May I gently demur: all non-drinkers are not ignorant. ernie kurtz Jim Hedges wrote: > Very true, and it's a conundrum for those of us in the temperance > movement. Educated people are less likely to be religious (because of > knowing better), but more likely to drink (even though they should know > better). So, educated, irreligious, non-drinkers such as myself are > socially ostracized from both groups -- we're not welcome among ignorant > non-drinkers, because we're not believers, and we're not welcome among > educated drinkers, because we're not imbibers. Drinking by the educated > must be a status symbol, like being fat in a poor society or thin in a > rich society. The tobacco prohibition folks have largely succeeded in > eliminating smoking among the educated by making smoking unfashionable. > How do we alcohol prohibition folks made drinking unfashionable? > > Jim Hedges, Partisan Prohibition Historical Society > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > From: /Robin G W Room <[log in to unmask]>/ > Reply-To: /Alcohol and Drugs History Society > <[log in to unmask]>/ > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: /Re: statistics on class and ethnicity/ > Date: /Tue, 22 May 2007 05:43:21 +0200/ > >Gretchen -- > > There are lots of differences in drinking by ethnicity. This > is true botrh > >between societies and for ethnicities within a multicultural society. > > The general rule for social class is that there are more > abstainers among > >poor people. Among those who do drink at all, poor drinkers tend > to have higher > >rates of drinking to intoxication. > > Among those who do drink to intoxication or drink a lot, the > poor tend to > >end up with more health or social trouble -- you might say they > are less able > >to insulate themseleves from the health and social effects. are > more likely > > Heavy drinking is moralized in most societies, and poor heavy > drinkers are > >often stigmatized and marginalized. Marginalized heavy drinkers > account for > >more than their share of premature mortality. > > This is the short version, unreferenced. I will send you > off-list a long > >paper, as yet unpublished, four of us wrote for WHO on this. > > On the epidemiology of drinking in Mexico, check for the names > Maria-Elena > >Medina Mora and Guillermo Borges. > > Cheers, Robin > > > > > >On 2007-05-21, at 03:55, Gretchen Pierce wrote: > > > Dear Group, > > > > > > As a historian I feel woefully inadequate when it comes to what > > > scientists, anthropologists, etc. have said about the subject of > > > alcohol addiction. I know that Mexican temperance reformers in the > > > 1920s and 30s believed that indigenous and working-class people > drank > > > more than others, and they believed that science validated > their ideas. > > > But my question is: what do modern scienticists say about > this? Is > > > there any propensity to consume alcohol based on class or > ethnicity? > > > It seems highly prejudiced to me, but I could be wrong. Any > good works > > > that you could point me to? > > > > > > Thanks, > > > Gretchen > > > > > > Gretchen Pierce > > > Adjunct Instructor > > > Indiana University Northwest > > > Ph.D. Candidate > > > University of Arizona > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > More photos, more messages, more storage?get 2GB with Windows Live > Hotmail. <http://g.msn.com/8HMBENUS/2731??PS=47575>