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

IntroductionAnthropology 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 man 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 vignette 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 playing field factors that influence human behavior. For thousands of years people in nearly every culture have used drugs as medicines, to alter mental states as furcate of religious or social rituals, or simply for individual effects (Starr, 1997, p. 242).Cross&SHYCultural Definition of Drug and Alcohol Use/ j est atAccording 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 traditionalistic 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 non&SHYnative patron, is reserved for less social drink 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 mover 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 Graw&SHYHill 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 macintoshMillan, 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.