Anthropology
Related: About this forumScientists reveal the ancient origins of drinking alcohol
Theres an emerging branch of research called Paleogenetics that tries to answer the questions of the present by scrutinizing the genetic material of the past. And when it comes to figuring out when drinking alcohol began igniting both merriment and alcoholism you need to go pretty far back: 10 million years. That was when some curious primate stumbled across a rotting piece of fruit and thought, Why not? And boom, drinking was born.
Thats at least how a new theory published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences describes it. The consumption of alcohol, which otherwise wouldnt have been palatable and might have been poisonous, was an evolutionary boon when our ancestors descended from the trees and started looking for food.
Evolutionary biologists such as myself study so much peculiar and fascinating examples of organisms adapting to their environment, there is a cliche in our field: Life will find a way, lead author Matthew Carrigan wrote in an e-mail to The Washington Post. So when I began this research, I thought, If ethanol is present in naturally fermenting fruit, why shouldnt some frugivores adapt the molecular machinery to digest it?
At the center of this molecular machinery is an enzyme called ADH4. This is a very important enzyme: first, because its found in a primates throat, stomach, and tongue; and second, because it is the first enzyme that can metabolize alcohol, including ethanol and other alcohols found in plants. So Carrigan and other researchers went about the task of analyzing ADH4?s evolutionary history by resurrecting ancient enzymes, believing it would tell them when such consumption began.
more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/12/05/scientists-reveal-the-ancient-origins-of-drinking-alcohol/?postshare=6901417785693649
ffr
(22,671 posts)My only question about the article is whether the discovery is a theory yet or still a hypothesis. Can it be tested and retested, having the same results. Sounds like it could, but how could it be tested? That's my dilemma.
Gonna have a beer and think about it.
progressoid
(49,992 posts)douggg
(239 posts)BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)Drunk animals are hilarious!
People Alcoholism sucks, though.
MADem
(135,425 posts)passiveporcupine
(8,175 posts)National Geo has a story right now about birds (Cedar Waxwings and others) that get drunk on fermenting berries in the fall, and some even have to go to rehab till they recover to keep them safe. LOL
PeoViejo
(2,178 posts)I think that fermented berries and fruit probably got a lot of species drunk long before we arrived on the scene and I'm sure accidental fermentation of grains and fruits that our ancestors had gathered and stored led to brewing cool stuff. But this isn't new.
bvf
(6,604 posts)Thanks for the post.
cynzke
(1,254 posts)in history, viticulture fueled the world economy. From the growing of grapes to the production and sale of wine, it drove the economy for many centuries. The Catholic church through the monasteries turned viticulture and wine production into the a commodity whose sales profits became the church's primary source of income.
VA_Jill
(9,984 posts)Gerald Durrell has a hilarious description in one of his books of a bunch of young bachelor elephants getting into some fermenting fruit and behaving for all the world like a pack of drunken frat boys, weaving and carrying on and hurling fruit at one another. And my daughter reported deer coming into her yard from the neighboring state park, eating fermenting berries from some bushes they had and getting throughly soused, which probably accounted for several deer vs. MVA encounters on local roads.
sarge43
(28,941 posts)We weren't the first party animals.