Drinking and sobriety among the Lakota Sioux

Type

Book

Authors

Beatrice Medicine ( Medicine, Beatrice )

ISBN 10

0759105715

ISBN 13

9780759105713

Tags

Alcoholism, Lakota, Lakota -- Alcohol use, Indigenous peoples -- Social conditions

Abstract

"Where previous studies have focused primarily upon drinking styles among Indian populations, Beatrice Medicine develops an indigenous model for the analysis and control of alcohol abuse. This new ethnography of the Lakota (Standing Rock in North and South Dakota) examines patterns of alcohol consumption and strategies by individuals to attain a new life-style and achieve sobriety. Medicine describes the ineffectiveness of treatments when researchers, policy makers, and health professionals do not use a tribal-specific approach to addiction. She offers an indigenous perspective and understanding that should lead to improved approaches to treatment in mental health and alcohol abuse. Her book is essential for medical anthropologists, Native American studies researchers, and health professionals concerned with Native American health issues and alcohol abuse."--Back cover.

Description

vi, 155 pages ; 23 cm.

Biblio Notes

Contents:
"All Indians are drunks" : a pervasive myth --
Uncorking the keg : beginnings of alcohol use among American Indians --
The recent past : Minnewakan "magic water" : alcohol and the Lakota bands --
A Siouan social system : Standing Rock Reservation --
"Everyone drinks!" : drinking behavior among contemporary Lakota (Sioux) Indians --
American Indian sobriety : an uncharted domain --
Religious renaissance and the control of alcohol : the Lakota sun dance --
Siouan sobriety patterns: "I was a better drunk than you were" --
"I got tired of drinking" : interpretations of intents and continuities of Siouan sober states --
Summary and conclusions : "there's a lot to drinking" --
References.

Number of Copies