Abstract
Evidence of alcohol use in human societies extends to the beginning of recorded history. Nearly all societies have discovered and used some form of beverage alcohol. The emergence of concepts of alcohol‐related problems in the form of alcoholism and repeated patterns of alcohol abuse is a social development of the past 500 years, especially the past 200 years. Alcohol abuse and alcoholism are typically defined in a culture through the emergence of various means of formal social control. Sociology has a long tradition of critical perspectives on the dominant definitions of alcohol‐related problems and accompanying social policies. It is clear that, given its potentially harmful effects, its widespread use, and the politically powerful alcohol production and distribution industry, there is considerable ambivalence around the notions of appropriate and inappropriate uses of alcohol in most of the world today.