Oh, alcohol. Our society has such a strange relationship with you. On one hand, reports call you the  substance that makes the most dangerous, negative impact on society as a whole. But then other reports say heavy drinkers outlive non-drinkers. But then also it is inextricably linked to weight gain and liver damage, but then ALSO new reports say certain aspects of beer are actually good for you. So what’s the deal, SCIENCE?

However, we have a new reason to celebrate our ales and lagers: they might actually be the reason civilization as we know it exists! According to new research, the cultivation and domestication of cereals that lead to farming and agriculture (which is commonly considered the beginning of civilized life) may have actually been for the purpose of brewing beer!

Many archaeologists are currently of the school of thought that feasts (and the beer that fueled them) were the main reason that people went out of their way to cultivate grains, despite their being fairly difficult to convert into food. Although grains made up only a portion of society’s diet, there was definitely heavy cultivation of the product, which leads many researchers to believe that the main purpose of the cereals was for, you guessed, DELICIOUS, DELICIOUS BEER.

Even better: it’s not just the beer itself that helped the forming of civilization, but the pub crawls and night clubs feasts and parties that it was consumed at. So what I’m getting from this is that research suggests that if you don’t go out and party with friends and drink a bunch of booze then you’re basically contributing to the downfall of society as we know it.

Basically.