Typologies of the cultural position of drinking

Objective: Typologies of the cultural position of drinking from the social science literature are reviewed. Method: The article reviews significant st udies and literature on the topic. Results: Starting in the 1940s, two rese arch traditions considered variations in the cultural position of drinking as explanations of rates of drinking problems. A "holocultural" tradition c oded and analyzed ethnographic data on tribal and village societies, starti ng in the 1940s, with each study identifying a different social dimension a s crucial. A "sociocultural" tradition distinguished abstinent cultures fro m prescriptive cultures, in which drinking was integrated with daily life, and expected, but drunkenness was prohibited. These types were implicitly c ontrasted with American drinking, which was variously characterized. Other dimensional and typological approaches in the literature are considered, in cluding a little-known Jellinek typology. Problems with the widely used dis tinction between "wetter" and "drier" (or "temperance") cultures are discus sed. Conclusions: Four ideal types of the cultural position of drinking can be readily distinguished: abstinent societies, constrained ritual drinking , banalized drinking and fiesta drunkenness. A large residual category rema ins, however, and a dimensional approach to typology building may be more f ruitful. Two basic dimensions are proposed-regularity of drinking and exten t of drunkenness-and further dimensions are described that may be added to fit the requirements of the particular study.