Betrunkenes Betragen: Eine ethnologische Weltreise

by Craig MacAndrew, Robert B. Edgerton, Jakob Hein (Translator)

Singen, Tanzen, Reden, Rasen – und Karneval feiern? Die simple Erkenntnis lautet: Was wir tun, wenn wir Alkohol getrunken haben, ist alles eine Frage der Kultur.
Aus eigener Erfahrung glauben wir zu wissen: Alkohol enthemmt. Schüchternheit, Vernunft, Anstand? Für ein paar Stunden vergessen! Das führt manchmal zu schönen Dingen wie einem ersten Kuss oder wilden Tanzflächen-stunts – und manchmal zu hässlichen, die vor Gericht landen und dort entschuldigt werden: It’s the alcohol, stupid!

Die amerikanischen Ethnologen MacAndrew und Edgerton zeigen unterhaltsam und überzeugend: Menschen auf der ganzen Welt betragen sich betrunken völlig unterschiedlich, und zwar je nach Tradition, Situation, historischen Umständen oder Vorbildern aggressiv oder friedlich, schweigsam oder redselig, sangeslustig oder gewalttätig, und sie sind dabei oft bemerkenswert fähig, selbst im Vollrausch noch zu unterscheiden, wen sie küssen oder schlagen – und wen nicht. Wir lesen erstaunliche, schöne und schreckliche Geschichten und erkennen verblüfft: Nicht der Alkohol ist verantwortlich für unser trunkenes Tun, wir haben es schlicht und einfach so gelernt.
Lange nach der Veröffentlichung hat Jakob Hein diesen Wissensschatz wiederentdeckt und übersetzt, der unsere Auffassung von der »enthemmenden« Wirkung des Alkohols bis hin zum Konzept der »verminderten Schuldfähigkeit« radikal infrage stellt.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Social Science, Health, History

304 pages, Hardcover

First published March 16, 1970

Reviews

[Mason]

This book was interesting for a thousand reasons. Having been written in 1969 it has a flavor that can only be savored in older books. The author draws on hundreds of studies, many of which are funny because they involve drunken belligerence and nonsense. But the book has a serious side as well. We're all pretty quick to blame alcohol for just about everything. This book turns that upside down. You can blame your cultural-alcohol complex, but you cannot blame alcohol independent of the cultural milieu in which it is consumed. And most importantly you cannot blame one person for acting as he has been taught to act by all of his living ancestors. You can judge them, if you're into that. Or you can respect and understand the situation more fully, which you will do if you read this book.
What a fucking hilariously awesome book. My favorite part is that he catalogs peoples' reactions to other drunken people, which is one of humanity's more entertaining past-times. And he uses the word "sundry" nearly 100 times, which is awesome. Still a very, very, very applicable moral to be learned from the book. Drunken behavior (aside from the sensorimotor element) is completely learned. What your environs presents to you as acceptable behavior resulting form the consumption of alcohol is what you will manifest. Amazing.

[Sharon Hanlon]

This was one of those books I read in college that blew my mind and opened up new worlds of thinking to me.

[Ally]

Took his class and read this book in college. It also "blew my mind" as someone else commented. I've been doing research in the substance abuse field for 25 years as result! The thought that people don't *have* to behave the way they do when they are drunk and that drinking doesn't have to be "uncontrollable" caught my attention and stuck with me all these years. It's a real challenge to our culture's addiction mentality!

P. S. He says "booze" alot in addition to "sundry" as another reviewer pointed out.

[Legens]

Compelling refutation of the biochemical-essentialist view of alcohol-induced behavior: No, it was not the alcohol that made you do a thing, it was the alcoholic-cultural complex of your society which gave you a model of behavior when drunk.
Strong both in the more general first chapters and the extended case study on how the American Indians’ “drunken comportment” changed from the 16th to the 20th century… and how it was shaped both by the European traders’ business interests (needing a good to be exchanged for furs in high quantities) and their own drinking culture (the European men coming to the wilderness of America being more prone to hard drinking and violence than most of their compatriots back in the Old World).
Sometimes a bit difficult to read in the first chapters due to wealth of examples from South American, African, Asian, and Pacific cultures (which one was this again, being brought up 50 pages later?).
The overall thesis is as relevant as ever: “Drunken Comportment” is typically a socially-sanctioned “time out,” in which the usual rules of behavior are loosened, but within limits set by that society.

[Steven]

This book will overturn all you think you know about alcohol; most importantly, the idea that it “lowers inhibitions” by its pharmacological action on the brain. This is one of those books that changes the way you see the world. If alcohol’s most enchanting effects are socially constructed and learned, what else isn’t what it appears?

[Kate]

All the points made in this book could be summarised by saying that the behaviour after drinking is basically the result of what a drinking person would expect themselves to behave like.

The book was strongly focused on Indian and other native societies, which was truly entertaining. It would be interesting though to address what made Europeans to behave like they do after drinking.

[Achim Höfling]

170 Seiten sind zu viel für die (zugegebenermaßen sehr gut belegte) These des Autors, dass das soziale Verhalten unter Alkoholeinfluss durch das, was einem die Gesellschaft vorlebt, bestimmt ist, und nicht Folge einer Enthemmung im Gehirn ist.