alcohol

nationality

American

occupation / innovator as

anthropologist

is even in cases of frequent drunkenness not automatically to be viewed as a social or health problem.

In other words, according to Heath and many other anthropologist who have directly studied drinking in prestate societies and in peasant communities, alcohol consumption and even frequent drunkenness should not automatically be viewed as a social or health problem.

is, in Mestizo Camba society, a predominantly integrative tool serving to facilitate rapport between individuals who are normally isolated and introverted.

Alcohol plays a predominantly integrative role in Camba society, where drinking is an elaborately ritualized group activity. . . . The anxieties often cited as bases for common group drinking [e.g., Horton] are not present. . . . Drinking parties predominate among what are [otherwise] rare social activities, and alcohol serves to facilitate rapport between individuals who are normally isolated and introverted.

Dwight Heath

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Dwight Heath