HERTUG HANS OG HANS TROFASTE RIDDERE og deres eksklusive togter til rusuniverset

Abstract

Karen Elmeland: Hans the Duke, and His

Loyal Knights: Their Exclusive Journeys

to the World of Ecstasy

This article describes an observational study

performed during the project “Danish

Alcohol Culture - Ecstasy, Ritual and

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Regulation”. The aim of the study was to

describe the alcohol culture of the “beer

fratemity” gnaslguF. The focus was partly on

the analysis of the cultural norms and the

collective mechanisms of control

influencing the use of alcohol and ecstasy

among the members, partly on the analysis of

the ritual structures goveming and forming

the conviviality in different drinking

situations. The overall aim of the project was

to give a qualitative description of ecstasy as

a State of consciousness - a non-everyday

consciousness. In this article it is aigued that

ritual analysis can be of relevance to

understanding the ways in which Danes - and

others for that matter - drink. Following this

line of thinking, two ritual forms are

identified: a rite of passage and a rite of

fratemization. In both forms a four-stage

structure can be identified.