ABSTRACT
The chapter deals with the constellation of ‘anti-structure’ that arises within the liminal phase of a rite de passage, and how this relates to drinking occasions as occasions of liminality. This has been classically theorised by McAndrew and Edgerton (1969), who interpreted drinking occasions as ‘time-outs’, involving ‘cultural remission’, allowing greater licence. However, rites de passage involving alcohol always have limits, with a controlled, decontrolling of controls, and a ‘within-limits clause’. Such limits are imposed through binding liminality within a ritual action, with a defined space and time. Limits are also guarded by masters of ceremony who maintain order. Such limits are important, as drinking rituals can become schismogenic, rigidifying or escalating into nihilistic, or destructively competitive bouts of intoxication. Drinking rituals, are also moments of cognitive decontrolling, where participants are freed to think anew, in reflexive or creative and playful ways about their society. It is for this reason that intoxication has often been understood as associated with creativity. For this to be beneficial though, the ‘within-limits clause’ must apply, just as it must apply to time-outs in general.
