[John Locke]

Fascinating study.

The principle advantage of being able to drink alcoholic beverages is that you don't have to drink water - a substance that for most of human history has varied from nasty to lethal. So perhaps these Altaic people had access to uncontaminated water, and so never evolved the ability to tolerate booze.

And, as I see it, that's probably the order of events: humans were initially alcohol intolerant (also lactose intolerant, but that's another long story); alcohol tolerance is a mutation that caught on in regions where the water supply was problematic.

(And I'll drink to that!)

[muawiyah]

The Sa'ami, who were isolated in the Arctic from about 9500 years ago to 1000 years back, had no alcohol and they do not have the particular gene that's discussed in this article.

Mankind did not start out alcohol intolerant ~

[muawiyah]

BTW, with my natural born immunity to cholera I can pretty much drink anything but water choc full of e-coli. Now that's a gene that survived some nasty environments Fur Shur.

Could be a technology advance that encouraged this anti-alcohol gene to get a foothold. Living in yurts and drinking fermented mares milk probably served to kill off all the folks who persisted in letting it get "too fermented". Must be a gazillion diseases that just love mares milk.

[blam]

"The principle advantage of being able to drink alcoholic beverages is that you don't have to drink water - a substance that for most of human history has varied from nasty to lethal. So perhaps these Altaic people had access to uncontaminated water, and so never evolved the ability to tolerate booze. "

I like this idea.

[tbw2]

And Asians, in general, have a tradition of tea and hot soups, reducing the need to rely on alcohol for safe drinking.