On Wednesday, October 23 at 4:15 p.m. (in the Gendebein Room, Skillman Library) Professor Rebekah Pite will offer a presentation on her latest book, Sharing Yerba Mate: How South America’s Most Popular Drink Defined a Region (UNC, 2023). Professor Ben R. Cohen will be the discussant. Please join us for a stimulating presentation and discussion!
Drinking yerba mate is a daily, communal ritual that has brought together South Americans for some five centuries. 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. 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.
Rebekah E. Pite is Professor of History at Lafayette College and Department Head. A social and cultural historian who researches and writes about food, labor, and everyday life in Argentina and the Río de Plata region, Sharing Yerba Mate (UNC, 2023) is her most recent book.
This event is co-sponsored by the History Department and the Lafayette College Libraries. Refreshments will be served.