When the WHO-directed Scotland, Zambia, Mexico, and (tag-along)
cross-cultural surveys were conducted
in 1979 (was it?) I was quite struck by the broad similarities in
drinking-pattern and drinking-problem frequencies between the U.S. and
Scotland and by two striking differences:  (1) Scots drank at pubs/U.S. at
home and (2) Scots showed a marked differences in beverage preferences by
gender (men drank beer, women sherry) whereas the U.S. did not show strong
gender-based preferences.  This led to some interesting exchanges between
Bruce Ritson, head of the Scottish project, and myself.  Both cultural
differences could be read as a greater separation of the masculine and
feminine realms in relation to drinking in Scotland.  By extension, these
two findings suggested greater persistence of a
(gender-) status-based traditionalism in Scottish drinking norms and
practices.

I also remember sitting next to a fashion salesman on a European flight in
this period, too.  We got into a conversation about differences between
European and American fashion sensibilities.  He said (as I recall) that
lower middle class Europeans spent more on fashion (relatively) because
they preferred to entertain "out" (at a restaurant or pub) because their
homes were less suitable status vehicles.  Americans, on the other hand,
spent more on furnishings for their homes--and tended to entertain in them.

Drinking-in vs. drinking-out should, one would think, imply lots of broad
corollary differences in drinking's cultural "locations" and meanings,
culture-specific arrays of drinking problems, etc.  But the WHO project was
strongly tethered to policy-related ambitions that left little room for
pursuing "interesting" "sidelight" findings such as these.  Nevertheless,
I'm sure some tables illuminating the drink-in/drink-out divide in Scotland
and the U.S. can still be found on the shelves at the Alcohol Research
Group in Berkeley or in Bruce Ritson's group.

Ron Roizen