Applied anthropology is able to make important contributions to the study of alcohol.
Previous studies have concentrated on the impact of alcohol on institutions such as the family, alcohol treatment facilities, and cultural groups. However, postmortem examinations offer some unique advantages in the study of alcohol as death may be viewed as a distinctive event easily compared across cultural boundaries. Data were collected during a three-month internship at the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner's Office. Data collection was initiated by a manual search of all filed and autopsied cases. Completed autopsy reports served as source documents.