HISTORY, CULTURE, AND SUBSTANCE USE IN A RURAL SCOTTISH COMMUNITY

Abstract

This paper provides a detailed discussion of substance use and misuse in a rural community in the Western Highlands of Scotland, United Kingdom. Attention is focused on the way in which patterns of substance use arise from a complex interplay of historical, cultural, social, and personal events. The discussion illustrates how large changes in patterns of intoxication in rural communities can be rendered intelligible through an understanding of the impact of economic, religious, and social changes. The analysis is based on an historical and ethnographic account, carried out between 1987 and 1990 with adolescents, of patterns of use which range from pagan ceremonies in the 16th century to contemporary “soft drug” use. [Translations are provided in the International Abstracts Section of this issue.]

• Substance use
• Rural
• Historical context
• Ceilidh (visiting or meeting house)
• Intoxication
• Substance availability

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alan Dean

Alan Dean, M.Sc., graduated from Lancaster University, U.K. in 1977 with a B.Sc. (Hons) in Biological Science. In 1979 he was awarded an M.Sc. in the sociology of science and technology after one year of postgraduate study at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London. On graduation he worked as a researcher for five years at the National Foundation for Educational Research, followed by a five-year period as a research fellow at Moray House College, Edinburgh. In 1990 Mr. Dean moved to London, to Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, where he set up and managed the first U.K. national study of cocaine and crack use. In 1992 he moved to the University of Hull as a lecturer in the School of Social and Political Sciences. His most recent research has focused on drug and alcohol use; from an analysis of crime and cocaine in the United Kingdom to alcohol use in the Hebridean Islands of Scotland. This research has examined the personal, economic, religious, historical, and spatial aspects of use. This work has led to the study of the application of chaos theory to such issues, and, more generally, reflection on the role of natural selection in structuring human nature. He is the author of Chaos and Intoxication: Complexity and Adaptation in the Structure of Human Nature.