alcohol

occupation / innovator as

baseball player

is, among the Truk in Oceania, even in grand excess, a major part of the bacchanalian life-style of young men who are given over to public displays of drunken bravado. These displays are a basic part of growing into manhood in truk... they do not represent psychopathic or sociopathic behavior.

An example of this shortcoming can be seen in Marshall's book Weekend Warriors, an account of drinking on Moen in the Truk Islands of Micronesia. In the preface to this book, Marshall reports that there is a nearuniversal agreement among foreigners familiar with Micronesia as well as among many Micronesians themselves that alcohol abuse is a major problem in Truk. Certainly, Marshall witnessed a considerable amount of drinking and drunkenness there. Marshall presents an explanation of this behavior in terms of traditional Truk culture. Heavy drinking and drunkenness are not viewed by him as an indication of problems in Truk, such as the atomic response to the disruption of traditional culture caused by the island society's incorporation within the world economic system. Rather, he (1979: 125) argues:A major part of the bacchanalian life-style of young men is given over to public displays of drunken bravado. These displays are a basic part of growing into manhood in Truk... they do not represent psychopathic or sociopathic behavior. They are expected and accepted parts of contemporary Trukese life, just as warfare and 'heathen dancing' were regular parts of Trukese life a century ago.Drinking by young Trukese men, from this perspective, can be understood as 'a modern substitute for traditional warfare,' which was banned by colonial powers (Marshall 1979: viii). Consequently, Marshall (1979: 119) maintains that 'drunkenness may be looked upon as a psychological blessing for young men in Truk from the standpoint of their overall mental health. Rather than bottling up much of their aggression, they could now express it in a socially sanctioned way.'

Mac Marshall

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Mac Marshall