Posted on 07/17/2025 1:10:45 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Alcohol may have done more than just fuel celebrations in ancient societies. A study led by Václav Hrnčíř from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology suggests that indigenous fermented drinks helped ancient societies grow in size and complexity.
The study, published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, draws a link between alcohol and the rise of structured governance.
Researchers analyzed data from 186 traditional societies worldwide. They found that communities producing their own alcoholic drinks, like fruit wines or cereal beers, often showed higher levels of political organization.
The team focused on societies that existed before industrialization and widespread colonial influence, ensuring that the alcohol used was locally made and not introduced by outside cultures.
Fermented drinks linked to complex political structures
The link between alcohol and political complexity held up even when researchers accounted for other possible explanations, such as farming, environment, and shared ancestry. While the effect was modest, it was consistent.
Grecian Delight supports Greece
Societies with native alcohol traditions were more likely to have layered political systems, meaning they had organized leadership beyond simple village groups.
The researchers tested the so-called “drunk” hypothesis, which argues that alcohol helped people cooperate on a large scale. Drinking lowered social barriers and boosted group bonding, especially during communal feasts.
These gatherings weren’t just about pleasure. They helped form alliances, mobilize labor, and reinforce social roles. Leaders often used alcohol to reward loyalty and strengthen their power.
New dataset focuses on pre-industrial societies
To test this idea, Hrnčíř and his team built a new dataset. Since existing cross-cultural databases lacked detailed information on alcohol, the researchers reviewed ethnographic sources to document where indigenous drinks were present.
They focused on non-distilled fermented beverages, which have a lower alcohol content and fewer harmful effects than modern liquors.
Using Bayesian statistical models, the team measured how much alcohol influenced political development. In the simplest models, the presence of alcohol showed a strong link to higher political organization.
But when they included other variables—especially agriculture—the alcohol effect became smaller. Farming clearly played a larger role in shaping early societies, but alcohol still appeared to give cooperation a social boost.
Agriculture played a stronger role, but alcohol still mattered
The study’s findings suggest that alcohol helped make early state formation easier, though it wasn’t the sole driver. It offered a social “glue” that made it easier for people to live and work together in bigger groups. In some places, the need for alcohol may have even encouraged the first efforts at farming.
But alcohol had its limits. The effects were weaker in models that considered farming and the environment. Still, researchers found that fermented drinks were more common in complex societies than in simpler ones. Alcohol, then, may have been one of several tools—along with agriculture, religion, and trade—that supported the growth of civilization.
Despite the positive group effects, the study notes that alcohol could also spark conflict. In some societies, drinking parties often ended in arguments. Yet in well-integrated cultures, social drinking usually took place during rituals, feasts, or after work. It wasn’t seen as a problem unless drinking became solitary or excessive.
I have mentioned this for years when mentioning that people should look at the alcohol based Western civilization which refused Cannabis as an intoxicant, versus the areas that embraced it as an intoxicant.
Alcohol had a positive effect on society and community.
Interesting, I think, note: When we toured the palace at Knosos, I had the this weird feeling that I was at home. On the way out, a woman on our tour looked at me and said : “You belong here.” Just a tad spine-chilling even today.
Anyway, go to Greece if you can if, indeed, it’s not overrun by who know what kind of rotten illegals.
You’re right
I would love to go but it’s not in the cards for me. Wife has too many medical issues and I hate the TSA.
Zicke Zacke Zicke Zacke Hoi Hoi Hoi!
Cheers! :)
“In Heaven there is no beer
That’s why we drink it here
And when we’re gone from here
All our friends will be drinking all that beer...”
~ Frankie Yankovic, Accordion KING!
Hence the brand name "Old Grand Dad" makes more sense now.
The rise of alcohol resulted in hangovers, which led inexorably to the discovery of headache remedies and the invention of refrigeration (for the ice packs) -- both in Germany. Coincidence?
...alcohol greatly increases the chances of ugly people having sex.
So drinking societies were the forerunner of the modern corrupt lying political party? Makes sense to me.
Including art, music and theater oh and domestic violence:-)
None of us would be here today if it weren’t for alcohol. I don’t mean that we’re all the product of drunken hookups or anything. But without the sanitizing effect of alcohol a town dies once its population grows large enough to contaminate its drinking water. There is also the fact that beer in particular was a key source of calories for many medieval peasants.
Not all of us can be handsome, right?
“Way before the 3 drink limit. Damn, 3 drinks and we were only getting started.”
Back in the day, three got you the next one on the house.
Yeah, the good ole days. A good bartender knew how to get decent tips. Especially if she was good looking.
“There were beer halls all over ancient Egyptian.”
I would much rather visit a Viking beer hall. I bet the scene could be wild, rowdy and with fistfights. Those old Egypt pyramid builders were a crashing bore.
Rhamses Lite was delicious!
Thule Norseland had it beat in the old Vikings beerhalls. It came spiked with a few drops of your enemy’s blood.
Actually, women are the problem that causes alcohol to be a solution that then becomes the problem
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