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Drinking Cultures: Alcohol and Identity
Alcohol is not only big business, it has become an essential part of social relations in so many cultures that its global importance may be outdistancing its critics. Despite grim health warnings, its consumption is at an all-time high in many parts of the developed world. Perhaps because drinking has always played a key role in identity, its uses and meanings show no signs of abating. What does sake tell us about Japan or burgundy about France? How does the act of consuming or indeed abstaining from alcohol tie in with self-presentation, ethnicity, class and culture? How important is alcohol to feelings of belonging and notions of resistance?Answering these intriguing questions and many more, this timely book looks at alcohol consumption across cultures and what drinking means to the people who consume or, equally tellingly, refuse to consume. From Ireland to Hong Kong, Mexico to Germany, alcohol plays a key role in a wide range of religious, familial, social, even political. Drinking Cultures situates its consumption within the context of these wider cultural practices and reveals how class, ethnicity and nationalism are all expressed through this very popular commodity. Drawing on original fieldwork, contributors look at the interplay of culture and power in bars and pubs, the significance of advertising symbols, the role of drink in day-to-day rituals and much more. The result is the first sustained, cross-cultural study of the profound impact alcohol has on national identity throughout the world today.
The book includes 2 maps, 2 tables, 2 diagrams.
The book includes 2 maps, 2 tables, 2 diagrams.
304 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 5, 2019
Drinking Cultures is an anthology of anthropology. It is yet another book that I was assigned to read in a college class but did not have time for. Seriously, there is too much reading in a full load even for a nerd like me who loves reading stuff like this. Anyway, each chapter focuses on a specific drinking culture somewhere in the world, from Japan to San Francisco to France to Germany to Malta to Hong Kong.
The idea of "alcohol as community builder" takes on just as many varieties, each influenced by each area's differing attributes. The wine-tasting subculture within France has the characteristics it does because of the long historical connection between "France" and "wine", and even this has its nuances with those critiquing such a view (in discussions of national identity and such).
Most of the anthropologists acquired their information through direct and personal investigation of these drinking cultures. It sounds like going to pubs, fairs, bars, and other places where drinking occurs and then observing the clientele and talking with them. More formal interviews are explicitly used in more de-centralized cases, such as the young gangs in San Francisco with the aid of people who have good relations with them, like social workers.
This is an information dense book. Each article (excluding the notes/references/etc.) is about 15 pages in length and yet it goes deep into its respective drinking. The why, how, where and other angles are covered. It is interesting and engaging reading.
Each chapter stands alone and can be read in about 1.5 hours so in this respect it is a quick read. However, I noticed something of a pattern in the way the chapters are arranged. It is as though consecutive chapters are meant to contrast each other. The first drinking culture, in Japan, has as its theme a drinking party which reinforces social roles and hierarchy and even has rules for behavior when its celebrants are drunk. The second one, in Germany, instead speaks of how the locals use the idealized "Irish Pub" as a means of relaxing from social restraints into a more loose and friendly atmosphere. The third and fourth drinking cultures, in Czechoslovakia and Norway, respectively, contrast the attitudes of public drunkenness. The former, according to this article, drink an awful lot and excuse mistakes due to drunkenness, while the latter drink regularly but in a narrow window and views silly behavior due to intoxication in a similar manner.
I had fun reading this.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "Drinking Cultures" an A+
The idea of "alcohol as community builder" takes on just as many varieties, each influenced by each area's differing attributes. The wine-tasting subculture within France has the characteristics it does because of the long historical connection between "France" and "wine", and even this has its nuances with those critiquing such a view (in discussions of national identity and such).
Most of the anthropologists acquired their information through direct and personal investigation of these drinking cultures. It sounds like going to pubs, fairs, bars, and other places where drinking occurs and then observing the clientele and talking with them. More formal interviews are explicitly used in more de-centralized cases, such as the young gangs in San Francisco with the aid of people who have good relations with them, like social workers.
This is an information dense book. Each article (excluding the notes/references/etc.) is about 15 pages in length and yet it goes deep into its respective drinking. The why, how, where and other angles are covered. It is interesting and engaging reading.
Each chapter stands alone and can be read in about 1.5 hours so in this respect it is a quick read. However, I noticed something of a pattern in the way the chapters are arranged. It is as though consecutive chapters are meant to contrast each other. The first drinking culture, in Japan, has as its theme a drinking party which reinforces social roles and hierarchy and even has rules for behavior when its celebrants are drunk. The second one, in Germany, instead speaks of how the locals use the idealized "Irish Pub" as a means of relaxing from social restraints into a more loose and friendly atmosphere. The third and fourth drinking cultures, in Czechoslovakia and Norway, respectively, contrast the attitudes of public drunkenness. The former, according to this article, drink an awful lot and excuse mistakes due to drunkenness, while the latter drink regularly but in a narrow window and views silly behavior due to intoxication in a similar manner.
I had fun reading this.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "Drinking Cultures" an A+
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June 17, 2015Edited collection of anthropological essays on alcohol/drinking in a dozen different countries. I've only read Chs. 1, 7, and 12--good stuff here. Clear prose, accessible. Nice participant-obs.
Small critique: the cover of this book, a Renoir painting from the 1880s, is utterly misleading as to the book's contents!
Small critique: the cover of this book, a Renoir painting from the 1880s, is utterly misleading as to the book's contents!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews