• From Illegal to Industrial? The Uneven Geographies of Agave Spirits in Sonora and Beyond
• Noah Silber-Coats and Emma J. Lawlor (bio)

In grocery and liquor stores, bars and restaurants, U.S. consumers can now find a dazzling array of agave-based spirits—tequila, mezcal, and even the occasional bottle of the less familiar bacanora from Sonora. Bon Appetit magazine calls bacanora “the agave spirit we’ve always wanted,” advising readers, “don’t think, just buy” (Goldberg 2015).

The bottles of mezcal lining the shelf of your local Safeway—one in Tucson now carries five of the roughly 120 brands¹ available in the U.S.—are one expression of a “[hu]man-agave symbiosis” that spans millennia (Gentry 1982, 3). Specifically, they embody a subset of this symbiosis that has been undertaken for just over four centuries: converting carbohydrates stored in the stem of the succulent plant into sugars, fermenting those sugars into ethanol, and distilling the result into a concentrated spirit.

The bottles on the shelf may say something of their origin—of the plants used, how and where they were grown, by whom they were harvested, and how they were transformed into spirits. They may evoke haciendas and plantations, or humble villages. Then again, they may guard their secrets closely.

As a subset of the broader human-agave relationship, this article refers to the widely varied relations and practices through which this liquor is produced and consumed as components of the mezcal spirit complex.²

The mezcal spirit complex encompasses, firstly, the life cycle and ecology of the agave plants on which it is based. This includes the reproductive strategies of the plant, modified in various ways by human intervention, along with its population dynamics in cultivated and wild settings (and in settings that blur the line between the two). In order to produce mezcal spirits, these plants must be alienated from their ecological [End Page 731] context. How living plants are transformed into a raw material—whether harvested in the wild by an individual, or by a crew of workers on a plantation—constitutes the second dimension of the complex. Third, the ways in which agave is transformed into spirits constitute another important variable. Each aspect of this process varies both in its technical aspects—how the agave is cooked, fermented, and distilled—as well as in its social organization. Production may be a family affair, or an industrial process overseen by technocratic managers. Fourth, the relationship between cultivation of agave and production of mezcal liquor is also highly variable—these processes may be integrated into one enterprise or mediated through a market. Once distilled, the way mezcal moves from producer to consumer and the meaning derived from its consumption encompass a fifth dimension of the complex.

At each of these stages, the mezcal spirit complex articulates with broader political-economic processes. Production of mezcal may expand or contract in response to demand from growing urban populations, efforts to promote export-led economic growth, or the livelihood strategies of a precarious rural population. All of this takes place in relationship to the Mexican state, which has variously prohibited, promoted, and otherwise shaped the trajectories of the mezcal spirit complex.

Our guiding question is, what are the characteristics of the mezcal spirit complex in Sonora? And, in what ways does the Sonoran regional variation of this complex articulate with those operating in other regions of Mexico? This paper does not intend to provide a comprehensive overview of every aspect of the mezcal spirit complex. Instead, our aim is to highlight broad shifts in the relations that constitute this complex and the uneven geographies that result from these shifts.

Our principal argument is that the mezcal spirit complex is currently dominated by a formation that perpetuates social inequality and environmental degradation. As the mezcal industry expands in Sonora, these features may be replicated, but important differences in context suggest the possibility of different patterns and outcomes than those seen elsewhere.

The article proceeds as follows: In the next section, we begin with a description of agave and mezcal nomenclature that provides an important foundation for the following discussion. In sections three, four, and five, we narrate one version...

• 从非法到工业？索诺拉及其周边地区龙舌兰精神的不平坦地理位置
• Noah Silber-Coats和Emma J. Lawlor（生物）

现在，在杂货店和酒类商店，酒吧和餐馆，美国消费者可以找到许多令人眼花乱的龙舌兰酒，例如龙舌兰酒，梅斯卡尔酒，甚至还有一瓶索诺拉（Sonora）不太熟悉的bacanora 。《 Bon Appetit》杂志将bacanora称为“我们一直想要的龙舌兰精神”，并建议读者“不要以为买就可以”（Goldberg，2015年）。

在您当地的Safeway货架上排列的一堆mezcal瓶（图森中的一个现在承载着美国大约120个品牌中的五个^1），是跨越千年的“龙舌兰共生”的一种表达（Gentry 1982， 3）。具体来说，它们体现了这种共生作用的一个子集，这种共生作用已经进行了四个多世纪：将存储在肉质植物茎中的碳水化合物转化为糖，将这些糖发酵为乙醇，并将结果蒸馏为浓缩酒精。

架子上的瓶子可以说出它们的来历—使用过的植物，它们的种植方式和生长地点，收割的人以及如何将它们转变为烈酒。他们可能会让人联想起庄园和种植园，或者是不起眼的村庄。再说一遍，他们可以严密保护自己的秘密。

作为更广泛的人与龙舌兰关系的子集，本文指的是多种多样的关系和实践，通过这些关系和实践，这种酒作为梅斯卡尔精神综合体的组成部分进行生产和消费。^2个

梅斯卡尔精神综合体首先包括其所基于的龙舌兰植物的生命周期和生态。这包括植物的繁殖策略，在人工和野生环境下（以及在模糊两者之间的环境中），通过人工干预以各种方式对其进行了修改，以及种群动态。为了产生灵气，必须将这些植物与它们的生态疏远[End Page 731]语境。不论植物是由个人还是由人工种植在野外采摘的，如何将活植物转化为原材料构成了建筑群的第二个方面。第三，龙舌兰转化为精神的方式构成了另一个重要变量。此过程的每个方面在技术方面（龙舌兰如何烹饪，发酵和蒸馏）以及社会组织方面都有所不同。生产可能是家庭事务，或者是由技术专家管理的人监督的工业过程。第四，龙舌兰的栽培与梅斯卡尔酒的生产之间的关系也高度可变-这些过程可以整合到一个企业中，也可以通过市场进行调节。蒸馏后

在这些阶段的每一个阶段，宏伟的精神情结都伴随着更广泛的政治经济过程。由于城市人口的增长，为促进出口导向型经济增长而做出的努力或不稳定的农村人口的生计策略，梅斯卡尔的生产可能会扩大或收缩。所有这一切都是与墨西哥州发生的，墨西哥州已经不同程度地禁止，促进和塑造了墨西哥精神综合体的发展轨迹。

我们的指导性问题是，索诺拉（Sonora）气概灵群的特征是什么？而且，这种复杂地区的Sonoran区域变化与墨西哥其他地区的变化有何联系？本文无意全面介绍中枢精神综合体的各个方面。相反，我们的目的是强调构成这种复杂关系的关系的广泛变化，以及由于这些变化而造成的地势不均。

我们的主要论点是，中庸的精神情结目前由一种导致社会不平等和环境恶化的组织占主导地位。随着Sonora音乐市场的发展，这些功能可能会被复制，但背景方面的重要差异表明与其他地区所看到的模式和结果不同的可能性。

本文的内容如下：在下一节中，我们将从龙舌兰和Mezcal命名法的描述开始，为后面的讨论提供重要的基础。在第三，第四和第五部分中，我们叙述一个版本...