This is just a note. The research is unlikely to ever happen.
According to Peter Watson in The Great Divide, there are two brain mutations which scientists figure gave people an evolutionary advantage, but they don’t know what. And because these different genes somehow never made much progress in Sub-Saharan Africa, scientists are very wary of even speculating.
In the absence of any other ideas, and because drugs are a major aspect of my book Four Edens, here’s simply a crazy idea.
The spread of the MCPH1 brain gene approximately 37,000 years ago, and then APSM around 6,000 years ago, could align without our ability to get value from different types of hallucinogenic drugs. That being the case, if drugs did influence us culturally, the transition from hunter-gathering 12,000 years ago (it needed the Ice Age to end first…), and the rise of cities and pyramids 6,000 years ago, could be connected to drug intake and new found ability to get some serious inspiration from the substances.
Just a note, for future reference, or for anyone searching such things.