The Social Impact of the European Liquor Trade on the Akan of Ghana (Gold Coast and Asante), 1875-1910

Abstract

The Social Impact of the European Liquor Trade on the Akan of Ghana (Gold Coast and Asante), I875-I910 Research into patterns of alcohol consumption and related social problems in nonWestern transitional societies provides a challenging area for application of the interdisciplinary approach in history. The scope of alcohol research is broad. Beyond doubt, the major contributions have been made by biological scientists, who have dealt extensively with the physiological effects of alcohol on the digestive and nervous systems, and by sociologists and psychologists, who have concentrated on attitudinal and behavioral patterns of problem drinkers in various ethnic and social groups, chiefly in Western industrialized, urban settings. Similar work on alcohol consumption in developing countries has lagged far behind. But pioneering case studies of drinking patterns in traditional and transitional societies in Africa are beginning to be undertaken by social anthropologists who have already advanced a number of important hypotheses and conceptual models based on ethnographic data and cross-cultural analysis.I Africanist historians have rarely ventured into this field. When compelled to bring it within their