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Yarzutkina A. Alcohol and the Ideas about Social Roles in Rural Communities of Chukotka

A. Yarzutkina
Chukotka Branch of the M. K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University
Anadyr, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0001-5157-7166
E-mail: jarzut@yandex.ru

 

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ABSTRACT. Alcohol and alcohol drinking are an integral part of the modern life of people in rural settlements in Chukotka. Despite the active inclusion of alcoholic beverages in the life of local communities, anthropologists did not consider alcohol and its consumption in Chukotka worthy of their attention. Alcohol was studied as a social problem but not as a cultural practice and a social modulator. This article fills this gap by drawing on field studies conducted from 2003 to 2023 in twelve settlements of the Chukotka Autonomous District. The article addresses the problem of alcohol’s role in differentiating rural communities. The degree of alcohol drinking, a person’s behavior when intoxicated, and the ideas about the acceptability of such drinking have an impact on the social interactions within a village. The presence/absence of alcohol in the life of a particular resident of a settlement or their position regarding alcohol abuse prevention often indicates their social position in the rural hierarchy. Other characteristics of a person, including their belonging to a particular ethnic, territorial, institutional, age, or gender group, also play an important role. The examples in the article demonstrate how people’s relation to alcohol reveals the construction of emic social divisions in small northern communities. The notion of whether alcohol drinking in public is acceptable or unacceptable underpins social inequality among the populace.

 

KEYWORDS: alcohol, rural communities, alcohol abuse, social roles, Chukotka, Indigenous population

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8600-2024-3(25) -116-137
УДК 663.5:392.86(571.651)

 

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