Alcohol Linked to Early Political Complexity

A global study of 186 largely non‑industrial societies finds that having indigenous fermented alcoholic beverages is modestly but robustly associated with more administrative levels. The effect persists after controlling for ancestry, geography, environmental productivity, and agricultural intensity, supporting the idea that alcohol‑based rituals helped bond groups and mobilize labor. — It suggests intoxicants can be pro‑social infrastructure that aided state formation, complicating modern narratives that see alcohol mainly as a public‑health harm.