'Eat, Drink and Be Merry for Tomorrow We Die': Alcohol Practices in Mar Mikhael, Beirut

Résumé En

As a part of a wider study on Beirut’s nightlife, this chapter will deal with alcohol-related practices in the neighbourhood of Mar Mikhail. Adopting a geographical and de-centred standpoint, it will show how studying drinking beyond the west can provide more knowledge about considering alcohol as a socio-spatial object. About two years ago, Beirut’s bar scene moved and transformed Mar Mikhail into the new hotspot of a nomadic nightlife, where other ways of drinking and other patterns of occupying space by drinking emerged. The main feature of this changing turns out to be now people drinking in the street. Following Mary Lawhon’s reflexions on this topic, the chapter will first consider alcohols as a flow that circulates: the process of getting alcohol in a predominantly Muslim country is indeed shaped by norms and values. It will then focus on the emergence of the new drinking territory of Mar Mikhail, where drinking can be characterized as vertical and visible, contrasting with the dominant ways of consumption. It will finally analyze the temporary reconfiguration of prevailing norms and standards of behaviours at work, questioning the meaning of new practices that can be considered as transgressive as well as hedonistic, fun and friendly, in times of uncertainty and political violence. The methodological approach is mostly qualitative and relies first on site observations made in 2011, 2013 and 2014. I also make use of in-depth interview with young Lebanese ranging between 22 and 37 years old. The chapter also draws on a variety of secondary sources including press articles, websites and social networks.