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Authors: Jamaal Santos Omamalin
Keywords: anthropology, alcohol, drinking, tradition
Abstract: Drinking alcohol, through an anthropological lens, is defined as a social act embedded in a context of values, attitudes and other norms. Social Drinking, or drinking in general, serves various purposes throughout the course of traditions within a culture, such as a camaraderie, initiation, ritual, medicinal, and many others. This study described the social dynamics of Filipino social drinking, otherwise known as "tagay". Specifically, it aimed to provide response to the following objectives: (1) define tagay as a distinct drinking culture among Filipinos, looking into social considerations, gender-related interactions, power relations, and material components; (2) determine the technicalities, and behavioral rules of tagay; and (3) assess the perceptions, interpretations, and personal definitions of participants on tagay- its social and personal importance, social and personal functions, and challenges faced. This study employed the qualitative research design in the form of the ethnographic method, with participant observation, in tandem with other research techniques, as the primary research technique. Drinking sessions were participated in with respect to availability and accessibility by the researcher. The researcher participated in 4 (four) different drinking sessions with diverse purposes and various participant profiles. Interviews were likewise made with 7 (seven) informants who engage in tagay comprised of 2 males, 3 females, and 2 self-identified gays, all beyond the age of 20, and were selected through both convenience and purposive sampling. Tagay, the Filipino social drinking culture, is engaged in by people through a multitude of reasons usually celebratory and enjoyable in nature. It possesses, in spite of its mundane presence in Philippine society, a myriad of social dynamics and elements which govern and influence its conduct- process of initiation, time and place, behaviors, gender and power relations, material components, roles, mechanisms, definitions, and functions. Even though the culture is controlled and determined by a collection of various social considerations, the identity of tagay as a Filipino drinking culture remains to be unique and symbolic as embodied by the use of a single glass from which to drink in and continues to be dynamic and ever adaptive, with heavy reliance on those which involve themselves in the tradition. Tagay becomes what it is as to how it is assigned, defined, and viewed by those who do it.