'Drunken Monkey' Hypothesis: Was Booze an Advantage For Our Ancestors?

(Credit: Manekina Serafima/Shutterstock)Worldwide, people drink over 65 billion gallons of alcohol each year.The United States’ share, if divided equally across the adult population, would amount to about two and a half gallons of pure alcohol per person, annually. And this thirst seems to be universal: Fermented beverages have been found in nearly every society, as far back as archaeologists can detect their existence.That’s the idea behind the “drunken monkey” hypothesi