"I'm going to break the ashes," yelled one daily drinker to
another as their paths crossed early in the morning in the Sri
Lankan village Michele Ruth Gamburd calls Naeaegama. The drinker's
cryptic comment compared the warming power of alcohol in the form
of his first shot of kasippu, the local moonshine with the
rekindled heat of a kitchen fire. As the adverse effects of
globalization have brought poverty to many areas of the world, more
people, particularly men, have increased their use and abuse of
alcohol. Despite Buddhist prohibitions against the consumption of
mind-altering substances, men in Naeaegama are drinking more, at a
younger age, and the number of problem drinkers has begun to
grow.
In Breaking the Ashes, Gamburd explores the changing role of
alcohol. Her account is populated with lively characters, many of
whom Gamburd has known since visiting the village for the first
time as a child. In wonderfully clear prose Gamburd offers readers
an understanding of the cultural context for social and antisocial
alcohol consumption, insight into everyday and ceremonial drinking
in Naeaegama, and an overview of the production of illicit alcohol.
Breaking the Ashes includes a discussion of the key economic
aspects that fuel conflicts between husbands and wives,
moonshine-makers and police. Addressing Western and indigenous ways
to conceptualize and treat alcohol dependence, Gamburd explores the
repercussions at the family as well as the community level of
alcohol's abuse."
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