Make America Drunk Again Red Plastic Cups
Who here has not enjoyed a cold, refreshing drink from a carmine plastic cup? Alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages alike find themselves comfortably enclosed inside the confines of the bright reddish vessel that has become a ubiquitous American staple at barbecues, picnics, parties, in dugouts and at modest league games, in food cars and at lunch trucks, and even as a concluding resort at dive bars—and, of grade, college students' dorms and apartments, where it also functions as a key component in Flip Cup and Beer Pong.
Your drinking vessel may indeed touch your imbibing experience, but the reddish plastic cup serves as the peachy equalizer in drinking activities—from the top shelf to the supermarket shelf, the scarlet plastic loving cup captures and contributes to the spirit of the occasion. It helps make bitter alcohol a more pleasant experience. Afterwards all, how tin can it be distasteful if information technology'due south delivered from the study depths of the cheerily colored vessel? Packaging matters! Drinking practices carry their own distinct rules and expectations relating to the historic period, gender, and status. The red plastic cup crosses many of these boundaries to effigy prominently in American drinking community.
The about famous of all the red plastic cups is produced past Solo, the long time producer of single use products that are sold virtually everywhere. Founded in 1936, the "paper container" manufacturer produced a paper cone cup that typically went with water coolers. A wax-lined cup used in the 1950s for fountain sodas and takeaway drinks might be viewed as precursor to the signature reddish cup in terms of sturdiness and widespread adoption. The red plastic loving cup first appeared in the 1970s and worked its manner into popular civilisation seamlessly—even spawning a empty-headed, simply fun ode by country vocalist Toby Keith (which nosotros volition get to soon plenty). Solo'due south simple design for the carmine loving cup has been easy for competitors to copy, simply in recent years the company has implemented pocket-size but noticeable changes—such as a square bottom, indented grips, and Solo embossed on the side—to add farther distinction for customers looking for the brand. Consumers can rest bodacious that the design changes take not impacted the functionality of the carmine cup—so flip away, or ahem, drink out of it without fright it will slip out of your hands.
Social drinking is a ritualized act. In that location are certain social codes of consumption that help define the feel by setting expectations and establishing appropriate or acceptable behaviors. Anthropologist William Donner documented social rules surrounding toddy drinking in Sikaiana, a small Polynesian atoll in the Solomon Islands. (Toddy seems a generic proper name for drinks made from fermented palm. In this example, toddy is made by fermenting the sap of coconut shoots.) Donner found that drinking reorganized the community, assuasive boundaries to be renegotiated. Part of this stems from the means in which drink is shared. In Sikaiana, toddy distribution follows a rather specific format which helps establish the community as a place of equality:
"Participants form a circle. They benefactor pours a portion and passes information technology to one person in the group. This person drinks the loving cup until its is empty, usually in i drink. And so he returns the cup to the distributor and another serving of the exact same size is poured for the next person. This continues until everyone in the grouping has had a turn and so the distributor starts another round. If a person arrives late, the benefactor may offering him a larger portion then that the latecomer can grab upward with the people who are already drinking. In larger groups, several cups are passed out simultaneously, but ever in a circular way then that everyone is given an equal corporeality to drinkable" (1994: 250).
Amongst the Xhosa, beer is likewise consumed in accordance with a social code. At a beer-drink (a public drinking event), the beer is kept in either cast-iron pots or plastic or wooden containers, and served in tin beakers (baton cans) of various sizes:
"When beer is allocated, the host section's mast of ceremonies points out the size of the beaker considering the receivers take certain expectations in this regard based on the current state of their beer-substitution relationship with the givers. So a tin of beer given to a neighboring group may exist announced with advisedly chosen words, such as 'This is your beaker, it is a full iqhwina [seven liters], every bit information technology should be when at that place is a full cask for men' " (McAllister 2003: 197).
The drinking vessel is fundamental to this experience. It's an equalizing factor and a measure of consistency for attendees. It besides serves as the entry-point for the temporary social community that has gathered. Drinking from the cup confirms attendance at the issue and authorizes participation in subsequent event activities—chat, singing, dancing, joking and laughing, fifty-fifty confrontations are mediated by drinkable and cup possession.
Our red plastic cups work similarly. Loving cup in mitt, we mingle. Liberated by the social permission granted by the ruddy plastic loving cup, we grab upwardly with old friends and brand new ones. Information technology becomes a cistron that connects attendees at the upshot—we all have a red plastic cup, then we all belong. And we assert that these cups are ours by writing our name on them, which further making them a handy tool for socialization. This sort of possession also minimizes the burden on our hosts to accept a bounty of cups available for guests. (In college and in grad school, nosotros wrote our names on cups considering we paid for them at parties and it was in our interest to keep track of our cups.) The practice also functions to manage our alcohol consumption. We get a cup at an event and we're free to fill it with whatsoever of the available options. It holds roughly the aforementioned amount for anybody—or least it gives the illusion of equality with regard to the ratios in mixed drinks. Amongst the Sikaiana, the benefactor/host determines how much is poured into the cup for each round and how long to await between rounds:
"Serving large portions and not waiting between rounds will cause the participants to become boozer apace. On the other hand, subsequently such a happy state of inebriation has been reached, the distributor may decide to slow the pace of drinking in social club to control the level of intoxication and preserve the supply of toddy (Donner 1994: 250).
While nosotros may not necessarily be served in the same way with our red plastic cups (that might exist a downer of a party to nourish), our named cups provide a mode to monitor access to drinks. If you lose your cup, you might exist out of luck. Information technology tin also be a signal that the cup-less should maybe be cut-off, especially when it'southward articulate that the de-cupped has passed beyond happy, joyful drinking to disruptive beliefs.
The red plastic loving cup may have a chip of a party-fauna reputation. It's inappreciably likely you'll be drinking fine wine or quality spirits from a red plastic cup. Or that you'll discover a red plastic loving cup at a feast or gala. The red plastic cup is a champion of the everyday and and the unpretentious. It suggests a relaxed, convival atmosphere and invites everyone to bring together the party. It won't reveal the contents contained so whether it'due south booze, tea, fruit juice, or water, anybody belongs and everyone can participate.
So whatever your preference, raise your cherry plastic cup.
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References:
Bunimovitz, South., & Greenberg, R. (2004). Revealed in Their Cups: Syrian Drinking Customs in Intermediate Statuary Historic period Canaan Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (334) DOI: ten.2307/4150104
Donner, W. (1994). Alcohol, Customs, and Modernity: The Social Organization of Toddy Drinking in a Polynesian Society Ethnology, 33 (3) DOI: 10.2307/3774009
Magennis, H. (1985). The Cup equally Symbol and Metaphor in Old English Literature Speculum, sixty (three) DOI: 10.2307/2848173
McAllister, P. (2003). Culture, Do, and the Semantics of Xhosa Beer-Drinking Ethnology, 42 (3) DOI: 10.2307/3773800
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Source: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/theres-more-to-that-red-plastic-cup-than-you-thought/
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