How important has alcohol been for the development of humanity?

Beer founded civilization.
>Grow wheat.
>Eat bread to supplement nuts, berries, and game.
>Get whole family to grow wheat.
>Enough bread we can just live in this one place now.
>Get clan to grow wheat.
>We've got so much wheat, we can afford to turn some of it into beer!
>Get village to grow wheat.
>We have so much excess wheat, we HAVE to turn some of into beer.
>Build cities devoted to growing wheat.
>Half of the wheat harvested by the early Mesopotamians was fermented into beer.

It made leaders and/or commanders think boldly. It really did, and still does, play a massive part in our history.

>>2890320
Keep in mind it helped us survive too. Weak beer was safer to drink than water a lot of the time.

Many countries are formed around it. Look at Vodka in slavic places, or whisky in Scotland/Ireland

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Alcohol by itself is interesting. I'm also interested in the effects that all intoxicants had on human civilization - ergot, psilocybin, cannabis, et al. I know that the steppe folks used cannabis steam baths to "wash" - what else?

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>>2890320
Came here to post this. Here in Scotland they have found wood lined trenches in the ground from the very early Bronze Age which were used for dumping grains, heather and water in and covered in wooden planks to make a heather beer called Fraoch, the oldest drink made in Scotland. They think it was a key commodity in early trading and forged connections between different tribes.

It's still made today!

>>2890463
Is it nice? No hops I guess.

>>2890460
Ive heard that scythians would burn marijuana on their funeral pyres and literally inhale their loved ones to get high in a ritualistic fashion, crazy guys.

>>2890478
That's a remarkable bonding experience. Reminds me of that reocurring joke where a cokehead snorts his grandma's ashes.

>>2890471
I don't think they did in the olden days but the company that still makes it lists the ingredients as:
Water, Malted Barley, Malted Wheat, Heather, Bogmyrtle, Hops, Ginger, Yeast. It doesn't really taste particularly.

>>2890460

Ive heard of twenty somethings in the western world who like to get "fucked" for the sole purpose of finding meaning or matter in life or reality.

>>2890559
Ah, so it's the theseus ship of beer.