Human addiction to psychotropic and mood altering substances is an ongoing inte ational problem. While the phenomenon of psychoactive drug use has received considerable theoretical attention there need to be more comparative approaches into this area. Evolutionary and anthropological approaches for understanding human need for psycho opic and mood altering substances o er the reader various insightful angles for analyzing this phenomenon. While evolutionary approaches investigate the evolutionary behaviors and mechanisms of human ancestral psychotropic use, anthropological approaches emphasize the social and religious meanings of individual drug use. While each approach pro ers different ideas, a comparative approach, which is utilized in this study, may provide a novel and invaluable insight for understanding human need for psychotropic and mood-altering substances. Keywords-anthropology, evolution, history, nootropic drugs, psychotropic and mood altering substances