Darwin on Smoking, Drinking Monkeys
In light of our recent discussion on the origins of humanity, I thought I’d throw this interesting Darwinian nugget out there. When Darwin is discussing how we should evaluate the possibility that ‘man’ descended from other animal forms, he asks if there are similarities found between humans and animals in such areas as bodily structure, capacity to contract or pass on disease, etc. Then he also notes this humorous similarity:
”Many kinds of monkeys have a strong taste for tea, coffee, and spirituous liquors: they will also, as I have myself seen, smoke tobacco with pleasure. Brehm asserts that the natives of north-eastern Africa catch the wild baboons by exposing vessels with strong beer, by which they are made drunk. He has seen some of these animals, which he kept in confinement, in this state; and he gives a laughable account of their behaviour and strange grimaces. On the following morning they were very cross and dismal; they held their aching heads with both hands, and wore a most pitiable expression: when beer or wine was offered them, they turned away with disgust, but relished the juice of lemons. An American monkey, an Ateles, after getting drunk on brandy, would never touch it again, and thus was wiser than many men.” Charles Darwin, On The Descent of Man, Penguin Classics, pp. 23-24
Oh to be a monkey…or, wait….
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