Drinking with purpose?
January 10, 2011 4:42 PM   Subscribe

Where can I read about the philosophies of spiritual or ritualisted drinking and drunkenness?

Looking for academic articles, books, newspaper or magazine articles, whatever on how different cultures and societies have used alcohol - specifically excessive alcohol consumption - in generically spiritual to rigidly ritualistic ways. Everything from communing with the divine, or a muse, to meditative practices. Looking more for practices that are/were occasional, rather than, "These folk binge every week."
posted by curious nu to Religion & Philosophy (6 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: This is a fantastic article on just that subject. Memail me your email address and I can email you the whole thing, if you'd like.
posted by griphus at 4:50 PM on January 10, 2011 [2 favorites]


I remember enjoying Wolfgang Schivelbusch's Tastes of Paradise, a social history of spices and intoxicants, when I was doing European history as an undergraduate. As a social historian he's really into the things I think you're looking for: the rituals of toasting, wishing someone health, drinking different things for different purposes (beer for strength, wine for the digestions etc.)
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 5:01 PM on January 10, 2011


Best answer: As a classics major, the first thing that came to mind for me were the Bacchantes, or Maenads. (We affectionately called them the Bachettes.)

I found this reference listed and it sounds exactly like what you are looking for:

Abel, Ernest L., Intoxication in Mythology: A Worldwide Dictionary of Gods, Rites, Intoxicants, and Place, McFarland & Co., Inc., Publishers; Jefferson, NC and London 2006.
posted by chatongriffes at 5:25 PM on January 10, 2011


the vaults of erowid has TONS of info on alcohol...and um...other stuff too...
posted by sexyrobot at 8:01 PM on January 10, 2011


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symposium

In a fragment from a lost play by Eubulos, the god of wine Dionysos himself describes proper and improper drinking:

For sensible men I prepare only three kraters: one for health (which they drink first), the second for love and pleasure, and the third for sleep. After the third one is drained, wise men go home. The fourth krater is not mine any more - it belongs to bad behaviour; the fifth is for shouting; the sixth is for rudeness and insults; the seventh is for fights; the eighth is for breaking the furniture; the ninth is for depression; the tenth is for madness and unconsciousness.

In keeping with the Greek virtue of moderation, the symposiarch should have prevented festivities from getting out of hand, but Greek literature and art often indicate that the third-krater limit was not observed.

posted by BaxterG4 at 10:32 PM on January 10, 2011


Best answer: The Annual Review of Anthropology has published two worthwhile overviews/reviews of the study of alcohol use that would be good starting points toward digging further--the first was back in 1987, and more recently revisiting the topic in 2006. If you're not familiar with the format of ARA articles, they offer a theoretical overview of a particular subject, but are particularly valuable in providing a massive bibliography with citations of hundreds of other books/articles.
posted by SomeTrickPony at 5:37 AM on January 11, 2011


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