Date of Award

12-1989

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Anthropology

First Advisor

Dr. Robert Jack Smith

Second Advisor

Dr. Alan Jacobs

Third Advisor

Dr. William Garland

Keywords

alcohol use

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

Alcohol has great antiquity and is used by most of the world's cultures. Invariably, there are many theories which account for its use. Regardless, whether psychological, biological or sociological they tend to represent alcohol use, alcohol abuse and alcoholism as stages of the disease process. The present paper uses a multidisciplinary approach to the study of alcohol use, incorporating ideas that are psychological, sociological, biological and anthropological. Alcohol use in the industrialized West may, in part, be accounted for because of "subsistence insecurity."

For the purpose of this paper "subsistence insecurity," in the industrialized West, will be represented by the economic conditions of unemployment, under-employment and the employed poor. These stressors can produce anxiety among individuals or groups of individuals experiencing any of these conditions. Alcohol use among these individuals or groups of individuals is a culturally acceptable means of anxiety-reduction.

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