Originally Posted by
caboblanco 
without having to look up statistics like when alcohol was introduced in China..because China has a different culture towards alcohol and a very low abuse rate....i am just trying to figure out the logic here. You are saying that i
in a country like Italy most of the alcoholics of the distant past were so chronic that they never had children to pass on their theoretical alcoholic gene or genes? correct me if I'm off base here...
I am not trying to be sarcastic, but am genuinely asking - are you familiar with the concept of natural selection? If so, the theory I believe in states that the longer an ethnic group (let's say Italians in Italy) is exposed to alcohol, the lower its susceptibility to alcoholism. In Natural Selection, those with a higher susceptibility are eliminated over many generations. Those with a low susceptibility to alcoholism survive and pass on their low susceptibility. Italy has had 7,000 years to let this take place. Other countries have had much shorter amounts of time. I do not believe it is a country's "treatment" of alcohol that influences the rate of alcoholism. I believe it is the amount of time that culture has been exposed to alcohol that effects it.
On an aside, since we are speaking of how different cultures treat alcohol...I was raised to believe alcohol is not some forbidden danger. I was allowed to sample wine at a very young age. At every meal, wine was served and I was allowed a small glass. I am still a full blown alcoholic, even though nobody treated alcohol like the devil in my house.