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Worldwide, people drink over 65 billion gallons of alcohol each year. The United States’ share, if divided equally across the adult population, would amount to about two and a half gallons of pure alcohol per person, annually. And this thirst seems to be universal: Fermented beverages have been found in nearly every society, as far back as archaeologists can detect their existence.

That’s the idea behind the “drunken monkey” hypothesis, formulate