Prologue: Drunken Monkeys

In this opening season of this show, Kenyon introduces the show, why it exists, as well as the main topic for season one: drinking and drunkenness. Drinking is something that many people are likely familiar with in the practical sense, but the history of alcohol and drinking has ancient roots. This episode provides a very brief overview of the 'pre-history' of drinking and the theories around why humans took up this intoxicating practice.

Written and recorded by: Kenyon Payne

Theme music: "Southern Gothic" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Additional featured music:

Everest 2, ArturAravidiMusic

D´vil, anrocomposer

Disclaimer:

Before getting into this topic, it is necessary for me to acknowledge the very real and ongoing problems that alcohol creates in individual homes, as well as  broader communities, across the globe. Addiction is a serious problem, and the organizations and programs designed to help people seeking to control their addictions often receive too little support, financial and otherwise. Even with the growing development of medical insight into drug and alcohol addiction, approaches to treatment are not always clear. Much of this is due to policy decisions that opt for punishment over rehabilitation. Such policies, as we will see, have their own long history. 

Nevertheless, compulsive drinking was and remains a matter of considerable importance. This show is not intended nor designed to make light of this issue. Rather, I wanted to create this show to explore the topic collectively with anyone who tunes in, so we might gain new insights into the extensive history of humanity's affinity for drinking, and how the individuals who did develop such dependencies navigated their lives, often in settings that became increasingly hostile towards them. 

I also want to acknowledge that, while I am a historian, and someone who teaches the occasional course on the history of drugs and alcohol, I am not a medical professional, nor have I worked directly within the field of addiction treatment. My experience rests solely in studying the past and trying to make sense of how and why people sought to alter their state of consciousness. Ultimately, I want to try and understand how people partaking in one of the world’s most popular drugs could find themselves living outside of the confines of “normal” society.

Sources:

Patrick E. McGovern, Juzhong Zhang, Jigen Tang, Zhiqing Zhang, Gretchen R. Hall, Robert A. Moreau, Alberto Nunez, Eric D. Butrym, Michael P. Richards, Chen-shan Wang, Guangsheng Cheng, Zhijun Zhao, and Changsui Wang, “Fermented beverages of pre- and proto-historic China,” PNAS Early Edition, 2004. 

Tawanda Proceed Makopa, “The marula and elephant intoxication myth: assessing the biodiversity of fermenting yeasts associated with marula fruits (Sclerocarya birrea),” FEMS Microbes, 2023.

Dustin Stephens and Robert Dudley, “The Drunken Monkey Hypothesis” Natural History (December 2004/January 2005). 

“Alcoholic Vervet Monkeys!” Weird Nature, BBC Earth, 2009.

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