Toward a (Dys)functional Anthropology of Drinking: Ambivalence and the American Indian Experience with Alcohol

Abstract

This article explores the complex and contradictory experiences of urban American Indian drinkers. While previous anthropological accounts have emphasized the functions served by American Indian drinking, the testimony of drinkers also documents their awareness of the destructive effects of heavy drinking, particularly the way in which it often interferes with their ability to meet social obligations. Nevertheless, people often continue to use alcohol, and this means that many are profoundly ambivalent about their drinking; they see it simultaneously as something that is embedded in certain important relationships, but also something that is destructive of much that they value. Drawing on interviews with 35 self-defined problem drinkers, this article details the ambiguous nature of the American Indian experience with alcohol, highlighting the need for a clinically sophisticated anthropology of alcohol.

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