First there was nothing, then there was beer.

It has recently come to my attention that beer is in fact one of the most prominent hallmarks of civilization. The cultivation of grains from the times of the ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia and Egyptians to the wild Germanic tribes of north-eastern Europe all the way to the present-day so-called civilizations has always been an imperative piece of the human puzzle. But not just for making bread. Wheat, barley, and various other not-as-common crops were and still are planted for beer-making purposes. A staple of most of the old societies of Europe, beer was often the most common beverage among the citizenry. In Egypt, queens, nobles and even slaves were alotted certain quantities of beer per day (these alottments were guaranteed, regardless of occupational status). In fact, the Egyptians devoted at least half of the grain harvest to making beer! Indeed, for "It was common etiquette for a worshipper to drink until intoxicated. A wealthy Egyptian rarely would leave home without being accompanied by two slaves and a hammock. So if he got too inebriated to walk home after a night in a tavern or at a beer banquet, he could sleep off his delirium in a prone position while being carried home."
Sounds pretty civilized to me.

Quoting again from Horst Dornbusch (who has written many fascinating articles chronicling the rise and fall of beer-brewing throughout human history that can be found at http://beeradvocate.com): "Paleo-anthropologists tell us that Homo sapiens, that is, humans like you and me, have been on this earth for at least 200,000—maybe even 400,000—years, at least biologically, somewhere in Africa. But as cultural beings we have not been around for more than perhaps the last 10,000 years...and, incredibly, beer-making has been around just as long, but apparently not longer!"

What does this tell us? That beer is intimately connected with the onset of civilization. To drink beer is to be human. It is utterly cultural.

Amen to that.