< Could early man afford to be intoxicated even for a short time, given his
rather dangerous environment (sabre-tooth tigers and other large hungry
predators)?>

can't think of a better fortifier than a slug of alcohol before facing up to
a hippo.

In this discussion we've forgotten all about mead..fermented honey. That's
been around ever since there were bees.

Any europeans who didn't tolerate too much alcohol were well and truly
weeded out between old rome and new london. water was too risky in many
areas due to contamination.  beer and cider much safer.  the daily allowance
for monks and soldiers in  Stuart England was one gallon of hard ale [4.5
litres].

andrew