Tabernas de Murcia: An approach to a traditional ethylic social landscape

Abstract

The aim of this article is to carry out an analysis of the tavern as a traditional ethyllic social landscape, centred on the city of Murcia, Region of Murcia, Spain. The research is based on a sociological analysis of the book Tabernas de Murcia by José García Martínez and Manuel Muñoz Barberán. This publication, published in 1970, appears just at a historical moment when the process of economic and social modernization of the Region of Murcia, with the consequent structural transformations of the urban and rural geography, would lead this ethylic social landscape to its definitive crisis. It is concluded that the tavern is an ethylic social landscape defined by (i) its insertion in popular urban neighborhoods, based on family business and community networks, (ii) within a particular figuration between the urban space and the nearby wine production territory, (iii) with an identity that differentiates it from other hotel establishments thanks to its close links with the wine trade and supply, and (iv) in which a dense and diverse sociality develops around conversation and play.