Part one: Problem‐drinking and the integration of alcohol in rural buganda1

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Abstract
This paper summarizes the results of an anthropological study of alcohol use in a rural parish in the Buganda region of Uganda designed to examine the hypothesis that when alcohol is well integrated into the sociocultural system its positive social and physiological functions will tend to outweigh its role as a means of assuaging personal psychological problems. It focuses on the differential functions of a well‐integrated, traditional beverage, omwenge, a banana beer, and a more recently developed distillate of it, enguli, which is less integrated. The results of a statistical analysis provide modest support for the hypothesis. Enguli drinkers drink significantly more for personal psychological effects and omwenge drinkers drink significantly more for physiological reasons. No significant difference was found between the two groups in social reasons for drinking.