Flutterby™! : Monogamy and Alcohol

Women or Wine ? Monogamy and Alcohol by Mara Squicciarini and Jo Swinnen (PDF):

Intriguingly, across the world the main social groups which practice polygyny do not consume alcohol. We investigate whether there is a correlation between alcohol consumption and polygynous/monogamous arrangements, both over time and across cultures. Historically, we find a correlation between the shift from polygyny to monogamy and the growth of alcohol consumption. Cross-culturally we also find that monogamous societies consume more alcohol than polygynous societies in the pre- industrial world. We provide a series of possible explanations to explain the positive correlation between monogamy and alcohol consumption over time and across societies.

Via Marginal Revolution, Via Andrew Sullivan, with a hat tip to Bill Humphries.