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4. Jolly Drinking: Events and Taverns
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4 Jolly Drinking: Events and Taverns Above and beyond satisfying the body’s need for nutrition, the consumption of foods and beverages conveys meaning in society. Commensality, the act of eating and drinking together, creates bonds between people. Sharing food both enhances a group’s identity and distinguishes it from other groups. In addition to demarcating groups,comestibles can also indicate status and prestige. The cultural elite and hosts staging special occasions use rare and expensive items to mark their own importance and the significance of the event. The items people eat and drink, and the company in which they consume them, can reveal group boundaries and social hierarchies. Choice of alcoholic beverage indexes different categories of people and events. For example, working class Mexican American men drink beer with barbecued meat at informal get-togethers after work (Limon 1989). In Botswana , young men with salaried jobs drink expensive bottled imported beer in bars in the evenings, while lower class laboring men drink locally produced liquor at traditional liquor stands (Suggs 2001). Similarly, Mary Thornton (1987) contrasts the consumption of locally made table wine at informal family gatherings to the consumption of commercial rum with formal visitors in an Austrian village. In each of these cases, choice of beverage serves as a key symbol for expressing status and relationship. Given alcohol’s importance in creating group solidarity and its usefulness in marking significant occasions, it should come as no surprise that alcohol is a key part of many festivals. “The predominant association with drinking for many populations is celebratory,” states Heath; he continues, “drinking itself is often treated as a joyous occasion” (2000, 196). Public drinking in Malta accompanies both the annual religious feast of St. Paul 88 Breaking the Ashes and celebrations of football victories as participants enact their religious and sportive loyalties (Mitchell and Armstrong 2005). Guests at Hong Kong wedding banquets drink expensive imported cognac while creating and renewing kinship ties (J. Smart 2005). In pre-industrial Botswana, homemade sorghum beer was made by women and shared by men to celebrate the harvest; in this instance,beer consumption expressed the basic reciprocity of social life, indexing cooperative family agricultural patterns, gerontocratic control over production, and the gendered division of labor (Suggs 1996, 598). At many ceremonies, people have a responsibility to drink at least a small amount, symbolically demonstrating their group membership and joining in the celebration. In Naeaegama, men drink in both formal and casual contexts. I begin this chapter by investigating the annual events during which men expect to consume alcohol. Alcohol also has a place in life-cycle rituals, and men drink at rites of passage such as coming-of-age ceremonies, weddings, and funerals . Drinking at these events reaffirms family relationships. In contrast, it is friendships and professional bonds that men reinforce through social drinking in taverns and bars. In both contexts, choice of beverage (highclass arrack or low-class kasippu) indexes status and creates group identity. Jolly Drinkers: Drinking for Pleasure People around the world enjoy drinking alcohol in social contexts. The pleasure arises both from the physical effects of alcohol and from the habit of associating drinking with having a good time. In small amounts, alcohol eases stress and facilitates social interactions (Plange 1998, 90–92).1 In most cultures, most drinkers have few if any alcohol-related problems (Heath 1987). People in Naeaegama recognized this pattern. A burly shopkeeper named Wimal distinguished between two kinds of drinkers—the jolly drinkers, who drank in a moderate and acceptable way, and the people who drank because of their problems and made those problems worse by drinking . Here I examine“jolly drinking,” a male activity accepted, expected, and even required in some social contexts. I will discuss problem drinking in chapter 8. In Naeaegama and in other Sri Lankan settings, men drink for pleasure. Local men described this experience in a variety of ways. Lalith, a tall and imposing retired policeman, said that he drinks “for the jolly (joliyaTa).” 1. As Nii-K Plange points out, although many scholars agree in theory that drinking alcohol is okay “in moderation,” they show less unanimity on what “moderation” means in practice (1998, 90). [54.160.243.44] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 19:27 GMT) Jolly Drinking 89 Wimal the shopkeeper asserted that after men earned money, they wanted to have fun. The slang phrase aatal eka refers to a pleasurable high, and somiya covers enjoyment with friends. Siri explained, “To achieve...