Women and Alcohol in a Highland Maya Town

<p>Healing roles and rituals involving alcohol are a major source of power and identity for women and men in Highland Chiapas Mexico where abstention from alcohol can bring a loss of meaningful roles and of a sense of community. Yet as in other parts of the world alcohol use sometimes leads to abuse whose effects must then be combated by individuals and the community.</p> <p>In this pioneering ethnography Christine Eber looks at women and drinking in the community of San Pedro Chenalhó to address the issues of women's identities roles relationships and sources of power. She explores various personal and social strategies women use to avoid problem drinking including conversion to Protestant religions membership in cooperatives or Catholic Action and modification of ritual forms with substitute beverages.</p> <p>The book's women-centered perspective reveals important data on women and drinking not reported in earlier ethnographies of Highland Chiapas communities. Eber's reflexive approach blending the women's stories analyses songs and prayers with her own and other ethnographers' views shows how Western individualistic approaches to the problems of alcohol abuse are inadequate for understanding women's experiences with problem and ritual drinking in a non-Western culture.</p> <p>In a new epilogue Christine Eber describes how events of the last decade including the Zapatista uprising have strengthened women's resolve to gain greater control over their lives by controlling the effects of alcohol in the community.</p>