Introduction

Alcohol is consumed in most of the world's industrial cultures and in many non-or pre-industrial cultures. Some cultures have formal bans on alcohol, but in many, consumption of alcohol is a part of routine community life. Although the proportion of people who elect to abstain from alcohol varies across communities and cultures, alcohol is likely to be consumed in some form by a significant percentage of the population where it is not forbidden. In a community system, drinking is manifested in the Consumption Sub-system.

Each member of a community can be described according to his or her patterns of drinking (including abstention), characterized by quantity and frequency of alcohol consumption and by rates of intoxication. Across the community as a whole, these individual drinking (or abstinence) patterns in the aggregate form consumption categories or distributions, which make up the Consumption Subsystem. Alcohol use within the community differs by age, gender, marital status, religious preference, and racial or ethnic heritage. Men usually consume more alcohol on average than do women. Youths, young adults, adults, and the elderly exhibit distinct patterns of alcohol use. People from religious groups that prohibit alcohol use (e.g., Muslims, Mormons, or Southern Baptists in the US) consume less alcohol than do people from religious groups with no such proscriptions. Within the US, whites, African-Americans, and Latinos differ in their drinking patterns.

The Consumption Subsystem is dynamic. Over time, people move from one consumption category to another, changing both frequency and quantity of alcohol consumption.