Drunk : how we sipped, danced, and stumbled our way to civilization / Edward Slingerland.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Slingerland, Edward, 1968- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Drinking of alcoholic beverages--Social aspects.

Drinking of alcoholic beverages.

Alcohol--Physiological effect--Popular works.

Alcohol.

Alcohol--Physiological effect.

Genre:

Informational works.

Popular works.

Physical Description:

xiii, 367 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm

Edition:

First Little Brown, Spark paperback edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Little, Brown Spark, 2022.

Summary:

Drunk elegantly cuts through the tangle of urban legends and anecdotal impressions that surround our notions of intoxication to provide the first rigorous, scientifically grounded explanation for our love of alcohol. Drawing on evidence from archaeology, history, cognitive neuroscience, psychopharmacology, social psychology, literature, and genetics, Slingerland shows that our taste for chemical intoxicants is not an evolutionary mistake, as we are so often told. In fact, intoxication helps solve a number of distinctively human challenges: enhancing creativity, alleviating stress, building trust, and pulling off the miracle of getting fiercely tribal primates to cooperate with strangers. Our desire to get drunk, along with the individual and social benefits provided by drunkenness, played a crucial role in sparking the rise of the first large-scale societies. We would not have civilization without intoxication. From marauding Vikings and bacchanalian orgies to sex-starved fruit flies, blind cave fish, and problem-solving crows, Drunk is packed with fascinating case studies and engaging science, as well as practical takeaways for individuals and communities. The result is a captivating and long overdue investigation into humanity's oldest indulgence--one that explains not only why we want to get drunk, but also how it might actually be good for us to tie one on now and then.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. Why Do We Get Drunk?

Brain Hijack: Porn and Sexually Starved Fruit Flies

Evolutionary Hangovers: Drunken Monkeys, Liquid Kimchee, and Dirty Water

More Than Twinkies and Porn: Beyond Hangover and Hijack Theories

A Genuine Evolutionary Puzzle: An Enemy in the Mouth That Steals Away the Brain

A Genetic Mystery: We Are Apes Built to Get High

A Cultural Mystery: Prohibition's Strange Failure to Take Over the World

Pickles for the Ancestors?

2. Leaving the Door Open for Dionysus

The Human Ecological Niche: Creative, Cultural, Communal

The Creative Animal

The Cultural Animal

The Communal Animal

Regaining the Child's Mind

The Drunken Mind

Leaving the Door Open for Dionysus

3. Intoxication, Ecstasy, and the Origins of Civilization

A Visit from the Muse: Intoxication and Creativity

Chemical Puppies: Turning Wolves into Labradors

The Chemical Handshake: In Vino Veritas

Puking and Bonding

Liquid Ecstasy and the Hive Mind

Political Power and Social Solidarity

Cultural Group Selection

4. Intoxication in the Modern World

Whiskey Rooms, Saloons, and the Ballmer Peak

Truth Is the Color Blue: Modern Shamans and Microdosing

Why Skype Didn't Eliminate Business Travel

Office Parties: Pros and Not Just Cons

Long Live the Local

Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beer Holder: Sex, Friendship, and Intimacy

Collective Effervescence: Tequila Shots and Burning Man

Ecstasy: Vacation from the Self

It's Only Rock-n-Roll: Defending the Hedonistic Body

It Is Time to Be Drunk

5. The Dark Side of Dionysus

The Puzzle of Alcoholism

The Problem with Liquor: An Evolutionary Mismatch

Isolation: The Danger of Drinking Alone

Distillation and Isolation: The Twin Banes of Modernity

Drunk Driving, Bar Fights, and Venereal Disease

Beer Goggles and Violence Against Women

Outsiders and Teetotalers Not Welcome: Reinforcing the Old Boys' Clubs

Solace or Wedge? Reinforcing Bad Relationships

Drunk on Heaven: Getting Beyond Alcohol?

Taming Dionysus

Living with Dionysus.

Notes:

"Originally published in hardcover by Little, Brown Spark, June 2021"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0316453358

9780316453356

OCLC:

1275358619

Publisher Number:

99991972350