Pharmacological Influences on the Neolithic Transition

Abstract

While uncertainty remains as to the relative importance of the factors that propelled Neolithization at different sites, a model is gaining traction that proposes that cereal cultivation was adopted in part to produce alcohol for competitive feasting. The model ties together the emergence of two key phenomena-cereal cultivation and social inequality-and is supported by a variety of archaeological and ethnographic data. However pharmacological theory has not yet been explicitly deployed in the presentation of the model rather its development has relied on a common-sense understanding of the effects of alcohol and its cross-cultural importance in social life. Our aim in this paper is to bring ..