Prior to the impact of outside civilization, the Formosan aborigines (or mountain people) normally only brewed liquor to drink for ceremonies or celebratory occasions. With the enormous political, social and economic changes in Taiwan since 1945, the traditional tribal societies of the aboriginal peoples have undergone a steady collapse. Outside merchants have been permitted to enter the mountain reservation areas to set up shops which purchase mountain products and sell tobacco, liquor, and items of daily use. This has entailed a rapid rise in liquor consumption in the aboriginal communities. In 1989, per capita consumption of absolute alcohol among aborigines age 15 and over was 9.99 litres, or 2.36 times the average for Taiwan as a whole. Today, alcohol abuse is frequently an emblem of the Formosan aborigines. The Formosan aborigines have a preference for Michiu (a kind of spirit), but with improving economic conditions, beer consumption has already overtaken Michiu in terms of the number of bottles drunk. However, over 65% of the aborigines' absolute alcohol consumption comes from Michiu, and those who engage in alcohol abuse still remain addicted to Michiu Factor analysis and cluster analysis were used to process 13 variables about liquor consumption and geographical factors among 200 village communities. Four factors were obtained that together accounted for 85.59％ of total variance of the data matrix (Table 11). These 4 factors can be identified as representing: (1)Per capita alcohol consumption; (2)Ratio of aborigines to Han Chinese; (3) Ratio of beer consumption to Michiu consumption; (4)Degree of geographical isolation of the village. In general, liquor consumption was greatest in the reservation areas of the Atayal tribe of northern Taiwan and the Paiwan tribe of southern Taiwan. Beer consumption was dominant in areas with ready access to the outside world, while Michiu consumption was dominant in areas with poor communications. This may have to do with residents of the former areas being more successful economically. The high death rate evident in aboriginal reservation areas among people between the ages of 20-54 may to some degree be linked to drinking patterns. Comparing causes of death in 1988, the aboriginal rates were the following number of times greater than for Taiwan as a whole for the following causes of death: tuberculosis 4.3, cirrhosis of the liver 4.1, suicide 4.0, and accidental death 3.1. We have discovered from field observation that social problems such as poverty, unemployment, divorce, and prostitution among the aboriginal communities are all directly or indirectly linked to drinking. In short, such problems may well result from the impact of the dominant outside culture on the closed societies of minority tribes.