1. Introduction: alcohol commensality, identity transformations and transcendence / Dimitra Gefou-Madianou -- 2. Female entertainers in Egypt: drinking and gender roles / Karin van Nieuwkerk -- 3. Uses of alcohol among women: games of resistance, power and pleasure / Eleni Papagaroufali -- 4. Drinking on masculinity: alcohol and gender in Andalusia / Henk Driessen -- 5. Wine: life's blood and spiritual essence in a Greek Orthodox convent / A. Marina Iossifides -- 6. Wine and men in Alsace, France / Isabelle Bianquis-Gasser -- 7. Exclusion and unity, retsina and sweet wine: commensality and gender in a Greek agrotown / Dimitra Gefou-Madianou -- 8. 'I can't drink beer, I've just drunk water': alcohol, bodily substance and commensality among Hungarian Rom / Michael Stewart -- 9. Drinking and masculinity in everyday Swedish culture / Gunilla Bjeren -- 10. No fishing without drinking: the construction of social identity in rural Ireland / Adrian Peace