceted ritual that moves from preparation to consumption. . . . She also explores its sociocultural meanings. She carefully maps out the path that she follows throughout the book, always graced with copious observation. . . . This book guarantees a thought-provoking and very pleasurable read. It will become a widely cited source, welcomed by scholars from many different fields."--Environmental History

"A well-researched, engaging, and important look at yerba mate's history and geography of cultivation and consumption from the precolonial era to the present. . . . Sharing Yerba Mate is an engaging and enjoyable read, enlightening and accessible to those interested in the history of the region, as well those interested in the history of stimulants and rituals of consumption generally."--American Historical Review

"Beautifully written and solidly grounded in multisite archival research. Pite displays a command of scholarly methodologies of the histories of Latin America, nationalism, and commodities, as well as visual culture and food studies."--Jeffrey M. Pilcher, author of Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food

"Like an expert cebadora, Pite serves up a rich, complex, and deeply sensory brew--a story of yerba mate that spans centuries, empires, nations, environments, trade circuits, and preparations, yet fits satisfyingly in our hands. Throughout, Pite reveals how yerba mate's production and consumption created bonds of community among South Americans even as it bound many in enduring hierarchies of difference and exploitation."--Paulina L. Alberto, Harvard University, author of Black Legend: The Many Lives of Raúl Grigera and the Power of Racial Storytelling in Argentina

"Pite deftly navigates the changes in late colonial territory to trace how the widespread usage of ka'a crossed social classes . . . [and the book's] excellent visual and written analysis includes a vast number of primary sources produced by writers, painters, and naturalists from Europe and the United States."--H-Diplo

"Pite succeeds in crafting an innovative history social history, one which centers on yerba mate and explores its producers, its consumers and its servers. . . . Sharing Yerba Mate is an entertaining and clear contribution to multiple aspects of the historiography of the Southern Cone. Pite successfully delves into themes of nationalism, gender, racism, and social history all through the lens of yerba mate's evolution. . . . [T]his is an excellently researched and theoretically situated work that contributes to numerous historical fields, while also being an accessible text for scholars and history students alike."--Journal of Social History

"Working from the premise that the culture surrounding yerba mate (ka'a) needs to be studied from a broad regional perspective, Pite confidently crosses linguistic and political boundaries to shed light on how the infusion has shaped ideas about class, race, gender, and nation in southern South America."--Bridget Chesterton, author of The Grandchildren of Solano López: Frontier and Nation in Paraguay, 1904-1936