Drunken Comportment: A Social Explanation

by Craig MacAndrew, Robert B. Edgerton

When Aldine originally published this book in 1969, the emerging multidisciplinary field of alcohol studies was dominated by biology, chemistry, physiology, and other "hard sciences." As such, writes Dwight Heath in his new foreword, the work challenged the prevailing wisdom in the authors' use of historical, ethnographic, and cross-cultural data and their analysis of drinking behavior as an anthropological and sociocultural phenomenon.

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

214 pages, Paperback

First published March 16, 1970

Reviews

[Mason · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 · Rating 5 out of 5]

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

[Ally · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.