Thursday, July 10, 2008

George F. Will - Survival of the Sudsiest - washingtonpost.com

George F. Will - Survival of the Sudsiest - washingtonpost.com: "The gene pools of human settlements became progressively dominated by the survivors -- by those genetically disposed to, well, drink beer. 'Most of the world's population today,' Johnson writes, 'is made up of descendants of those early beer drinkers, and we have largely inherited their genetic tolerance for alcohol.'

Johnson suggests, not unreasonably, that this explains why certain of the world's population groups, such as Native Americans and Australian Aborigines, have had disproportionately high levels of alcoholism: These groups never endured the cruel culling of the genetically unfortunate that town dwellers endured."