Oct 30, 2010 -- 12:35PM, Yavanna wrote:

Sorry solf, I'm an omnivore and I hate alcohol. Why suggest that we crave alcohol based on which ape we came from? Unless you inherited alcoholism from some drunks it's not innate. It's a learned behavior of our species. Alcohol is an aquired taste.

Genetics is adaptive.

Whatever anybody wants to think, human beings as a species do have a definite taste for alcoholic beverages.  Of course, you're looking at a bell curve here, in which there are going to be those who don't drink at all on one side, and those who drink to excess on the other.  In the bulge of the bell are the average people who like to hoist a few at the neighbourhood pub on a Friday night or enjoy a glass of wine at home in the evening.

I, personally, don't drink for the simple reason that I had two alcoholic uncles, my mother drank too much (until she got religion and stopped), and my brother is an alcoholic.  I figured that the odds were that if I decided to drink I'd end up the same way.  The stuff tasted too good.

And beer has been around for a l o n g time:

www.geog.ucsb.edu/events/department-news...

Guesses -

Thanks for that link, which proved very informative - for me, anyway.  I was especially interested to learn that the alcoholics in my family all suffered from behavioral disinhibition, as described in the article.

My brother, in particular, could be a poster boy for that condition.  He was lucky in that he got help from AA and has been clean and sober for many years now.  Others in the family were not so lucky, though.

Since a tendency to drink too much runs in both sides of my family, I've always been afraid I'd succumb, too, if I wasn't careful.  Not enjoying a drink now and then seemed like a small price to pay for not ending up like my brother.  When he got drunk, he was a really scary person that you didn't want to be around.  Have you ever seen anybody actually wildly tearing a house apart in a mad quest to find alcohol, any alcohol at all?

Oct 31, 2010 -- 2:21AM, Yavanna wrote:

Oct 31, 2010 -- 12:08AM, solfeggio wrote:

Guesses -

Thanks for that link, which proved very informative - for me, anyway.  I was especially interested to learn that the alcoholics in my family all suffered from behavioral disinhibition, as described in the article.

My brother, in particular, could be a poster boy for that condition.  He was lucky in that he got help from AA and has been clean and sober for many years now.  Others in the family were not so lucky, though.

Since a tendency to drink too much runs in both sides of my family, I've always been afraid I'd succumb, too, if I wasn't careful.  Not enjoying a drink now and then seemed like a small price to pay for not ending up like my brother.  When he got drunk, he was a really scary person that you didn't want to be around.  Have you ever seen anybody actually wildly tearing a house apart in a mad quest to find alcohol, any alcohol at all?

 

With all due empathy to your family situation, it sounds like you're projecting your own family background and concerns onto the human race. There is no racial desire to booze it up.

As I stated, Genetics is adaptive and there is proof, far beyond personal anecdotes.  However, personal anecdotes are the easiest to share for they are indeed personal. A certain "blood line" can indeed be more susceptible  than others.