當西方琴酒遇到臺灣荖葉的社會與醫療新路徑

New Social and Medical Approaches to the Encounter between Western Gin and Taiwanese Piper Betel

本文採用公共人類學的角度。首先，回顧人類學的酒研究，勾勒出局限和等待突破的困境，再以藥酒的具體實踐，透過技術面與分享式試驗，開啟酒研究更多的可能性。再者，西方的琴酒與臺灣的荖葉都具有醫療效果，但人們經常脫離醫療面向來使用它們，所以琴酒與荖葉在歷史上，都曾受到社會與政治因素而產生濫用與污名的現象，其背後卻也充滿時代精神的象徵。最後，將荖葉、琴酒定位為中西共構的痛風防治，透過兩種不同文化中的物質、社會、政治元素，重新理解酒與健康的關係，提供酒更多公共意涵。在飲食文化研究中，食療角度是理解不同時代已發生和未來可能展開的新路徑之一。

This article uses the perspective of public anthropology. It first reviews anthropological research on alcohol and outlines its limitations and dilemmas. Then it uses the specific practice of medicinal wine and its technical aspects along with shared experiments to open up more possibilities for alcohol research. Western gin and Taiwanese piper betel both have medical effects. However, people often use them without regard for their medical properties. Both gin and piper betel have been abused and thus stigmatized by social and political factors in history, but behind them are also symbols of the spirit of the times. Finally, the article examines gin wine and its use in a combination of Chinese and Western medicine for the prevention and treatment of gout, and reconsiders the relationship between alcohol and health through the material, social, and political elements in two different cultures, and re-examines alcohol in more public connotations. This article believes that from the perspective of food culture, it is useful to return the focus back to the medical needs to understand what happened in different eras.