The Role of the Drunk in a Oaxacan Village¹

Drunks are accorded great social license in Oaxacan villages. They may shout insults, intrude uninvited into social gatherings, and behave in other normally unacceptable ways. This paper analyzes the drunk's role in terms suggested by Goffman's “dramaturgical analogy,” as a highly functional and sometimes entertaining part in the ongoing drama of community life. Village conceptions of drunken behavior are seen to create that behavior, apart from the alcohol intake which is its ostensible cause.