ETHNOGRAPHY AND UNDERSTANDINGS OF ABORIGINAL DRINKING

Qualitative and ethnographic accounts of Aboriginal drinking tend to focus on the social meanings and uses of alcohol within particular groups. Such studies avoid a preoccupation with 'causes' and instead examine the social milieu within which, sometimes excessive, drinking occurs without disapprobation. This article outlines the work of Australian social analysts of Aboriginal drinking who have documented the process of learning how to drink, the uses of drinking as a marker of equality, sociability and in exchanges, and the beliefs and meanings attached to alcohol use among Aboriginal people. Through such approaches, we can "make sense" of the persistence of what often seem to be dysfunctional styles of drinking among certain groups.