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LACS 363W Sugar & Rum

This Guide is designed to help students with their research for their final presentation for Dr. Goddard's Spring 2024 course

Assignment

Details of Project:
A small group project where you are to offer a presentation on:

The Ritual of Social Drinking at Emory (or another location with which you are familiar, including home/family etc)

Use the Framework suggested in Dietler, Alcohol: anthropological perspectives, p. 235 (Dietler, Michael. "Alcohol: Anthropological/archaeological perspectives." Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 35 (2006): 229-249.), http://www.annualreviews.org.proxy.library.emory.edu/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.anthro.35.081705.123120

and Triese, understanding the social gifts of drinking rituals (Treise, Debbie, Joyce M. Wolburg, and Cele C. Otnes. "Understanding the “social gifts” of drinking rituals: An alternative framework for PSA developers." Journal of Advertising 28.2 (1999): 17-31.) https://www-jstor-org.proxy.library.emory.edu/stable/pdf/4189107.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A739b951b2b8d9593f61d9d6f32bca610

 

Among the questions you should ask are

Who participates (gender/age/class or status group)

What is served? In what order? Who pays?

Where does it take place? Do people sit, stand? In what order?

How is drinking done? With/without food (what kind) with/without conversation? With/without games?

The point is to use drinking as a lens with which to understand social structures

Who is included/excluded? How is the inclusion/exclusion effected? How does drinking strengthen or weaken group identity of status group?

And lastly how does the drinking ritual challenge or affirm (or more likely both at the same time, which is why we call it
ritualistic!) larger social norms and values.

In addition, each member of the group will submit a 7 page essay that summarizes that member's answer to the question