"Problem deflation" and the ethnographic record: interpretation and introspection in anthropological studies of...

A controversy that has continued over the past 5 years concerning whether ethnographic studies of alcohol systematically "deflate" alcohol-related problems is discussed and critiqued. This debate harbors some fundamentally significant matters that have important implications for the future of alcohol and culture studies. These matters concern the epistemological basis of ethnography, and the reliability of ethnographic research methods. Drawing upon data from Truk, Federated States of Micronesia, these issues are explored in detail. It is suggested that the presence or absence of "alcohol problems" in ethnographic accounts is largely a result of particular interpretations made at specific historical moments in the changing, open-ended systems that anthropologists study. It is concluded that by alerting us to likely biases in the ethnographic record, Room has performed a signal service to the anthropology of alcohol.