Anthropology of Alcohol

Social marketing, individual responsibility and the “culture of intoxication”

by Chris Hackley

Szmigin, I., Bengry-Howell, A., Griffin, C., Hackley, C. and Mistral, W. (2011) Social marketing, individual responsibility and the “culture of intoxication” European Journal of Marketing Vol. 45 No. 5, 2011 pp. 759-779

All second authors contributed equally to the paper and are listed alphabetically. The research for this paper was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, “Branded consumption and social identification: young people and alcohol” (ESRC Ref: RES-148-25-0021).

Abstract
Purpose – Social marketing initiatives designed to address the UK’s culture of unhealthy levels of... more Abstract
Purpose – Social marketing initiatives designed to address the UK’s culture of unhealthy levels of drinking among young adults have achieved inconclusive results to date. The paper aims to
investigate the gap between young people’s perceptions of alcohol consumption and those of government agencies who seek to influence their behaviour set within a contextualist framework.

Design/methodology/approach – The authors present empirical evidence from a major study that suggests that the emphasis of recent campaigns on individual responsibility may be unlikely to
resonate with young drinkers. The research included a meaning-based and visual rhetoric analysis of 261 ads shown on TV, in magazines, on billboards and on the internet between 2005 and 2006. This was followed by 16 informal group discussions with 89 young adults in three locations.

Findings – The research identified the importance of the social context of young people’s drinking. The research reveals how a moral position has been culturally constructed around positioning heavy drinking as an individual issue with less regard to other stakeholders and how the marketing agents
function in this environment. Calls to individual responsibility in drinking are unlikely to succeed in the current marketing environment.

Research limitations/implications – The qualitative research was limited to three geographical locations with young adults between the ages of 18 and 25.

Practical implications – The authors explore implications for social marketing theory and for UK alcohol policy. In particular, the authors suggest that the social norms surrounding young people’s drinking need to be acknowledged and built into “sensible” social marketing campaigns. The authors
suggest that shame, fear and guilt appeals should be replaced with more constructive methods of ensuring young people’s safety when they drink.

Originality/value – From the theoretical perspective of contextualism, the paper brings together empirical research with young adults and a critical analysis of recent social marketing campaigns within the commercial context of a “culture of intoxication”. It provides both a critique of social marketing in a neo-liberal context and recognition of issues involved in excessive alcohol consumption.

Keywords Alcoholic drinks, Social marketing, Public health, Youth, Individual behaviour,
Paper type Research paper

“He loves drinking old wine from the jug”: Some Remarks on Alcoholic Beverages in Syriac Literature Based on Secular and Religious Texts

by Adam McCollum

For a lecture at Saint John's University, Jan 26, 2012. To be published in the future in a fuller form.

The history of alcoholic beverages in various cultures, including our own, has often been written. These... more The history of alcoholic beverages in various cultures, including our own, has often been written. These investigations have looked at viticulture, brewing, distillation, and the economic and religious uses and effects of alcoholic beverages. Syriac literature, being somewhat of an arcane area of interest, has rarely—if ever!—entered into any of the discussions. It is, nevertheless, a corpus with a breadth wide both in size and subject matter, and there is no dearth of references to alcoholic beverages, their preparation, and use. This paper, based on both secular and religious texts in Syriac, most of them composed in a Muslim-majority culture, will touch on questions of what kinds of alcohol were drunk, how these drinks were made, who did the drinking and what was thought of their drinks (including acknowledgement of its detriments), and finally we will ask what Syriac literature contributes to the history of drinking.

Qatari doubts about alcohol boosted by unlikely allies: World Cup hosts Brazil and Russia

by James M. Dorsey

By James M. Dorsey

With alcohol becoming a domestic political issue in the Gulf state of Qatar, host of the... more By James M. Dorsey

With alcohol becoming a domestic political issue in the Gulf state of Qatar, host of the 2022 World Cup, Qatari officials are certainly taking heart from world soccer body FIFA’s battle with the non-Muslim hosts of the next two tournaments, Brazil and Russia, over the role of alcohol in the world’s largest sporting events.

That however may be premature. The outcome of FIFA’s dispute with Brazil, host of the 2014 World Cup, and Russia where the tournament will be held in 2018, is certain to shape the soccer body’s certainly forthcoming debate with Qatar.

Unlike Qatar, which restricts the consumption and sale of alcohol on religious grounds, Brazil and Russia have outlawed its sale at sporting events in recent years in a bid to control crowds and prevents riots and violence.

With FIFA insisting in the words of its General Secretary Jerome Valcke that “alcoholic drinks are part of the FIFA World Cup…that’s something we won’t negotiate” due to its obligations to sponsors that include brewer Budweiser, a compromise may already be in the making. Whatever that compromise is, it will certainly inform debate in Qatar as well as between the Gulf state whose cultural history is rooted in a puritan interpretation of Islam and FIFA.

Alcohol and particularly beer battles increasingly seem to be a feature in the walk-up to a World Cup. German brewers revolted in 2006 because their beers were initially excluded until Anheuser-Busch agreed to sell local beer Bitburger alongside its own. “We’re not talking about alcohol, we’re talking about beer,” Mr. Valcke said in Brasilia, a distinction that certainly will be rejected in Qatar.

Qatar-based controversial Islamic television preacher Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi who commands a following of tens of millions and has a weekly show on the Gulf state’s Al Jazeera television network issued a religious edict in 2008 that Muslims could consume beverages with up to 0.5% alcohol.

The ruling was however rejected by supporters of Wahhabism, the puritan version of Islam common to Qatar and Saudi Arabia even if it’s more liberal interpretation in Qatar is a far cry from its severe application in Saudi Arabia. The ruling moreover doesn’t do much for beer brewers whose products have an alcohol content of more than four per cent.

An emailed FIFA statement on this week’s first meeting in Brazilia of the 2014 Cup’s Local Organizing Committee made no mention of the alcohol issue, but FIFA’s insistence that Brazil overturn its ban has sparked debate in the Latin American country as officials seek to find a resolution.

While some members of the Brazilian Congress and judiciary are campaigning for the ban on alcohol to remain in place, FIFA said in a statement sent to CNN that it believes that the law instituting the ban would soon be changed.

"The selling of beer in stadiums is part of the fan culture and will also be part of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. It is important to note that the sale of alcohol will be limited to beer only as was done at all previous FIFA World Cups. We are confident that we will be able to solve the very few open matters and close the chapter of the 2014 Bill by March 2012, so we can then focus on the operational aspects of staging the FIFA Confederations Cup in 18 months from now and then the 2014 FIFA World Cup,” the statement said.

Brazilian Minister for Sports Aldo Rebelo, speaking to CNN acknowledged that Brazil in its agreement to host the World Cup had “agreed with all the requirements… We need to move on and fasten up and I am confident that by March we can complete this," the minister said.

Similarly, Russian soccer federation president Sergey Fursenko called in recent days for the reinstitution of beer advertisements and brews in Russian stadiums. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin last week told a soccer fan that “when the decision was made about stadiums, it came from the best of intentions. OK, we’ll return to it again and think about it.”

Qatar, a controversial choice for the World Cup because of fan objections to some of its cultural mores, a lack of a soccer tradition and blistering summer temperatures, has sought to pre-empt a debate about alcohol by announcing that it would create fan zones where alcohol can be consumed.

The offer has so far silenced the Gulf state’s non-Qatari critics but features in a domestic debate that recently led to a ban on alcohol in restaurants on a man-made island that is home to and frequented by expatriates. The debate has also sparked online calls for a boycott of state-owned Qatar Airways because it serves alcohol on board and operates a shop in the capital Doha that sells alcohol and pork to non-Muslims.

Qatar’s drinking zone solution to the alcohol problem could well serve as a model for a compromise with Brazil and Russia. Alternatively, an agreement with the two non-Muslim nations involving a different solution could spark a revisit of the Qatari approach and fuel opposition to Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani’s efforts to position the Gulf state as a global sports hub and make sports a pillar of its national identity.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.

Consumo del alcohol, valores comunitarios y modernización en una comunidad nahua

by Anuschka van ´t Hooft

co-authored with Szeljak. Published in EspacioTiempo 1, p.56-71, 2008

In the indigenous villages in the Mexican Huasteca area, the act of offering and ingesting uino (suger cane liquor) is... more In the indigenous villages in the Mexican Huasteca area, the act of offering and ingesting uino (suger cane liquor) is part of an intricate, socio-economical, medical and psychological complex that is related to traditional practices such as the forms of interpersonal relations, agricultural rituals, curing rituals and some rites of passage. This act is one of the foremost ways to express respect and friendship, which serves to maintain, preserve and repair networks based on solidarity. In this paper we describe the different cultural forms and contexts of offering and drinking uino to understand its role within the social system of the village, as well as the cultural reasons of continuing with this practice.   

Review of A Pleasing Sinne: Drink and Conviviality in 17th-Century England, edited by Adam Smyth.

by Corey E. Andrews

The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs: An Interdisciplinary Journal 20.1 (2005): 154-56.

Continuity, Cultural Dynamics, and Alcohol: The Reinterpretation of Identity through Chicha in the Andes

by Guy Duke

In 42nd Annual Chacmool Conference, edited by Lindsay Amundsen-Meyer, Nicole Engel and Sean Pickering, pp. 263-272. vol. 42. Chacmool Archaeology Association, University of Calgary.

Chicha has a long and varied history in the Andes. It was the official beverage of the Inka court and has been used to... more Chicha has a long and varied history in the Andes. It was the official beverage of the Inka court and has been used to assert indigenous identity through colonial times to the present. The meanings and contexts in which chicha has been consumed have varied over time and the connection to indigenous identity is not straightforward. How the social and political status of chicha has changed over time, particularly in the transition period from Inka to Spanish rule, is a key element in understanding the shifting, dynamic nature of indigenous identity in the Andes.

For the Drink of the Nation: Drink, Labour and Plantation Capitalism in the colonial tea plantations of Assam

by Nitin Varma

This volume, in honour of Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, brings together a set of essays that highlight some of the major... more This volume, in honour of Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, brings together a set of essays that highlight some of the major transformations in the field of labour history today.

The present juncture is one in which the geographical boundaries of the discipline, which were narrowly configured around the nation-state, are being challenged; and the analytical category of labour, for long identified with the industrial, unionized and male worker, has been stretched to include hitherto marginalized, informal workers. The shift away from Eurocentric comparisons in recent years has meant a questioning of the spatial, temporal and relational binaries that were dominant in the writing of labour history earlier. By focusing on sites, forms and relations of labour that habitually cut across the classical divides of labour history, the essays explore connections between events and processes across time and space. They demonstrate that global history is not just history at a global scale, but a macro-view of historical processes of importance to human societies and their systematic analyses at all scales. Global history, the contributions in this volume show, can be solidly based on micro-historical studies, if these studies connect with the larger areas of inquiry.

Mexico's Wonder Plant (2002)

by Gary Feinman

(Gary M. Feinman, Linda M. Nicholas, and Helen R. Haines, 2002)

Feast and Sin: Catholic Missionaries and Native Celebrations in Early Colonial Brazil

by João Fernandes

Drinking and Thinking: Club Life and Convivial Sociability in Mid-Eighteenth-Century Edinburgh.

by Corey E. Andrews

The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs 22.1 (Autumn 2007): 65-82.

An intriguing historical feature of the Scottish Enlightenment is the blend of philosophical and drinking clubs to... more An intriguing historical feature of the Scottish Enlightenment is the blend of philosophical and drinking clubs to which leading thinkers such as David Hume and Adam Smith belonged. Two leading clubs of the period, the Select Society and the Poker Club, are the primary focus of this essay; the clubs provided members with dramatically different types of social experience. For the Select, it was a space for formal debate of topical issues, while the Poker offered a venue for convivial sociability. This essay examines the significant intersections of polite culture and convivial enjoyment occurring in Edinburgh club life, in order to analyze the active negotiation of boundaries between polite and popular tastes. Of particular interest is how that negotiation was played out in the “drinking and thinking” lives of some of polite culture’s most eloquent arbiters.

Sobre El Banquet De La Primera Edat Del Ferro a Catalunya: Els Accessoris De Condimentació De La Beguda

by Raimon Graells i Fabregat

R.Graells (2005): Sobre el banquet de la primera edat del ferro a Catalunya: els accesoris de condimentació de la beguda, Revista d'Arqueologia de Ponent 15, 235-246

Gli elementi di banchetto trovati in Catalogna presentano una
gran diversità tipologica e funzionale che occupa... more Gli elementi di banchetto trovati in Catalogna presentano una
gran diversità tipologica e funzionale che occupa tutti gli stadi
del consumo della carne e di bibita di carattere mediterraneo. La
verifi ca di questa acquisicione di idee mediterranee si troba con le
scoperte di diversi accessori destinati a condimentare gli alimenti.
Consideriamo in questo laboro, alcuni di questi oggeti come le
grattuge, colini, tripodi-bowl e coltelli, accanto a d’altri elementi
meno comuni.

Banquet funerari i elements de banquet en tombes del nord-est de la península ibèrica entre la primera edat del ferro i l’ibèric antic

by Raimon Graells i Fabregat

Vè Cicle de Conferències Citerior: Vi, banquet i societat. Hàbits de consum i pràctiques rituals en època protohistòrica i antiga, Citerior, V, 189-218.

Approaches to Alcohol Consumption in Bronze and Iron Age Europe: Theory and Practice

by Elisa Perego

Draft of session report co-authored with Dr C. IAIA. The final version is published in TEA 2010/2011

Report of session on alcohol consumption in late prehistory held at the 2010 EAA Meeting in The Hague. Includes a... more Report of session on alcohol consumption in late prehistory held at the 2010 EAA Meeting in The Hague. Includes a brief overview of previous work done on the topic as well as our proposed directions for future research.