Alcohol & Drug Abuse: A Psychobiological Trait In Human Societies Essay

Introduction Anthropology can be defined as the science of physical, social, material, and cultural development of man, including his origin, evolution, distribution, customs, beliefs, and folkways. Anthropologists are concerned with the ways in which human groups and communities cope with the immense changes in their physical and sociopolitical environments in recent decades. Today, many anthropologists feel the need to solve contemporary problems in society, not just study human existence. Specifically, the contemporary problem of drug and alcohol abuse is an issue of great importance worth examining for anthropologists as well as sociologists and other professionals who study factors that influence human behavior. "For thousands of years people in nearly every culture have used drugs as medicines, to alter mental states as part of religious or social rituals, or simply for individual effects" (Starr, 1997, p. 242). Cross­Cultural Definition of Drug and Alcohol Use/Abuse According to the Dictionary of Anthropology (1966), "there is often an elaborate symbolism involved in the choice of different social and ceremonial occasions" (G.K.Hall & Co., p. 83). For example, "manioc" beer is the traditional beverage for a communal work party in many Amazonian native groups and is associated with sociability, family and communal life. "Aquardiente" liquor, which is obtained from the non­native patron, is reserved for less social drinking patterns and is often identified with aggressive behavior as fighting, for example. On the other hand, hallucinogen drugs are reserved for Shamanistic and religious occasions. They are a means of communicating with reality governed by Shamanistic spirits. All human groups possess a r... ...e, The Chimpanzees of Gombe, Belnap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA: 1986. Heath, Dwight, Constructive Drinking, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA: 1987. Heath, Dwight B, Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 1, American Reference Publishing Co., Inc., Lakeville, CT: 1996. Kottak, Conrad Philip, Cultural Anthropology, Mc Graw­Hill Publishing, Inc., New York: 1994. Lee, Richard B., The Dobe Ju/'hoansi, Harcourt Brace College Publishers, Orlando: 1993. Lisansky, Edith S., International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 4., Collier and MacMillan, Inc:, 1968. Murdock, George Peter, Our Primitive Contemporaries, The Mac Millan Co., Inc., New York: 1934. Shell, Ellen Ruppel, "Flesh and Bone", Discover, December, 1991. Starr, Cecie, Human Biology, Wadsworth Publishing Co, Belmont, California: 1997.