Chicha as water: Traditional fermented beer consumption among forager-horticulturalists in the Bolivian Amazon

Since the agricultural revolution, traditional fermented beers served social and dietary functions, including hydration. There are longstanding customs of producing, consuming, and socializing with home-made beers. However, because they are time- and labour-intensive to produce, shifts away from traditional beers often occur with the introduction of market alcohols, which may not fulfil the dietary functions of traditional beers. This paper uses nine years of longitudinal data from 963 Tsimane' Bolivian forager-horticulturalist adults to examine how the consumption of chicha, a traditional fermented beer, and market alcohol changed during a period of increased market integration from 2002 to 2010. It then uses cross-sectional dietary recall data with 45 adults to estimate chicha contributions to water intake. Our findings suggest that chicha consumption has decreased over time for women but not men. Chicha consumption, while more common, was strongly predictive of market alcohol consumption. Chicha contributed 1 litre to water needs for men and 0.6 litre for women. The increased drive to produce cash crops may not only limit the availability of preferred crops for chicha but also reduce the amount of time available to spend making chicha. Alternatives for making water more palatable, such as adding store-bought water flavouring powders, could further reduce traditional chicha consumption thereby having potential implications on daily social life and ripple effects on nutrition and hydration.