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LIQUOR LICENSE:
An Ethnography of Bar Behavior
by SHERRI CAVAN
With the detachment of a naturalist studying the behavior of animals at their watering holes, the author of this book uses observations and interviews to determine the rules governing human interaction in bars and how these rules are modified in different types of public drinking places.
Outlining the rules of the game--who talks to whom, how pick-ups are arranged, how to buy drinks and "rounds" for other people--in the four main kinds of bars: home terretory bars, convenience bars, sexual marketplaces and night spots, the author shows how the "time out" behavior of Americans in drinking places reveals behavior traits less easily recognized in "official" public interaction. In the settings of saloons, lounges, night clubs, road houses, cabarets, beer gardens, bistrots, pubs and the like, which are termed "unserious," the behavior of individuals is also unserious and relaxed, revealing an unrestricted face-to-face interaction that is seldom demonstrated in public.
Professionals and students concerned with social interaction, social organisation, leisure, deviance and alcoholism will be intrigued by the theoretical implications of this provocative study and its probable effect upon future research.
Sherri Cavan is Assistant Professor of Sociology in San Francisco State College.
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