Alcohol and the Identity Struggle: Some Effects of Economic Change on Interpersonal Relations

Abstract

This paper proposes to examine the apparent increase in interpersonal conflict that often accompanies economic change. Focusing initially on the drinking behavior of the Naskapi Indians of Schefferville, Quebec, it is held that when economic change results in the introduction of new ways of access of persons to goods or activities that serve to maintain identities, there will be an increase in frequency of identity struggles, and a corresponding increase in those ritualized or formalized social interactions which serve as identity‐resolving forums.

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“…Most of the drinking sprees of the Khanty and Nenets reindeer herders began in a fairly relaxed manner, but sometimes ended in an outburst of conflict and violence, quite similar to the pattern described in northern American native people (Lemert 1980;Hamer 1965;Van-Stone 1980;Hamer & Steinbring 1980b;Robbins 1973). Periodically I was invited to the drinking sprees of young men, often involving non-indigenous youth that showed a different pattern that was from the beginning associated with competition and slight aggression.…”

‘Do You Respect Me?’ Drinking as a Social Catalyst in the Reindeer Herding Communities of European Russia and Western Siberia

“…Most of the drinking sprees of the Khanty and Nenets reindeer herders began in a fairly relaxed manner, but sometimes ended in an outburst of conflict and violence, quite similar to the pattern described in northern American native people (Lemert 1980;Hamer 1965;Van-Stone 1980;Hamer & Steinbring 1980b;Robbins 1973). Periodically I was invited to the drinking sprees of young men, often involving non-indigenous youth that showed a different pattern that was from the beginning associated with competition and slight aggression.…”

"Manufacturing" Community: Solidarity, Profit and the Bar Owner

“…In theorizing the production of community within drinking establishments, it is important to review the broad anthropological literature regarding alcohol consumption as a socially meaningful behavior. Over the past several decades, concern about the physiological effects of drinking stemming from research in the health sciences has been both challenged and complicated by studies (Robbins 1979;Douglas 1987) of the social interactions and cultural contexts that inform drinking behavior.…”