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margene
11-11-11, 12:30pm
Random question How is it possible that native americans never ran across alcohol before europeans arrived?

Gregg
11-11-11, 1:25pm
Use of alcohol, or other substances that can alter perception, was part of many native cultural practices all across the Americas. I think the question should be more along the lines of why didn't they feel the need to abuse those substances before Europeans arrived?

bae
11-11-11, 1:42pm
Also consider the difference between fermented products, and distilled.

Rogar
11-11-11, 2:11pm
Conversely, why did Europeans have such limited exposure to entheogens.

sweetana3
11-11-11, 3:52pm
Add Eskimos to those groups having issues with these products.

reader99
11-11-11, 4:20pm
Without having actually studied it, I notice a pattern of the more indiginous peoples having trouble with alcohol and refined carbs, more than the more mongrelized peoples. The Irish/Celts spring to mind as being suseptible.

I second the thought on the difference between brewed stuff like beer, and distilled liquors.

CathyA
11-11-11, 4:37pm
I've always thought the oldest bloodtype (O) had the hardest time with grains/carbs.
I worked with a sociologist when I was younger and he was doing research with the Papago Indians and
discovered that they couldn't handle alcohol like the whites, and would become more easily addicted to it.

ljevtich
11-11-11, 4:46pm
First off, they did have Aqave (fermented to be Tequila) but they did not have the wheat and barley grains. Therefore not as much fermenting going on.

DarkStar
12-22-11, 8:08pm
Have to agree with the point about distilled vs. fermented products. My ex could handle beer just fine. When he drank distilled liquors on a regular basis, his whole personality just changed.

And to the poster who brought up the Irish/Celts, a lot of his ancestry was Irish.

Miss Cellane
12-22-11, 8:19pm
As my Irish grandfather used to say, "God invented whiskey so the Irish wouldn't rule the world."

Both sides of my family are half Irish. None of them can hold their alcohol at all. Most of the men are in AA. The women just never started drinking. All our grandfather and great-grandfathers and uncles and great-uncles had "little drinking problems."

iris lily
12-22-11, 9:17pm
One time I read that the highest incidence of alcoholism in the Western countries was in Scotland. Don't know if that is still true. I found that sobering. (not intended as a pun.) Whiskey is pretty important there.