Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization

by Edward Slingerland

Humans in groups are similarly profligate in their modes of worship. In ancient China, a good chunk of GNP was simply buried in the ground with dead people. Visitors to the tomb of the First Emperor of Qin marvel at the detail of the individual terra-cotta soldiers, the fully intact chariots, the awesome spectacle of a full army arrayed to protect the dead emperor. Rarely, if ever, does the question arise of why anyone would build something so monstrously wasteful in the first place. Remember, all of this was built at enormous expense and then simply buried in the ground, along with a disturbing number of freshly sacrificed horses and people. And China is no outlier. Think of Egyptian or Aztec pyramids, Greek temples, Christian cathedrals. It’s a good bet that the largest, most expensive and lavish structure in any pre-modern culture is dedicated to religious purposes. Looked at from an evolutionary perspective, this is all really stupid.