Between The Cups:An Anth Ropological Investigation On The Drinking Practice Of A Dai Village

Based on the field work I have done in Manlong Dai village,Xishuangbanna prefecture,this dissertation discusses the behavior of alcohol drinking in local context.It focuses on what social significance and negative effects of drinking is,and on how local context affect them.Starting from reviewing the structure of villagers,this article summarizes Manlong people on the basis of relatives and age groups.On this basis,the preliminary classification of local drinking practice is divided into expressive drinking and instrumental drinking.The expressive drinking in non-ceremonial situations is divided into "Yichang","Relatives" and "People's relations".The banquets during Dan ritual and wedding are used as examples to show the expressive drinking in ceremonial occasions.The case of instrumental drinking is also illustrated by some instances.Through several cases and analysis of Dan ritual,this dissertation shows that alcohol drinking has irreplaceable effects on the construction of people's relationship network,which is an important behavioral model to construct a network of people's relationship for Manlong villagers.As a set of social expectations,Renqing adjusts people's daily drinking practice.Many behaviors follow the logic of Renqing,such as inviting others to drink,responding positively to invitations,returning after the invitations,considering the equivalent of the amount of drinking and human feelings when gathering to drink,and showing generosity of banquets during Dan ritual as two-way gift.Even if it is part of instrumental drinking,it works still in the framework of Renqing in the local society.Alcohol drinking,especially drinking together,is an important framework for the local people to develop,confirm and continuously reproduce the network of people's relationship.However,managing and reproducing the network of human relationship is only one of meanings of drinking.For individuals,drinking has different effects.Uncontrolled drinking can not only cause physical damage to the body,but also bring health crisis.It also causes individuals to fall into the dilemma of emotional disorders and even result to breakdown of social networks.Local interpretation of alcohol addiction helps us to think about the disorder caused by drinking.There is different evaluation of drinking in the study of drinking behavior.The reasons for the above contradictions are as follows.On the one hand,drinking itself is a behavior with two-sided consequences,and on the other hand,based on the researcher's certain dualistic thinking,one side is strategically concerned and the other side is ignored.In real life,two aspects coexist and are recognized by people.