Alcoholism and Ethnic Stereotypes in Modern Age Transylvania
Alcoholism and Ethnic Stereotypes in Modern Age Transylvania

Summary/Abstract: In the second half of the 19th Century we were taking part in the process of emphasising the danger represented by excessive alcohol consumption and the causes that triggered this phenomenon in the Romanian society, even though a series of signals had been identified since previous times. The public opinion was the one that rang the alarm bell on the problem represented by alcoholism in a modernizing society. The part of the media became essential in the attempt to create an anti-alcoholic public view, through numerous news regarding the consumption of beverages and the proportions of alcoholism as a social phenomenon. In this fight against the excessive use of alcohol there was a gathering of the modern state’s factors of power: the state authorities, the clergy and the press. By the end of the 19th Century, the new tendency of the public society was to promote healthier alcohols, such as wine, to the detriment of stronger drinks, obtained through distillation. Analyzing the Transylvanian press one can see some stereotypes related to the topic of alcohol: de methods of obtaining alcohol, its components, the fatal effects of alcohol abuse on the human body.

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