In a message dated 6/19/99 3:27:41 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< Please correct me if I am not aware of such evidence, but I don't think
 fermented anything would be available to a H-G. I know some South American
 tribes make fermented liquids, but I don't think it a regular part of the
 diet.  It is just used for rituals. >>
Quite to the contrary, I find it difficult to imagine how these people could
have avoided being familiar with and making the most of fermentation. The
simplest example of grapes that were picked and not immediately consumed but
placed in a container such as a gourd or skin of some sort, comes to mind.
The fermentation starts immediately and is ongoing. The 'blush' of the grape
is the source of the micro-organisms that do the work of fermenting the grape
sugar. It would not be long before someone tasted that grape-mush and
discovered the fermented product. After a longer time and as fermentation
proceeds the result would have changed the initial alcoholic mush into a
vinegar mush. It is even simpler to imagine these people coming across larger
fruit that begin fermenting after having fallen to the ground. Cows eat
apples that have appreciable content of alcohol and continue to do so to
intoxication! It is probably more appropriate to assume that all of the
fermentedfoodstuffs would have been encountered by one or another group.