Anthropology of Tobacco

Anthropology of Tobacco Tobacco has become one of the most widely used and traded commodities on the planet. Reflecting contemporary anthropological interest in material culture studies, Anthropology of Tobacco makes the plant the centre of its own contentious, global story in which, instead of a passive commodity, tobacco becomes a powerful player in a global adventure involving people, corporations and public health. Bringing together a range of perspectives from the social and natural sciences as well as the arts and humanities, Anthropology of Tobacco weaves stories together from a range of historical, cross-cultural and literary sources and empirical research. These combine with contemporary anthropological theories of agency and cross-species relationships to offer fresh perspectives on how an apparently humble plant has progressed to world domination, and the consequences of it having done so. It also considers what needs to happen if, as some public health advocates would have it, we are seriously to imagine ‘a world without tobacco’. This book presents students, scholars and practitioners in anthropology, public health and social policy with unique and multiple perspectives on tobacco-human relations. Andrew Russell is Associate Professor in Anthropology at Durham University, UK, where he is a member of the Anthropology of Health Research Group. His research and teaching spans the sciences, arts and humanities, and mixes both theoretical and applied aspects. He has conducted research in Nepal, the UK and worldwide. Earlier books include The Social Basis of Medicine, which won the British Medical Association’s student textbook of the year award in 2010, and a number of edited volumes, the latest of which (co-edited with Elizabeth Rahman) is The Master Plant: Tobacco in Lowland South America. Routledge Studies in Public Health Available titles include: Global Health and Geographical Imaginaries Edited by Clare Herrick and David Reubi Conceptualising Public Health Historical and Contemporary Struggles over Key Concepts Edited by Johannes Kananen, Sophy Bergenheim, Merle Wessel Global Health and Security Critical Feminist Perspectives Edited by Colleen O’Manique and Pieter Fourie Women’s Health and Complementary and Integrative Medicine Edited by Jon Adams, Amie Steel, Alex Broom and Jane Frawley Managing the Global Health Response to Epidemics Social Science Perspectives Edited by Mathilde Bourrier, Nathalie Brender and Claudine Burton-Jeangros Anthropology of Tobacco Ethnographic Adventures in Non-Human Worlds Andrew Russell https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Studies-in-Public-Health/book-series/ RSPH Anthropology of Tobacco Ethnographic Adventures in Non-Human Worlds Andrew Russell First published 2019 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2019 Andrew Russell The right of Andrew Russell to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The Open Access version of this book, available at www. taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record has been requested for this book ISBN: 978-1-138-48514-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-351-05019-7 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd. To Jane, Ben, Euan and (at Euan’s insistence) Bertie, our non-human partner Contents List of illustrations ix Acknowledgements xi Introduction: re-imagining tobacco 1 PART I Life 23 1 Shamanic dreaming 25 2 First contact 45 3 Counterblastes and compromises 69 4 Tobacco and Enlightenment 92 5 Enslavement of all sorts 117 6 Vogue: tobacco worlds in 19th century Europe 143 7 Enchantment and risk: tobacco, 1900-1950 169 8 Corporate voices: tobacco, 1950-2000 194 viii Contents PART II Times 221 9 Host and parasite 223 10 Becoming Fresh: a regional platform against tobacco 250 11 Becoming the FCTC: global solutions to a global problem 272 12 ‘Imagine a world without tobacco’ 298 Bibliography 322 Index 357 Illustrations Figures 0.1 ‘Nicotiana tabacum’ 4 0.2 Chewing khat in Sana’a, Yemen (“I love my khat”)6 1.1 The peopling of the Americas 27 1.2 The Zenithal house of the tobacco spirit 32 2.1 Tupinamba Indians, observed by Hans Staden during his voyage to Brazil 48 2.2 ‘A tobacco drinker, 1623’ 52 4.1 ‘A smoking club’ 99 4.2 ‘The silent meeting’ 99 4.3 ‘Take time and get to know the world’–Dutch tobacco box, c. 1720, underside 107 5.1 Monkey with snuff box, attributed to Kändler, c. 1731 128 5.2 Tobacco-paper for Bradley, tobacco and snuff seller, Russel Street, Covent Garden, London 133 6.1 The Bonsack cigarette-making machine, 1880s 161 7.1 Tomahawking the cigarette 172 7.2 ‘The Chain Smoker – he doesn’t eat it, it eats him!’ 181 7.3 ‘They battled across Europe for a Camel’ 183 7.4 Advertisement for a relaunched ‘Ova’ cigarette, a blend of American and Oriental tobaccos 186 7.5 ‘America, you do not smoke better...’ 187 8.1 ‘The taste of the big, wide world’ 198 8.2 The UK tobacco policy network in the 1980s 214 9.1 The shredding machine, with tobacco leaves drying above 239 9.2 ‘This is not a pipe (or a cigar, or a cigarette)’–e-cigarettes, e-cigars and e-pipes on display at Eurotab 2014, Krakow, Poland 242 9.3 ‘Find out how Megan can smoke anywhere’ 245 11.1 Floor plan for plenary meetings of an FCTC COP 276 11.2 The ‘Death Clock’ at COP4, November 2010 279 x Illustrations 11.3 Autorickshaw with tobacco livelihood poster, India, November 2016 286 11.4 ‘Like slipping into the wide thoracic cavity of a large mammal’ 291 12.1 A stereoscopic Victorian family group (c. 1875) 312 12.2 The Final Pouch 313 12.3 Callus Nicotiana tabacum 316 Table 4.1 Martin’s three basic types of selfhood in Renaissance Europe 104 Acknowledgements The tale changes in the telling, and this book is no exception. When I started writing I presumed my task was a fairly straightforward one. I intended pulling together some ethnographic and other kinds of research about tobacco I and others have done within my home discipline, anthropology. I assumed I would present findings and consider what they meant for how we understand tobacco, a commodity so familiar (and, some would say, dangerous) that it hardly needs any introduction. However, rather like the smoke of a fat cigar, as my work progressed so my subject matter has insinuated itself across a range of different disciplines, theoretical perspectives, geographical areas and time frames. I was moving into largely uncharted terrain in following tobacco’s story, and travelling without guides is dangerous indeed. Numerous people have given me advice, information and admonishment along the way. My colleague Claudia Merli found YouTube clips of contemporary curanderos (traditional healers) in Peru using tobacco smoke in curing rituals and saying things (in Spanish) like ‘tobacco has the energy to clean and cure’. Such intriguing statements led me to convene a symposium with Elizabeth Rahman in July 2013 that brought together scholars to share observations and information about tobacco production and use amongst indigenous Amazonian and other groups from lowland South America. The contributions to the edited volume arising from that symposium have all been incredibly useful in formulating many of the ideas contained in this one, so many thanks to Elizabeth, Juan Alvaro Echeverri, Bernd Brabec de Mori, Renzo S. Duin, Paolo Fortis, Françoise Barbira Freedman, Pete Gow, Nick Kawa, Augusto Oyuela-Caycedo, Alejandro Reig and Juan Pablo Sarmiento Barletti. As a result of recognizing common interest, Jane Macnaughton and I set up a Smoking Special Interest Group (SSIG) that has been generously supported by the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing and hosted at the Institute for Medical Humanities at Durham University. Members of that group whose insights have been invaluable include Jane herself, Susan Carro- Ripalda, Kwanwook Kim (whose hyeonmi-nokcha – Korean brown rice green xii Acknowledgements tea – became a mainstay of this book’s production), Sue Lewis and Frances Thirlway. The SSIG then morphed into a Wellcome Trust-funded Senior Investigator Award led by Jane Macnaughton (Durham) and Havi Carel (Bristol). Particularly valuable input from that group has been provided by Krzysztof Bierski, David Fuller, Phil Horky, Alice Malpass, Sarah McLusky, Fredrik Nyman, Rebecca Oxley, Mary Robson, Arthur Rose and Corinne Saunders. Current and former colleagues, students and friends in the Anthro- pology Department at Durham, and especially the Anthropology of Health Research Group, have been unfailing in their support, particularly Catherine Alexander, Helen Ball, Luisa Elvira Belaunde, Sandra Bell, Gillian Bentley, Mark Booth, Hannah Brown, Ben Campbell, Matei Candea, Peter Collins, Iain Edgar, Kate Hampshire, Serena Heckler, Ben Kasstan, Jeremy Kendal, Elisabeth Kirtsoglou, Steve Lyon, Nayanika Mukherjee, Tehseen Norani, Ian Rickard, Felix Ringel, Ernesto Schwartz-Marin, Bob Simpson, Courtney Tinnion and Tom Widger. Other people in the University who have given special help at various times include Elizabeth Archibald, David Chappel, Christina Dobson, Catherine Dousteyssier-Khoze, Ray Hudson, David Hunter, James Mason, Richard Sugg, Pat Waugh and Angela Woods. My contacts with the Making Smoking History in the NE group and the Smoke Free Durham Local Alliance have been particularly enriching, so thank you to Andy Lloyd, Catherine McConnell, Ailsa Rutter, Martyn Willmore and Peter Wright.

Load more