Drinking is, in all cultures, essentially a social activity, and most societies have specific, designated environments for communal drinking.
Cross-cultural differences in the physical nature of public drinking-places reflect different attitudes towards alcohol. Positive, integrated, non-Temperance cultures tend to favour more ‘open’ drinking environments, while negative, ambivalent, Temperance cultures are associated with ‘closed’, insular designs.
Research also reveals significant cross-cultural similarities or ‘constants’:
1. In all cultures, the drinking-place is a special environment, a separate social world with its own customs and values
2. Drinking-places tend to be socially integrative, egalitarian environments
3. The primary function of drinking-places is the facilitation of social bonding.