Join a book talk with Prof. Rebekah E. Pite on Sharing Yerba Mate: How South America’s Most Popular Drink Defined a Region (UNC, 2023) with Ben Cohen, engineering studies professor, as discussant.
Drinking yerba mate is a daily communal ritual that has brought together South Americans for some five centuries. 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. 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. 4:15–6:15 p.m. Wed., Oct. 23 • Skillman Library, Gendebien Room • MORE
Submitted by: Rachel Goshgarian