Intriguingly, across the world the main social groups which practice polygyny do not consume alcohol. We investigate whether there is a correlation between alcohol consumption and polygynous/monogamous arrangements, both over time and across cultures. Historically, we find a correlation between the shift from polygyny to monogamy and the growth of alcohol consumption. Cross-culturally we also find that monogamous societies consume more alcohol than polygynous societies in the preindustrial world. We provide a series of possible explanations to explain the positive correlation between monogamy and alcohol consumption over time and across societies.The authors come to the conclusion that the correlation is due to some third factor, perhaps the extensive practice of agriculture, which leads to higher levels of both monogamy and drinking. (This will be fodder for comedians.) For instance, during the early Middle Ages, the Church spread both monogamy and viticulture, though I can't help but feel that an unsatisfactory explanation.
The following might provide a clue as to why drinking is so associated with Europe: that society which historically has been the most successful has, precisely because of the social constraints that supported that success, has also felt the need to drink more.
On the one hand, there are relatively small differences among men in the control over crucial resources to support multiple women; on the other hand, they may consume a higher quantity of alcohol as a relief and as a way to get rid of their anxiety or to face less social constraints in their society.Maybe this has something to do with the power of women in society. Women in the West have historically been the freest and most independent when compared to other societies, and I wonder whether it's a coincidence that Sweden, a hard-drinking country, is becoming known as the Saudi Arabia of feminism.
Since drink provides stress relief, the correlation between drink and monogamy implies that monogamous societies need relief more than polygamous societies, but the proscription on drinking in some polygamous societies might imply that alcohol needs to be forbidden there, otherwise the men might drink too much.
Young girls around my age LOVE to drink because it lets them take the leash off their hamsters.
ReplyDeleteA blackout drunk state is the ideal state for a girl. Perfect solipsism with near-zero social consequences.
A big exception to this correlation would be the Caribbean, particularly Trinidad. Everyone there drinks heavily and pretty much everyone there sleeps around.
ReplyDeleteMaybe polygynous societies forbid drink lest the unmated beta males lose their inhibitions and rise up in drunken violence against the multiply-mated alphas.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure that the reason why polygamous societies ban alcohol is because their ultra religious.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Mideasterners have a longer history of drinking, there seems to be a strong correlation between heavy drinking and cold weather today. Sweden, Russia, Minnesota -- it could just be that there's less to do when you're snowed in, so you might as well knock back a few.
ReplyDeleteGrog does provide "stress relief" but that is not its primary benefit. Grog provides joy and is a communal drug, when taken within limits.
ReplyDeleteOutside of those limits grog will provide grief and be communally destructive.
But when viewed from the actual historical process that 1) beer was discovered 2) agriculture to create more beer ensued and 3) civilisation sprang up as a result we can see that we are putting the effect before the cause.
Once you are drinking beer (or other forms of grog) your mind is removed from the mundane. Sex runs secondary. I'd say you could happily remain celibate, or mostly celibate, if you also drank grog.
Without grog you're stuck in "a flat world of changing lights and noise" with no *insight*, no god like perspective nor removal from the hum drum. Grog will get you thinking about many things, not just sex.
Without grog sex is the primary source of joy and thus becomes mechanical. It becomes mechanical because, sex itself being the highest joy, one cannot settle for shagging the same old rock daily. Polygyny is therefore a variant of the masturbator's need for a variety of pornography.
The masturbator won't settle for the same old porno to beat off to daily, he needs more variety to get off to. And just like the masturbator with sex as his highest joy, the man in charge of a harem collects new wives to fulfill that joy's requirements.
But sex is the father of children, not of thought. I don't think the harem king would ever mid root come up with an idea for a better plough.
The grog meister though, gets drunk, talks a lot, thinks a lot, writes a lot, probably roots his mrs, then in the morning gets to work on some of his new ideas.
Having sex with the mrs is merely a secondary joy to the higher experience of creativity that is the child of grog.
One other thing about grog is the hangover. From the high comes the low and sometimes shame that you went too far. But where everyone went too far everyone knows to keep shtum about it, what happened the night before stays there and it's best not to dwell on the ugly aspects. Grog promotes forgiveness since all the people with hangovers require it and understand its need instinctively.
And one of the major points of character you'll notice about non-drinkers is that they refuse to forgive. Being unable to face themselves via grog they obsess over everyone about them seeking out the most obscure and minor of character defects for correction.
Just as their sex is mechanical so is their humanity. Things themselves become evil. Thus the "demon drink", dancing, public shows of affection, paintings, statues, sex itself. The non-drinker goes to war with himself and thus everyone about him, as he is unable to face himself via grog. There can be no reconciliation where one aspect is denied for there is nothing to reconcile, only punishment.
It's not for nothing that non-drinking religions are the most violent or outwardly obsessive cultures around.
Of course all this isn't to say that everyone needs to get smashed daily. I'd say that, like cannabis, grog has become too strong. The alcohol content in English beers has risen from traditional levels, plus the idea of getting wasted for wastedness' sake has caught on. In that instance grog becomes a path of annihilation not generative.
ReplyDeleteSuch black and white thinking is a product of non-drinking minds. You're either for it or agin it to the non-drinker for they have no other perspective.
Where grog has had disastrous effects they point to the grog rather than the culture that has changed the way grog is consumed. In a puritanical society grog becomes a method of annihilation rather than creation. Naturally so: who wouldn't seek escape from the eternal fussing over other peoples affairs that the abstemious types must indulge in?
The drinker becomes the focus of the teetotaler's need to escape himself. The non-drinkers' inability to face the inner arsehole that dwells within all of us. But because he can't face the inner bastard he also cannot produce the inner saint and creator. He will never be reconciled.
looking forward to St Patrick's day?
ReplyDeletePat once again provides a sensible yet totally unfamiliar perspective. Yanks, at least the young ones, who are pro-lager are generally pro-getting-smashed. Beer Street wasn't painted by a Yank. Show it to a Yank and a lot of us would think it was by someone who simply MUST be pro-whiskey, pro-gin, pro-shagging in the alley. Show Gin Lane to a Yank and they'd figure it was by a prohibitionist.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I was always a little heartened by the small-breweries trend (or fad? I think not) that Americans started taking advantage of in maybe the early 1990s. "Beers that taste good even when you're sober", or so it was said.
I suspect that alcohol allows the co-evolution of personalities that are extremely cautious and shy most of the time, but under the right circumstances, they can quickly change their personalities to overcome shyness. Europeans use alcohol to facilitate flirting and Japanese salarymen use it to facilitate male bonding.
ReplyDeletelooking forward to St Patrick's day?
ReplyDeleteHa, no. Not for the reasons you surmise.
As soon as I finish mowing the lawn I'll be downing some well deserved Coopers Red after an English Adnams Broadside front up.
I'll talk a whol lot of crap, sing some songs, write something, then go to bed. aka, an enjoyable evening.
Montesqieu observed the same correlation over 250 years ago:
ReplyDelete"In cold countries the almost necessary custom of drinking strong liquors establishes intemperance amongst men. Women, who in this respect have a natural restraint, because they are always on the defensive, have therefore the advantage of reason over them.
Nature, which has distinguished men by their reason and bodily strength, has set no other bounds to their power than those of this strength and reason. It has given charms to women, and ordained that their ascendancy over man shall end with these charms: but in hot countries, these are found only at the beginning, and never in the progress of life.
Thus the law which permits only one wife is physically conformable to the climate of Europe, and not to that of Asia..."
Pat ...excellent post - hit it on the nail. And I have had one or two...
ReplyDelete"Pat Hannagan said...
ReplyDeleteOnce you are drinking beer (or other forms of grog) your mind is removed from the mundane. Sex runs secondary. I'd say you could happily remain celibate, or mostly celibate, if you also drank grog."
I agree. As a man gets older, alcohol can become a useful substitute for sex. Alcohol also facilitates nostalia, a vice of old age, and one of its few remedies.
I don't know that there is any specific correlation between polygyny and teetotalling; I'd suspect that the fact that both Muslims and Mormons practice both teetotalling and (until the Mormons gave it up, save a few breakaways) polygyny, is simply coincidence. I mean, Baptists, Methodists, and many if not most evangelicals, of all different stripes, also practice teetotalling, but without ever having endorsed polygyny. OTOH, ancient Israel tolerated polygyny AND didn't require teetotalling for any of its members EXCEPT for the Nazirites.
ReplyDeleteI think the Freakonomics people are overanalyzing and overthinking this.