Column: Nacirema and Alcohol

 Editor's note: This column discusses sensitive topics such as sexual assault.  

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The term Nacirema is American spelled backwards. It was first introduced by Horace Miner in, "Body Ritual Among the Nacirema." Today, it is mainly used by anthropologists to distance themselves, and avoid personal bias, when writing about American culture, its rituals and its customs.

In Nacirema country, the age that a young Nacireman can consume fermented drinks is 21 years old. This law came about when the federal village chiefs unilaterally chose to increase the age limit and coerce state chiefs to adopt this minimum fermented drink age by withholding their part of that season’s earnings if they refused. With one of the highest drinking ages in the world, Nacirema country prides itself on caring greatly for the safety of its youth.

Nonetheless, having spent much time with Nacireman youth, I can safely confirm that this is customary law is seldom respected. Whereas, in my ethnological studies, I have seen that this high drinking age is in fact causing more harm to youth in Nacireman higher education villages as opposed to protecting them. 

When Nacireman youth in these villages get the opportunity to drink, they will drink as much as possible, fearing that another opportunity may not come soon. This has created a primitive tradition of binge drinking amongst college-aged Nacireman youth. The high drinking age and stigmatization around fermented drink have created problematic drinking cultures. This is in large part due to the fact that Nacireman youth are not well educated on how to drink fermented barley responsibly, as shown by the futile attempts of AlcoholEdu.

Even worse than binge drinking, there is the problem of knocktails. This is when Nacirmean women’s drinks are drugged and they are subsequently sexually assaulted. In Nacireman higher education villages, there is an elitist tribe called fraternities. If a Nacireman youth wants to enjoy fermented potatoes they have to visit this tribe’s den. Female sorority tribes are not allowed to have parties with fermented drinks, hence, the tribe of fraternities controls much of the fermented drink that Nacireman youth — especially women — drink in these villages. 

These tribes have the power to decide who is allowed into the den, what is the ratio of men versus women, what fermented drink shall be drank and how much of it will be drank. It seems illogical to give so much power to a group of pubescent males — however, a system of chiefdoms and patriarchy has helped keep these fraternity tribes in power.

Proponents of the high drinking age also argue that Naciremans under 21 are still developing mentally. Therefore, they should not be exposed to the harms of fermentation. However, I have found this to be a contradictory policy. 

For example, an 18-year-old Nacireman is considered mentally developed enough to become a warrior and go to battle, however, they cannot buy fermented grapes. In addition, an 18-year-old is seen as mentally developed enough to buy a rifle and a shotgun, and even semiautomatics, however, they cannot drink fermented oats. Even more bizarre, in more than half of Nacireman country a child can legally own a firearm.

Perhaps this speaks to the ancient Nacireman tradition of fighting. Naciremans thoroughly enjoy fighting and it has now become a sacred custom of theirs. Out of the 243 years that this country has existed, it has only had peace for 21 of them. Hence, when a Nacireman comes of age, as part of their rite of passage they receive the right to die at war and kill with guns, however, the right to drink fermented wheat is much too powerful to be granted to youth.

Another, Nacireman’s reasoning behind implementing the high age of 21-years-old was that it reduced automobile collisions. One would think efficient public transit systems would be a sound solution to drunk driving, given the aforementioned ills that a high age can bring, such as binge drinking and knocktails. However, Nacireman country is underdeveloped and has not managed to build sufficient public transit systems due to the corruption of oil and automobile companies and the presence of automobile mafias. 

The problem here is not that Nacirema country has a high drinking age, rather, it is that the reasoning is inconsistent, hypocritical and at times harmful. If it is a matter of protecting Nacireman youth, it would seem reasonable to also increase the age that one goes to war or the age that one can acquire a firearm since these also lead to youth deaths. Even further, to protect youth, Naciremans should also ban fraternities as they are heavily associated with the harms of knocktails and binge drinking. 

However — war, guns and fraternities are important to Nacireman culture. Therefore, perhaps it is best that the drinking age is lowered and drinking is de-stigmatized so that youth, especially women, can have control over buying their own drinks and agency over educating themselves on alcohol. Additionally, the developing nation needs to deal with state capture by automobile and oil companies, if it ever wants to make the roads truly safe from drunk-driving citizens.

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