As indicators of social status 3. As statements of affiliation 4. As gender differentiators. There is convincing historical and contemporary evidence to show that the adoption of foreign drinks often involves the adoption of the drinking patterns, attitudes and behaviours of the alien culture. This has nothing to do with any intrinsic properties of the beverages themselves beer, for example, may be associated with disorderly behaviour in some cultures or sub-cultures and with benign sociability in others.
Some societies appear less susceptible to the cultural influence of alien beverages than others.
Drinking-places Drinking is, in all cultures, essentially a social activity, and most societies have specific, designated environments for communal drinking. Positive, integrated, non-Temperance cultures tend to favour more open drinking environments, while negative, ambivalent, Temperance cultures are associated with closed , insular designs. In all cultures, the drinking-place is a special environment, a separate social world with its own customs and values 2. Drinking-places tend to be socially integrative, egalitarian environments 3. The primary function of drinking-places is the facilitation of social bonding.