How Beer Gave Us Civilization

HUMAN beings are social animals. But just as important, we are socially constrained as well.

By JEFFREY P. KAHN
Published: March 15, 2013    

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...lifesaving social instincts didn’t readily lend themselves to exploration, artistic expression, romance, inventiveness and experimentation — the other human drives that make for a vibrant civilization.

To free up those, we needed something that would suppress the rigid social codes that kept our clans safe and alive. We needed something that, on occasion, would let us break free from our biological herd imperative — or at least let us suppress our angst when we did.

We needed beer.

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