This article analyses the evolutionary genesis of the aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 mutation in East Asia through the lenses of institutional economics. While biology typically frames the absence of alcohol tolerance as a metabolic defect, this paper proposes the concept of functional redundancy. We argue that the specific social organization of rice societies – characterized by deep material interdependence – rendered alcohol consumption superfluous as an instrument for trust-building and social cohesion. The resulting genetic path dependency illustrates how historical institutional frameworks continue to shape the biological constitution of modern populations.
