Family research and alcoholism.

Abstract

Few anthropological studies on alcoholism and family life exist. This chapter argues for a flexible definition of the contemporary "family" and briefly reviews the orientations in the alcoholism and family literature, noting that the family systems approach currently utilized by clinicians is congenial with basic anthropological approaches and methodologies, such as the tenet of holism, the conceptual "structural functional" approach, and naturalistic field methods classic to anthropological research. The significance of home observation is emphasized. A review of anthropologically oriented studies in the literature by sociologists , psychiatrists, and anthropologists is presented. Contemporary anthropological studies are described, and promising directions for new research that fall within the traditional purview and interests of anthropologists are pointed up.