Drinking culture
Drinking culture is the set of traditions, rituals, and social behaviors associated with the consumption of alcoholic beverages.
Although alcoholic beverages and social attitudes toward drinking vary around the world, nearly every civilization has independently discovered the processes of brewing beer, fermenting wine, and distilling spirits, among other practices.
[2] Drinking is documented in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles,[3] in the Qur'an, in Greek and Roman literature as old as Homer, in Confucius’ Analects, and in various forms of artistic expression throughout history.
[4] Societies and cultures around the world have made use of intoxicating substances, with alcohol as the most popular, featured in temple rituals for ~2,000 years.
Since the Greek and Roman eras, Bacchanalia rituals involved consuming heavy levels of alcohol to reach an ecstatic state of mind.
For example, sparkling wine may be used to toast the bride at a wedding, and alcoholic drinks may be served to celebrate a baby's birth.
Buying someone an alcoholic drink is often considered a gesture of goodwill, an expression of gratitude, or to mark the resolution of a dispute.
Social settings can involve peer pressure to drink more than intended, which can be a risk factor for excessive alcohol consumption.
Sober curious is a cultural movement and lifestyle of practicing none or limited alcohol consumption that started spreading in the late 2010s.
Being sober curious means exploring sobriety at times to challenge the systematic consumption of alcohol in different situations, mostly during social interaction.
[18] For the purposes of buying rounds of alcoholic drinks in English public houses, William Greaves, a retired London journalist, devised a set of etiquette guidelines as a Saturday morning essay in the defunct Today newspaper.
Kate Fox, a social anthropologist, came up with a similar idea in her book Watching the English, but concluded their rationale was the need to minimize the possibility of violence between drinking companions.
For example, drinking at early times of the day is frowned upon in some countries, including Britain, Iceland, and the Czech Republic, whose drinkers limit themselves to the evening, some don't start until past midnight and stay out especially late.
In many European countries, wine and beer are integral to the dining experience, reflecting a culture of moderate, meal-centric drinking.
[29] Conversely, in countries like Russia, higher rates of hard liquor consumption are observed, which has been linked to social and health issues.
Nor does binge drinking necessarily equate with substantially higher national averages of per capita/per annum litres of pure alcohol consumption.
[citation needed] The production and consumption of alcoholic beverages, especially wine, in Afghanistan has a long tradition – going back at least to the fourth century BC.
[32][35] Bringing two bottles or two litres of alcoholic beverages was allowed for foreigners entering Afghanistan prior to the Taliban takeover in August 2021.
Aside from traditional holiday and family ritual drinking, alcohol consumption has modernized and become a major aspect of everyday socialization in Korean culture.
Finland has one of the most significant drinking cultures in Europe, with the second highest rate of alcohol consumption in the Nordic countries.
High volumes of alcohol consumption have serious negative effects on Russia's social fabric and bring political, economic and public health ramifications.
During the period of Italian Somalia, rum was produced from local sugarcane, continuing until the fall of the Siad Barre Government in 1991,[59] though others have reported rum consumption amongst Somali Bantu Christian’s [60] Alcohol in Sudan has been broadly illegal since 1983, when the single-party Sudan Socialist Union passed the Liquor Prohibition Bill, making illegal the manufacture, sale, and consumption of any form of alcohol for the Muslim citizens of the country.
[61] Alcoholic drinks have been banned since former President Jaafar Nimeiri introduced Islamic law, throwing bottles of whisky into the Nile in the capital Khartoum.
[72] The World Health Organization categorizes alcohol as a Group 1 carcinogen,[73] indicating its causal link to cancer.
Several studies over recent decades have linked moderate alcohol consumption with a reduced risk of heart disease.
However, experts caution that this research may not fully account for the influence of other healthy lifestyle factors or the health history of participants who abstain from drinking.
[74] Policy makers have often expressed concern over "drinking culture" due to negative health effects of excess alcohol consumption.
[75] This would be referred to as a "whole system" approach to underage drinking, as it takes into account a particular adolescent's unique risk and protective factors—from genetics and personality characteristics to social and environmental factors.
As early as the eighth century, Saint Boniface was writing to Cuthbert, Archbishop of Canterbury, to report how "In your diocese, the vice of drunkenness is too frequent.
Because the drinker does not experience significant behavioral impairment as a result of drinking, tolerance may facilitate the consumption of increasing amounts of alcohol.
