Alcohol and Society - Pleasurable Drinking Practices

Written by Stanton Peele

XI Summary: Historical and cross-cultural research point the way to more responsible, healthful, and pleasurable drinking practices today.

"The human experience abounds with evidence, both cross-cultural and international, that people can use alcohol in a variety of responsible and fruitful ways."

Heath, D.B., "Some Generalizations about Alcohol and Culture," pp. 348-361 in Heath, D.B., ed., International Handbook on Alcohol and Culture, Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, 1995, p. 359.

"Drinking is essentially a social act, performed in a recognized social context. If the focus is to be on alcohol abuse, then the anthropologists' work suggests that the most effective way of controlling it will be through socialization."

Douglas, M., Constructive Drinking: Perspectives on Drink from Anthropology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1987, p. 4.

"The attitudes that characterize both ethnic groups and individuals with the greatest drinking problems are being propagated as a national outlook.... A range of cultural forces in our society has endangered the attitudes that underlie the norm and the practice of moderate drinking. The widespread propagation of the image of the irresistible dangers of alcohol has contributed to this undermining."

Peele, S., "The Cultural Context of Psychological Approaches to Alcoholism: Can We Control the Effects of Alcohol? " American Psychologist, 1984, Vol. 39, 1337-1351 (quotes pp. 1347, 1348).

"It is important to realize that drinking problems are virtually unknown in most of the world's cultures, including many where drinking is commonplace and occasional drunkenness is accepted. This suggests that even a technologically advanced culture might have something to learn from other cultures.... To speak of adopting traits from other cultures is problematic, because each culture is itself a complex web of interrelationships in which the parts have more meaning to each other than in isolation.... Nevertheless, it is apparent that certain ways of thinking and acting with respect to alcohol, ways that are consistently associated with drinking problems, might fruitfully be rejected, while others, those that correlate with unproblematic drinking, might well be fostered."

Heath, D.B., "Sociocultural Variants in Alcoholism," pp. 426-440 in Pattison, E.M., and Kaufman, E., eds., Encyclopedic Handbook of Alcoholism, Gardner Press, New York, 1982, pp. 436.

"Influences from numerous nations and cultures strongly affect alcohol beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors in the United States. The family plays a central role in teaching these alcohol norms and behaviors. Parents, through their power of example, may be the most important long-term influence on the behavior of their offspring. The strength of their power, often reinforced by religious teachings, is usually underestimated.... The thrust [of alcohol education programs in U.S. schools] has largely been to stress problems associated with alcohol abuse and to portray alcohol as a dangerous substance to be avoided. In spite of the enormous human and monetary resources employed in this educational approach, it has not been effective. Not surprisingly, any alcohol education that is inconsistent with prevalent beliefs and behaviors in a group or society is likely to be ineffective."

Hanson, D.J., "The United States of America," pp. 300-315 in Heath, D.B., ed., International Handbook on Alcohol and Culture, Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, 1995, p. 312.

"Understandings based on the cross-cultural and scientific evidence yield recommendations that the current control-of-consumption attack upon alcohol should be ended; that all attempts to stigmatize alcohol as a `dirty drug,' as a poison, as inherently harmful, or as a substance to be abhorred and shunned should be ended; that governmental agencies formulate and implement policies that incorporate the concept of moderate or responsible drinking along with the choice of abstinence; that systematic efforts be made to clarify and emphasize the distinctions between acceptable and unacceptable drinking; that unacceptable drinking behaviors be strongly sanctioned, both legally and socially; that parents be permitted to serve alcohol to their offspring of any age, not only at home, but in restaurants, parks, and other locations under their direct control and supervision; and that educational efforts encourage moderate use of alcohol among those who choose to drink."

Hanson, D.J., Preventing Alcohol Abuse: Alcohol, Culture, and Control, Praeger, Westport, CT, 1995, pp. xiii-xiv.

XII Conclusions:

1. Historical, cultural, and ethnic comparisons show clearly that alcohol can be used in very different ways, for better and for worse.
2. The destructive personal and social consequences of alcohol abuse are not entirely or even largely due to the prevalence of drinking or the amount of alcohol consumed.
3. Indeed, one factor often identified as predisposing a culture to lower rates of alcohol abuse is a comfortable acceptance of beverage alcohol, together with broad agreement about and consistent application of clearly defined limits to its consumption and to people's behavior when drinking.
4. In a culture with positive drinking habits, responsible drinking typically is taught to children early in life, along with an image of alcohol as a beneficent and controllable force that offers pleasure and positive social experiences.
5. These experiences allow us to create a recipe or template incorporating the elements of successful cultural control of drinking. They suggest a policy for educating the young to become moderate, healthy, social drinkers.

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