The Drunken Monkey went to the Opera: From Drunkenness to Civilisation

No. 40 MAY 2019

In the beginning… there was a smart monkey who came down from the tree to eat fruit fallen on the ground. This fruit was riper and sweeter and therefore more fermented, which means it had a slight smell of alcohol. Other monkeys followed him and, because they were consuming more calories, their brains soon grew, their backs straightened and their hands were freed up. Another step… and we were going to the opera. The theory that places alcohol at the origin of human evolution justifies our age-old insatiability. This is the starting point for the writer Afonso Cruz in this unusual portrait of the accumulative, greedy and somewhat crazy civilisation we have become. From the original monkey to the creation of beer, which boosted the sedentary lifestyle and captivated Jesus Christ, we have witnessed the unfolding of the consequences of alcohol consumption. From drunkenness to civilisation, our story has never been told like this.