Chicken/Egg
Statistical correlations are dangerous because it’s hard to tell which of the correlated activities is the cause and which is the effect.
Which brings me to a study by Mara Squicciarini and Jo Swinnen over at the American Association of Wine Economics that notes a strong correlation between wine consumption and monogamy.
Arguably, a first major step in history towards monogamy is when formal monogamy is introduced in Greece around 1000 BC. This rule is maintained by the Romans and is later spread over the Roman Empire. Interestingly, during the centuries of the Greek and Roman Empires, those are the only two regimes which have formal monogamy, and also the only ones that (only) drink wine. The rest of the world is considered barbarian by the Greek and the Romans, for both reasons, i.e. for having multiple wives and for drinking beer.
Beer, as anyone who has ever been to a college bar knows, does not inspire monogamous behavior.
Squicciarini and Swinnen trace wine consumption through history, noting the correlation between wine consumption and monogamy but not settling on a cause-and-effect relationship. Does wine cause people to be less sexually promiscuous, or does monogamy cause people to drink more wine?
That, it seems to me, would be a good subject for further research. Perhaps I’ll start tonight after work.
January 4th, 2011 at 2:58 PM
Oddly, I am working on a project in which I have been researching wine drinking in the Greek and Roman empires. And what struck me about each culture is that they were more “civilized” than other cultures of the period. Which meant property laws. Which meant inheritance. Which, actually, may have more to do with monogamy than wine drinking.
January 4th, 2011 at 5:16 PM
One thing that makes me crazy is history written int he present tense. When did that become fashionable?
And yes, Jeff, the civility in those cultures was astounding (or should I say IS astounding).
Essentially, the Romans copied from the Greeks and then subsumed their culture.
If memory serves, the Greeks introduced wine to the general populace and also the concept of three square meals a day, which must also have had to rely on monogamous relationships, as someone had to cook and someone had to go to work.
January 4th, 2011 at 5:17 PM
What I meant is that before Greek culture, wine was reserved mainly for the ruling elite. In Greek culture it became a staple for all.
January 4th, 2011 at 10:22 PM
I am a teensy bit suspicious of histories that describe everyone except those who wrote the histories as barbaric. Also, There need not be a causal relationship between sets of data that appear to correlate. Also, too, Hey Mrs. A- how bout a nice, smooth, frothy homebrew?
January 5th, 2011 at 9:36 AM
I believe, as with much of the work of the American Association of Wine Economics, the study is offered somewhat tongue-in-cheek. They tend to take interesting little points, wrap them in lengthy academic methodology, and publish the studies as interesting a thought-provoking data points.
It’s why I love them so.
As for Mrs. A, Mr. Wally: keep your frothy bits to yourself.
January 5th, 2011 at 9:43 AM
“…as with much of the work of the American Association of Wine Economics, the study is offered somewhat tongue-in-cheek…”
Said with your tongue planted firmly in your cheek–I hope.