What Did Ancient Humans Do After Drinking Alcohol? — Transcript

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1. 0:00You're drunk. It's 3:00 a.m. You're
2. 0:02texting your ex. You're crying. You're
3. 0:04lecturing your friends like a
4. 0:05world-class expert on a subject you
5. 0:07didn't know existed an hour ago, even
6. 0:09though you can barely stand. You think
7. 0:10you're whispering a top-secret plan, but
8. 0:12you're actually screaming at a confused
9. 0:14lamp post while your neighbors dial 911.
10. 0:17It's a mess, but it's a mess with a very
11. 0:19long history. So, what about ancient
12. 0:21humans? Did they start Stone Age bar
13. 0:24fights? Or were they just as crazy in
14. 0:26their caves? Let's look at the science.
15. 0:28In 2002, archaeologist David Lewis
16. 0:30Williams suggested a theory that flips
17. 0:32history on its head. Cave paintings
18. 0:34weren't sacred maps or religious altars.
19. 0:37They were the result of getting
20. 0:38absolutely wasted. He argued that
21. 0:40ancient humans consumed fermented fruit
22. 0:42in the depths of dark caves with very
23. 0:44little oxygen. This combination
24. 0:45triggered intense entoptic
25. 0:47hallucinations. If his theory is right,
26. 0:50those multi-million-dollar paintings,
27. 0:51the dawn of human art, are just the
28. 0:53ancient version of a drunk guy scrolling
29. 0:55graffiti on a subway wall. But why did
30. 0:57we do it? Why did evolution keep this
31. 0:59habit around? In his 2021 book, Drunk,
32. 1:02Professor Edward Slingerland argues that
33. 1:04without alcohol, human civilization
34. 1:06wouldn't even exist.
35. 1:08He poses a frustrating question. Why
36. 1:10would evolution preserve a taste for a
37. 1:12toxic substance that destroys your
38. 1:13liver, causes accidents, and makes you
39. 1:16act like an idiot? The answer lies in
40. 1:18your prefrontal cortex. The PFC is the
41. 1:20most evolved part of the human brain.
42. 1:22It's your internal supervisor. It's the
43. 1:24part that helps you plan, delay
44. 1:26gratification, control your impulses,
45. 1:28and most importantly remain suspicious
46. 1:30of everyone else. By nature, humans are
47. 1:32aggressive and tribal. 10,000 years ago,
48. 1:35seeing a stranger in a valley usually
49. 1:36meant a fight to the death. Your PFC
50. 1:38would scream, "He has a stone dagger.
51. 1:41Kill him before he kills you." But
52. 1:42alcohol is an evolutionary hack.
53. 1:45It is one of the few substances that can
54. 1:46bribe your internal supervisor to take a
55. 1:49nap. Imagine two rival groups of ancient
56. 1:51humans stumbling upon a pit of fermented
57. 1:53rotting fruit. As they drink together,
58. 1:55their PFCs shut down. Their defenses
59. 1:57drop. Suddenly, that stranger doesn't
60. 2:00look like a threat anymore. He looks
61. 2:02like a guy who could help you hunt a
62. 2:03woolly mammoth. Alcohol hacked our
63. 2:05defense systems, forcing the most
64. 2:07dangerous primates on Earth to drop
65. 2:09their weapons and learn to trust.
66. 2:11Instead of a massacre, you got a hug.
67. 2:13Instead of a war, you got the first
68. 2:15shared meal.
69. 2:16You use your drunk brain to send a you
70. 2:18up text to your ex, ancient humans used
71. 2:21it to sign the first ever peace treaties
72. 2:23and build the first alliances. Without
73. 2:25that chemical trust fall, we would still
74. 2:27be small, isolated tribes throwing rocks
75. 2:29at each other in the woods. There would
76. 2:31be no villages, no cities, and
77. 2:33definitely no iPhone for you to use for
78. 2:34your 3:00 a.m. regrets. This loss of
79. 2:37control went beyond just making friends.
80. 2:39In 2022, anthropologist Robin Dunbar
81. 2:41found that alcohol makes you lose your
82. 2:43volume knob.
83. 2:45You think you're whispering a secret,
84. 2:47but you're actually shouting at the top
85. 2:48of your lungs. Ancient humans
86. 2:50experienced the exact same thing. But
87. 2:52that chemical rush forced them to act in
88. 2:54unison, banging bones on rocks and
89. 2:56shouting in rhythm. That loud, chaotic
90. 2:58drunk noise wasn't just a nuisance. It
91. 3:00was the birth of music, dance, and
92. 3:01tribal rituals. It was the vibe that
93. 3:04glued society together. However, the
94. 3:06party had a dark side. You know that
95. 3:09moment at the bar? You start the night
96. 3:10looking cool, feeling like a god. Then
97. 3:13the night becomes a blur.
98. 3:15Suddenly, you're crawling on all fours
99. 3:17because you forgot how legs work. You're
100. 3:19trying to unlock your front door with a
101. 3:21credit card before finally puking into
102. 3:23the toilet. That's when you utter the
103. 3:24biggest lie in human history. I swear to
104. 3:26God I'm never drinking again. Do you
105. 3:28think ancient humans had some secret way
106. 3:30to avoid this? The truth is they had it
107. 3:32much worse. In 2009, Patrick McGovern
108. 3:35analyzed ancient jars and suggested that
109. 3:37ancient alcohol was basically toxic
110. 3:39sludge. There were no filters, no
111. 3:41distilling, and no health regulations,
112. 3:44just rotting sugar, wild bacteria, and
113. 3:46floating debris. This meant the most
114. 3:48violent hangovers in history.
115. 3:50They woke up in the dirt, vomiting and
116. 3:52shaking in total pain with a headache
117. 3:54that felt like a mammoth was stepping on
118. 3:56their skull. It was the exact same
119. 3:58regret you feel while looking in the
120. 3:59mirror the next morning. 10,000 years of
121. 4:01evolution and we're still ending the
122. 4:03night exactly where we started, face
123. 4:05down in the dirt. We didn't just inherit
124. 4:06their DNA, we inherited their bad
125. 4:08decisions. So, next time you see someone
126. 4:10throwing up outside a club, don't judge
127. 4:12them. They're not just a mess, they are
128. 4:14a biological link to our ancestors.
129. 4:16They're just practicing a
130. 4:1710,000-year-old genetic ritual that, for
131. 4:20better or worse, made us human.