Alcohol Gender And Culture

This excerpt from the book, "Alcohol Gender and Culture" discusses how different groups of people around the world consume alcohol differently, and how this has an impact on their social lives. The book discusses how different groups of people define the proper use of alcohol, how state policies may effect drinking behaviour, and how beverages and combustibles must be seen in relation to each other.

Europeans, who constitute 12.5 per cent of the world's population, consume 50 per cent of the recorded world production of alcohol and this consumption, sometimes social, sometimes ceremonial, plays a significant role in the cultural, religious, and social identities of these countries. The majority of studies on alcohol have examined its use with the assumption that alcohol is a drug and focused on large, often diverse groups ignoring the importance of cultural variation. In this book the contributors show how different groups define the proper use of alcohol, how state policies may effect drinking behaviour, and highlight how beverages and combustibles must be seen in relation to each other. From this it is shown how important socio-cultural distinctions are made in gender relations, between and within communities, ethnic groups, and socio-economic groups, and within religious ideologies. What one drinks, how one drinks, with whom, and where, all influence not how alcoholic substances are regarded but how social relations are experienced.