ABSTRACT
Though a perennial favorite of psychologists and sociologists, Alcoholics Anonymous has thus far garnered scant interest in the anthropological community.1 There may be a good reason for this. At first glance the organization looks so narrow in purpose and so pragmatic in style as to offer very little to tempt the ethnographer's palate. After all, how much "culture" can there be in a group that exists only to help problem drinkers stay sober?
