Plant Cuttings

This image entitled “The Merry Drinker “ painted by Frans Hals (c. 1628–1630) is in the public domain.

When one searches for reasons for the rise of civilisations and organised societies, one reads that it is largely down to the development and adoption of settled agriculture (e.g., here; here; here; here; Graeme Barker; Christopher Brooks; Jan van der Crabben), in particular that based upon cereals such as wheat. And the use of those grains to provide daily staple foods such as bread, and agricultural surpluses that could be traded with other groups of people to obtain materials such as metals and minerals, or stored to provide essential calories to the population in future times of reduced agricultural yields or famine (J Donald Hughes, 1992; Caroline Cheung, 2021; Melissa McDaniel et al.).

Whilst cereals can provide energy-rice calories to hungry bodies, those same carbohydrates can be uses as a food source by another group of organisms, the fungi (Constantine John Alexopoulos & David Moore, Eddie Johnston). Since humans and fungi may compete for the same food source, denying access of fungi to that food supply is important to humanity. However, sometimes allowing fungi to exploit that resource – but managing what these organisms do with it – can be highly influential too.

Take for instance the ability of yeasts to produce alcohol (specifically, ethyl alcohol, C₂H₅OH, ethanol (Anne Marie Helmenstine)) by fermenting (Luisa Alba-Lois & Claudia Segal-Kischinevzky, 2010; Sergi Maicas, 2020) sugars, notably those present in carbohydrate-rich cereal grains [think beers (Thomas W Young)], honey [think mead], or fruits [think grapes and wine, and apples and cider].

Discovery of the chemical effects of alcohol on the human body is probably an ancient one (James Hardy, Mark Keller & George Vaillant) – and its widespread use is certainly well-documented in the historical record. So universal is the use and role of alcohol in human societies that it has been suggested that it was a major influence on the development of civilisation and societies (e.g., Chelsea Follett, Michael Kan, Kevin Loria).

However, although an attractive notion, it is provocative. But, it has been persuasively proposed and argued by Edward Slingerland (Distinguished University Scholar and Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia) in his 2021 book, Drunk: How we sipped, danced, and stumbled our way to civilization** (Troy Farah, Alcohol Professor, Edward Slingerland).

Nevertheless, just because a notion is popular – and we might want to believe it – doesn’t necessarily make it right. Evidence is needed to support such a view. Examining that evidence is the essence of the work by Václav Hrnčíř et al. (2025) in their straightforwardly-stated scientific article titled “Did alcohol facilitate the evolution of complex societies?”. Critically examining evidence for the “drunk” hypothesis, which “argues that drinking alcohol facilitated the rise of complex societies because it promotes social bonding, increases cooperation, and enhances human creativity” (Hrnčíř et al. (2025), they scrutinised a global sample of 186 largely non-industrial societies. They found “a positive relationship between the presence of indigenous alcoholic beverages and higher levels of political complexity, measured by the number of administrative levels”. And their “results support the idea that the group-level social benefits of traditional non-distilled fermented beverages may outweigh their disruptive effects, and that alcohol may have facilitated the evolution of human societies” (Hrnčíř et al. (2025). However, they conclude that “other contributing factors, such as agriculture or religion, were probably more effective drivers than getting drunk” (Hrnčíř et al. (2025).

As explained by Hrnčíř to Guillermo Carvajal, “This suggests that although elites may have used alcohol as a tool of social control—to recruit labor, seal alliances, or consolidate their authority—it was not a main driver in the formation of complex states”***. In other words, whilst alcohol may have played a part in civilising humanity, it’s not the only factor that makes people societal or civilised****. Err, Cheers!?

For more on this story, see Guillermo Carvajal, Abdul Moeed, James Bayley, here, here, Jack Knudson, here, here, Mariusz Błoński, Ваня Милева, Sanjana Gajbhiye. And do consider reading the thoughtful – and readily readable – discussion of their work in the scientific paper by Hrnčíř et al. (2025).

* Yes, I do realise that this title appears to be in direct contradiction to the title of a previous post on this blog that claimed that wood and cellulose civilised man, but this post’s title is posed as a question, the previous one’s was a bold assertion…

** NB, Slingerland was not the first to posit this proposal – although his publication did a lot to popularise and promote it. A Google search using ‘did alcohol civilise humans’ returns umpteen articles and items on that topic, starting with its AI overview which featured such source-stated sub-headings as ‘motivation for agriculture’, ‘social lubricant’, ‘ritual and ceremony, and ‘correlation vs causation’ (featuring as evidence such articles as  Chelsea Follett’s ‘Alcohol and Caffeine Created Civilization’, ‘Did a thirst for beer spark civilization?’ by Michael Kan, and Kevin Loria’s ‘Why alcohol has always played a role in human civilization’).

For more on this ‘civilising’ role of fungi – and other influential fungal interventions in the development of humanity, see Nick Money’s highly-readable book The rise of yeast.

Allied to ideas of the influence of alcohol on human society is the notion of the so-called ‘drunken ape’ or ‘drunken monkey’ hypothesis, which “proposes that human attraction to alcohol may derive from dependence of the primate ancestors of Homo sapiens on ripe and fermenting fruit as a dominant food source” [quoted from here] [Ed. – which, in turn, has relevance to the ‘stoned ape hypothesis’ (Bobby Azarian), which proposes a more direct – and psychedelic – role of fungal products in human development…]. For more on the drunken monkey/ape notion, see Robert Dudley & Aeon, here, Bridget Alex, Wynne Parry, Dustin Stephens & Robert Dudley (2005), Tiffany Taylor, Robert Dudley (2000), and Robert Dudley & Aleksey Maro, 2021). And, for insights into how sharing fermented fruits amongst our primate relatives might have helped humans to co-operate, see here, and Nathaniel J Dominy et al. (2025). [Ed. – and, fungi that live inside people’s bodies may also have effects on human development and behaviour (Katarina Zimmer)…]

*** But, let us not forget that, although alcohol may have had a pivotal role in helping to shape and even permit civilisation, its abuse has devastating social, psychological, and medical consequences for individuals (Katelyn Ferral), their families and friends, work colleagues (Nikki Forrester, Nathalie Vriend), and society (Shekhar Saxena, 1997) more widely. This is another example of fungi being a ‘double-edged sword’ (Patricia T O’Conner & Stewart Kellerman) in their relationships with people.

**** Acknowledging the enduring importance of alcoholic drinks, and keen to help readers navigate modern-day rules of social etiquette, should you be invited to a social gathering, and the invitation states ‘BYOB’, do check what that actually means. Whilst one might be tempted to assume it is a – British English (Richard Nordquist) – initialism for ‘bring your own booze (or, bring your own bottle, or bring your own beer)’ (Jason Kurtz), it might instead stand for ‘bring your own boar’ (as explained by Petra Vaiglova in the scicomm article about the scientific paper by Petra Vaiglova et al., 2025). Getting it wrong is not a mistake you want to make. After all, you can have too many bores (Joe Bromley, Oliver Pritchett, Anna van Praagh) at a party(!)

REFERENCES

Luis Alba-Lois & Claudia Segal-Kischinevzky, 2010. Beer & wine makers. Nature Education 3(9): 17.

Caroline Cheung, 2021. Managing food storage in the Roman Empire. Quaternary International 597: 63-75; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2020.08.007

Nathaniel J Dominy et al., 2025. Fermented fruits: scrumping, sharing, and the origin of feasting. BioScience, biaf102; https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaf102

Robert Dudley, 2000. Evolutionary origins of human alcoholism in primate frugivory. The Quarterly Review of Biology 75(1): 3-15; https://doi.org/10.1086/393255

Robert Dudley & Aleksey Maro, 2021. Human evolution and dietary ethanol. Nutrients 13(7): 2419; doi: 10.3390/nu13072419

Václav Hrnčíř et al., 2025. Did alcohol facilitate the evolution of complex societies?. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 12: 1091; https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-05503-6

J Donald Hughes, 1992. Sustainable agriculture in Ancient Egypt. Agricultural History 66(2): 12-22; https://www.jstor.org/stable/3743841

Sergi Maicas, 2020. The role of yeasts in fermentation processes. Microorganisms 8(8): 1142; doi: 10.3390/microorganisms8081142

Shekhar Saxena, 1997. Alcohol, Europe and the developing countries. Addiction 92(3s1): 43-48; https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1360-0443.92.3s1.10.x

Dustin Stephens & Robert Dudley, 2005. The drunken monkey hypothesis. Natural History December 2004/January 2005: 40-44.

Petra Vaiglova et al., 2025. Transport of animals underpinned ritual feasting at the onset of the Neolithic in southwestern Asia. Commun Earth Environ 6: 519; https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02501-z