Northeast Historical Archaeology

Volume 26 Article 3

1997 "Promiscuous Smoking": Interpreting Gender and Tobacco Use in the Archaeological Record Lauren J. Cook

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Recommended Citation Cook, Lauren J. (1997) ""Promiscuous Smoking": Interpreting Gender and Tobacco Use in the Archaeological Record," Northeast Historical Archaeology: Vol. 26 26, Article 3. https://doi.org/10.22191/neha/vol26/iss1/3 Available at: http://orb.binghamton.edu/neha/vol26/iss1/3

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Cover Page Footnote Previous versions of this analysis have benefitted from the comments and encouragement of Mary C. Beaudry, Robert B. St. George, Anne E. Yentsch, Michael "Smoke" Pfeiffer, and the "Lowell Associates," namely Kathleen H. Bond, David H. Dutton, William F. Fisher, Gerald Kelso, David B. Landon, Stephen A. Mrozowski, and Grace H. Ziesing. An earlier version of this paper was presented in the mini-plenary session, "Shaken, Not Stirred: Current Gender Issues in Historical Archaeology," at the Society for Historical Archaeology's annual meetings in Richmond, Virginia, in January 1991. This version has recieved useful assistance, input, and critique from Mary Beaudry, Ann-Eliza Lewis, Margaret Purser, Belinda Blomberg, Joan Geismar, Paul Robinson, John P. McCarthy, Philip Carstairs, and two anonymous reviewers. This research was supported in part by funding from the Department of the Interior, National Park Service, which does not necessarily agree with its conclusions or bear any responsibility for them. The as me applies to the good folks acknowledged above.

This article is available in Northeast Historical Archaeology: http://orb.binghamton.edu/neha/vol26/iss1/3 Northeastllistorical ArchaeologyNol. 26, 1997 23

"Promiscuous Smoking": Interpreting Gender and Tobacco Use in the Archaeological Record

Lauren J. Cook

Viewed as a social act, tobacco use is a rich area for archaeological inquiry. The act of tobacco con­ sumption has historically conveyed meaning, commwticating self-perceptions of class, etltnicity, and gender roles. Tobacco consumption has also resulted in the use and discard of material culture, often in large quanti­ ties, making it of particular interest to archaeologists. The examination of tobacco use as a field for the nego­ tiation of gender roles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries provides an excellent basis for a critical exam­ ination of an "archaeology of gender." The constellation of meanings surrounding actions and motivations that emerges from the doCllmentary record is at odds with the perception that has been fostered by present­ day mass media. The use of tobacco-related material culture as "index artifacts" of gender is only possible if a reductive approach is employed, downplaying the influences of class, etlmicity, and regionalism, and ignoring change in behavior over time. The polyvocality of actions and material symbols surrounding smoking and the tendency of meanings to change over time are such that caution is required when relying on the material record alone to examine gender issues.

Consider€ com me un acte social, /'usage du tabac constitue 1111 riclte dotnnine d'enquete archeologique. L'usage du tabac a toujours ete charge de sens, indiquant comment le fumeur se percevait sous le rapport de Ia classe sociale, de l'ethnicite et du sexe. L'usage du tabac a aussi entraine /'utilisation et Ia mise au rebut de Clllture materielle, souvent e11 grande quantite, ce qui le rend particulierement interes­ sant pour l'archeologue. L'examen de /'usage du tabac comme domaine de negociation des roles des sexes sur Ia fin du XIX' siecle et au debut du XX' fournit une excellente base ii tm examen critique d'une <<11rclteologie des sexes». La constellation de significations pour ce qui est des actes et motivations qui se degagent des documents ne cadre pas avec Ia perception qu'entretiennent les medias d'aujourd'hui. L'emploi de Ia Clllture materielle liee au tabac comme «artefacts indicatifs» du sexe n'est possible qu'avec une approche reductive qui minore !'influence de In classe sociale, de l'ethnicite et du regionalisme et ne tient pas compte de l'evlu­ tion des comportements au cours du temps. La «polyvocalite» des actes et des symboles materiels qui entourent /'usage du tabac et Ia tendance des significations ii changer avec le temps sont telles qu'il faut ltesiter ii s'e n remettre uniquement ii I' elbnent materiel dans l'examen des questions des sexes.

Introduction interpret the archaeological record. I will also assess the prospects for the incorporation of This paper treats gender as a meaningful gender as a central element of histo rical element of human cognition and interaction. archaeology. The approach that it espouses has come to be called "interpretive," in that it seeks to inter­ pret the meaning of gender, rather than to Gender, Action, and Power merely explain its function (Geertz 1973; To begin, we need to settle on at least a Rabinow and Sullivan 1979, 1987; Beaudry working definition of gender, and to identify 1989; Beaudry, Cook, and Mrozowski 1991). I some of the relevant issues. I want to focus argue that historical archaeologists are in an also on what gender does, because it is in ideal position to study meaning. Using operation and action, rather than in stasis, that smoking behavior as an example, I will show gender has meaning. that the documentary record provides us with Gender is a social, rather than an anatom­ detailed evidence of the past meanings of ical phenomenon, and a distinction must be behavior and its associated artifacts, and that made between the physical reality of sexual meaning and materials may be combined to difference and the social reality of gender. The 24 Gender and Tobacco U~

substantial anatomical and physiological dif­ people whom we study, even at the distance of ferences between men and women leave a centuries: strong temptation to take them as a baseline for social differences (Wylie 1990: 40). The Society is not peaked like a pyramid or potential for sexism in this approach should be layered like a cake. It is composed of com­ clear, but even among feminists, the degree of munities simultaneously occupying space and time at the same human level ... All influence that biology has on society has been seem reasonable from within, strange a subject of considerable debate (Rosaldo 1987: from without, silent at a distance. The way 299-300). The perception and conceptualiza­ to study people is not from the top down tion of physical or "sexual" differences is, or the bottom up, but from the inside out, however, culturally constructed, and those from the place where people are articulate cultural constructs are "gender." to the place where they are not, from the Power is a primary issue in gender studies place where they are in control of their (e.g., Brittan 1989). Gender figures promi­ destinies to the place where they are not. nently in issues of power, but it shares that The proper place to begin looking at gender distinction with other cultural constructs, (or, for that matter, class or ethnicity) may not notably social class and ethnicity. While we be with political or intellectual life, where can separate domains of culture for ease and power and powerlessness are often institution­ focus of analysis, the power relationships that alized, but with everyday life, where everyone make up society seldom if ever stand alone as is empowered in some way through social motives for behavior. Ignoring the role of class interaction (Vaneigem 1983; de Certeau 1984; and ethnicity in gender relations leads to Lefebvre 1987). The nature of the archaeolog­ serious problems of agency. We cannot ical record, especially its inclusiveness, leaves assume that gender is monolithic, that all us in a unique position to see and study the women (or men) share (or shared) common "everyday" manifestations of power. goals or had interests in common (Mascia­ Historians enter past communities through Lees, Sharpe, and Cohen 1989: 22-23). The documents that they have left, prehistorians complex interrelationship of gender, class, and through material remains. As historical ethnicity places all three at the center of archaeologists, we have the responsibility to modern Western society. do both, as weU as the advantage of powerful Gender shares a crucial aspect of power inference from multiple data sources. Unfortu­ relations with class and ethnicity. One of the nately, traditional archaeological theory n:ay most enduring and amazing attributes of be of limited utility to historical archaeolog1sts power is that in one form or another it is in their attempts to link documents and exca­ omnipresent. Where there seems to be power­ vated remains. Much of archaeological theory lessness or even oppression, there is nearly might better be described as the "theory of always empowerment somewhere within or prehistory," concerned as it is with under­ around it, as the events of the last decade in standing the past without recourse to docu­ Eastern Europe and Southern Africa dramati­ ments or ethnographic research. In an article cally emphasize. Culture is identity, self­ on the expansion of archaeological inference, expression, and empowerment, and these are Patty Jo Watson stated that: constantly communicated, adapted, re­ expressed, and changed through social inter­ It has not escaped the notice of processu­ action. Historians and archaeologists share the alists, and others who are not convinced problem of trying to recover, describe, and by the symbolic-structuralist postproces­ interpret forms of power and agency that have sualists, that virtually all of their pub­ changed or vanished but that existed in the lished work so far has been within or has past. As Henry Glassie reminds us (1982: 86), relied heavily upon ethnographic and his­ everyone had power somewhere, in some toncal data (e.g., Leone and Potter 1988) leaving the question of relevance for pre­ aspect of their existence, and not to look for historic archeology ambiguous (1990: that power is to do a grave injustice to the 615-616). Nortlrenst Historical Archaeology/Vol. 26, 1997 25

Historical archaeologists, who not only wish This happy circumstance makes modern, to, but can and must, use documents as a urban life bearable and sometimes amusing, major source of information, have noticed this and its implications for the study of the past as well, and have not been slow to explore are far-reaching. First, much of the discourse issues of meaning at the interface of the histor­ surrounding material culture in the documen­ ical and archaeological records. A number of tary record centers on the meanings that journal articles and essays in edited volumes people in the past attached to the things that by Leone and Potter {1988), Little and Shackel they used. More important, nearly everything (1992), and Yentsch and Beaudry {1992) take that we dig up, even the dirt, once meant full advantage of the documentary record something, and if we can get inside those (occasionally utilizing symbolic-interactionist, meanings, we can interpret them in the pre­ structuralist, or post-processual approaches). sent and use them to interpret the archaeolog­ Positivist archaeologists sought to explain ical record. A critical approach must be the past in an expressly objective fashion applied to the documentary record to reveal (Kelley and Hanen 1988: 116). Recent trends in past meanings, just as one must be applied to cultural anthropology and other social sci­ inferences from the archaeological record. ences have questioned whether objectivity is To return to gender, we need to remember useful (or even possible) in the study of that there are two primary constellations of people, who are subjective beings (Marcus and gender-based meanings. The subculture of one Fischer 1986: 20; Kelley and Hanen 1988: 162; gender may be seen in relation to, in opposi­ Fabian 1994). Objectivity in the social sciences tion to, or in resistance to others, but they can lends itself to objectification, which has led to never be seen in isolation from one another. If, the labeling of certain categories of people as as with class and ethnicity, gender is realized "others." The similarity of this facet of the in the context of actual interaction between post-modern critique to feminist critiques of real people (Thompson 1963: 9-10; Nash 1989), the notion of the woman as "other" has not then an inclusive approach is necessary. gone unnoticed (e.g., Rosaldo 1987; Mascia­ A major shortcoming of past research in Lees, Sharpe, and Cohen 1989; Flax 1989; historical archaeology is that past lifeways, Hawkesworth 1994). If gender is a social and even past foodways, have often been cultural construct characterized by "irre­ approached as undifferentiated amalgams, in ducibly symbolic and ideational components" which the sexes of the actors were seen as (Wylie 1990: 36), that is, if it is subjective and irrelevant, and gender was thus simply not made invisible or difficult to grasp by method­ seen. While prehistorians may encounter legit­ ologies that favor objectivity, then we may imate difficulties in distinguishing gender in have to adopt frameworks of analysis that can the archaeological record, the failure of histor­ account for the subjective aspects of daily life, ical archaeologists to do so has been largely where gender appears most clearly. Historical because they have failed to see the potential archaeology, with its access to meaning value of gender-based analyses to discussions through the documentary record, is ideally sit­ of past lifeways. Recent and notable excep­ uated to accomplish this. tions include the work of Anne Yentsch, Diana Wall, and David Burley, all of whom have Issues of Meaning taken interpretive approaches to ceramic analysis that have emphasized gender. The approach to the relationship between Yentsch (1991) relies primarily on documen­ written culture and material culture that tary evidence of pas t ceramic use to infer seems most appropriate to the concerns and gender-based classification systems used the issues that I've mentioned is an interpretive past. Wall (1991) and Burley (1989) apply approach that focuses on the meanings of approaches to ceramic use that focus on class things. While we create and manipulate arti­ and ethnicity, respectively. In analyzing actual facts for what may seem to be practical, phys­ site assemblages with gender in mind, how­ ical, or mundane ends, they have meaning to ever, each has produced powerful analyses us, and they communicate meanings to others. that demonstrate the interpenetration of 26 Gender and Tobacco Use/Cook

gender and other basic distinctions that in Lowell, Massachusetts, provided opportuni­ operate in society. ties for research into a broad range of cultural Another approach to gender might be phenomena from the late 19th to the early 20th called the "index artifact" method of analysis. centuries. Excavation and analysis were con­ It consists of isolating (as much as possible) a ducted by Boston University's Center for social group, usually based on class or eth­ Archaeological Studies under the direction of nicity, and identifying for analysis a material Dr. Mary Beaudry and Dr. Stephen Mro­ correlate of their presence. Such analyses, zowski, and funded by the National Park Ser­ when they are based on documentary research vice (Beaudry and Mrozowski 1987a, 1987b, that situates material culture in contexts of 1989). Analyses included the architectural con­ past social action, may provide considerable text of the site (Clancey 1989), the foodways insight. If the goal of the exercise is merely to (Landon 1989), and social structures of the identify, rather than to interpret the indices of households that occupied the site (Bond 1987). presence and absence of a group, then little Additional analyses of rna terial recovered may be gained, and much of value may be from the excavations focused on ceramics obscured or even lost. This is especially so in (Dutton 1989), beverage containers (Bond the case of gender, for while archaeological 1989), clothing remains and personal items contexts, sites, and features are often produced (Ziesing 1989), and tobacco related artifacts by members of a single social class or ethnic (Cook 1989a, 1989b). group, they seldom reflect the activities of A total of 463 tobacco-related artifacts were people of a single gender. Each seasonal recovered from the excavations at the Boott resource extraction site that we excavate, each Mills boardinghouses (Cook 1989a). These fishing settlement, logging or construction included plastic and bone pipe mouthpieces, camp, each military encampment or fort, bor­ several ceramic cuspidor (spittoon) sherds, dello or boardinghouse, presents an undeni­ and a tobacconist's plastic pocket calendar able temptation to isolate "gender." The ability (dating to 1895 and 1896}, but by far the bulk to distinguish between the activities and mate­ of the collection consisted of white ball clay rial presence of men and women is important. tobacco pipe fragments, including 183 stem But very few truly single-sex sites exist. Pre­ fragments, 226 bowls and bowl fragments, and dominantly single-sex sites, which are more 48 mouthpieces. The rarity of tooth-wear on common, do provide an entry point to gender, some types of mouthpieces, and the presence but most such sites result in large part from of tooth-wear and intentional modification power relationships that are at least as rele­ such as whittling and grinding on 14 stem vant to class or ethnic isolation and exploita­ fragments (7 percent of the recovered stems), tion as they are to gender. We need to know suggests intentional shortening of stems by whether the differences that we are seeing breaking off the mouthpieces and portions of between predominantly single-sex sites and the stems prior to smoking (Cook 1989a: more common site types are the result of 193-198). Preference for shorter pipes on the gender relationships, or whether they simply part of working-class smokers is frequently reflect differences in household composition mentioned in contemporary documents (Cook that are forced by other fa ctors. 1989b: 216-220). Most of the marked pipe bowls (at least 35) that were recovered from the excavations were Smoking Symbols inexpensive "TD" pipes. The second largest group of marked bowls consisted of specimens The best way to demonstrate the power of with Irish cultural and political slogans. Two an interpretive approach to reveal useful infor­ bowl fragments marked "HOME RULE" (FIG. 1), mation on past genders is to examine the artic­ in reference to the Irish Home Rule movement ulation of meanings, behaviors, and material which began in 1870 (Miller 1985: 440), were culture in a small domain of past behavior. recovered. Two other bowls have the word Excavations at a boardinghouse and tenement "DHUDEEN" impressed on their backs (FIG. 2); occupied by workers at the Boott Cotton Mills dl111deen is the Irish Gaelic word for a short- Northeast Historical ArchaeologyNol. 26, 1997 27

Figure 1. Pipe bowl fragment with impressed "HOME RULE" mark, recovered from the Boott Mills boardinghouses. Scale is in centimeters.

Figure 2. Pipe bowl with molded "oHUDEEN" mark, recovered from the Uoott Mills boardinghouses. Scale is in centimeters. 28 Gender and Tobacco Use/Cook

Figure 3. Pipe bowl embossed "ERIN," and "WOLFE TONE," recovered from the Boot! Mills boardinghouses. Approximately twice actual size. (Drawing by Lauren J. Cook.) stemmed clay pipe (Walker J977: 14). A frag­ tenement households were Irish in origin, but mentary bowl reads "ERIN" on its right side that they consciously identified themselves as and "TONE" on its left side, and is decorated such. with shamrocks (FIG. 3). The left side of the The documentary analysis of tobacco use complete example would have read began with on the textual analysis of accounts "woLFE/'98/TONE." This pipe was apparently of smoking behavior, focusing on examining manufactured to commemorate the centennial meaningful behavior in the northeastern of the United Irish rising of 1798, of which United States and the British Isles between Wolf Tone was a leader. These represent the 1830 and 1925. The analysis was directed pri­ only clear evidence of ethnicity among the marily at class and ethnicity, with gender in a tobacco-related materials from the site. These secondary role. Considerable evidence was pipes, though most likely manufactured in gathered on the relationships among class, Scotland or Canada, provided Irish immi­ ethnicity, and tobacco use; and the white clay grants with one means of self-expression on pipes recovered from the excavations were the political issues facing their homeland; interpreted in light of the social meanings that Irish-American communities also provided were delineated from the documents (Cook essential funds for political activities in Ire­ 1989b). land, particularly in the late 19th century. The As the study progressed, gender came to presence of these artifacts indicates not merely occupy a greater role, because of the inter­ that some members of the boardinghouse and esting patterns that began to emerge from the Northeast HL>Iorical Archorology/Vol. 26, 1997 29

historical record. Popular cultural beliefs These rules were often ignored by the working about gender and tobacco use proved to be a classes, and in fact working-class men and blend of fact and misconception. About 20 women in Britain and America regularly years ago, a tobacco company produced a smoked, and otherwise misbehaved in public, series of advertisements directed at women. bringing down the scorn of middle- and These ads, which can be described only as upper-class writers (Rosenzweig 1983). insulting, contrasted attitudes towards women Working-class smokers continued to prefer smoking, in private and in public, in the 1890s smoking short clay pipes, known as "cutties," and the 1970s, and closed by assuring long after middle- and upper-class men bizarrely dressed models that they had come shifted first to the long-stemmed church­ "a long way, Baby," a statement that contained warden in the 1780s and then to the brier pipe at least the germ of a contradiction. After a few and cigar after 1850. Working-class women, years the tobacco company moved on to tennis especially the Irish, were often portrayed as tournaments, but the message was clear and smoking clay pipes during the 19th century. went directly into popular consciousness: For some reason, Irish women street vendors women did not smoke tobacco until some time were particularly liable to be portrayed in this in the 1890s and then were subject to arrest or fashion (Sante 1991: 63). Some working-class physical violence from men if they tried to do women appear to have shifted to cigarettes so. The impression that the right to smoke was after the turn of the century, following the one of the goals of suffragism, largely because trend among upper-class women. smoking was associated with suffragists in Outside of the northeast, strictures on several of the ads, also thrives in the popular public smoking often did not apply at all. In imagination. the rural south, men could smoke on trains In reality, until some point before the without worrying about annoying women, middle of the 19th century, women apparently who throughout the period in question were smoked without fear of persecution, legal or likely to be dipping snuff in the presence of otherwise; the wives of Andrew Jackson and men or even smoking pipes (Dennett 1965: 96, Zachary Taylor were reportedly pipe smokers 117; Hunting 1889- 1890: 220). In California, (Hodgkin 1909; Anonymous 1909; Heimann where the hispanic tradition was strong, 1960: 90). In fact, skeletons of women recov­ women could smoke cigars, as they did in ered from a colonial Quaker Cemetery in Central and South America, as late as the Newport, Rhode Island, showed evidence of 1890s. "Young Ladies' Cigars" were sold in wear on the teeth that may have resulted from Sacramento, with brand names such as years of smoking clay pipes (Angel 1979). "Smiles," "Sweet Lips," "Pansy Blossoms," During the 1850s some women, particularly that leave no doubt that they were intended middle- and upper-class women living in the for women (Weinstock and Lubin Co. 1891). urbanized northeast, were increasingly dis­ The historical evidence indicates that rural and couraged from smoking in public, or admit­ working-class women, and women outside of ting that they smoked in private. Interestingly, the Northeast, were able to smoke as they men were also discouraged from smoking "in wished, without much interference. public," which is to say either on the street or During the 1890s, middle-class British in any place where smoking might offend women broke with the Victorian tradition and women (Gould 1886-1887). Victorian stan­ began to smoke in public without encoun­ dards held that: tering overt resistance. This sometimes occa­ sioned confusion among American visitors. In A gentleman should as soon be seen 1906, Elizabeth Biddle, an American living in eating his dinner in the public streets as London, went to lunch with an American man smoking a segar. Both are proper in their who had just arrived in the city. Shortly after places; and both may become in some sit­ entering a restaurant, he suddenly leapt up uations worse than ridiculous. (Anony­ and stormed out, apologizing to his bewil­ mous 1835: 134) dered companion for choosing such a disrep- 30 Gender and Tobtlcco U~/Cook

utable eating place. He had seen a young man The anti-smoking law just passed affects and woman, with an older woman, smoking at comparatively few women, but the prin­ ciple underlying it is humiliating to every a neighboring table and considered it to be self-respecting woman, and is an insult to quite forward behavior in public. Biddle her­ all. Here we have a Bowery politician in self had never seen a woman smoke until she his native atmosphere, the Bowery saloon arrived in London in the mid 1890s and found and all it represents, vice in all forms the sight unnerving (Biddle 1906). unveiled, onginatmg arbitrary laws for The transition to public smoking took one-half of New York's citizens, as though about a decade to cross the Atlantic, and when they were slaves and inco mpetents, it did it was briefly contested. Following without for one moment thinking it neces­ prevalent custom in Europe and Britain, sary to consult their wishes or opinions on the matter (Mack 1908). young upper-class women at Newport began to smoke at dinner parties during the summer Within two weeks of its passage, the "Sullivan of 1907 (New York Times, 3 May 1908: 11 ). After Law," as it was known, was set aside by the the summer season, some women brought the mayor, who felt that it went beyond the Alder­ practice back to New York with them. Se~eral men's authority (New York Times, 4 February distingu ished New York restaurants pemutted 1908: 1). women to smoke on New Year's Eve, 1907, There was one arrest reported under the and simply continued to allow them to do so. Sullivan Law. In the wee hours of january 23, At least one of the restaurants soon changed a patrolman arrested 29-year-old Kat~e its policy, again forbidding women to smoke Mulcahy for lighting a cigarette on the street m (New York Times, 2 January 1908: 3; 10 January the Bowery, in "Little Tim's" district. When 1908: 2). she was brought before the night court magis­ By this time, smoking had become a polit­ trate, she refused to give her address or to pay ical issue in New York. On January 21st, 1908, a $5 fine, telling the judge, "I've as much right City Alderman Timothy "Little Tim" Sullivan to smoke as you have. I've never heard of this succeeded in passing an ordinance making it new law, and 1 don' t want to hear about it. No illegal for women to smoke in public places, man shall dictate to me." She was led to a cell, defined as hotels, restaurants, and other still carrying her cigarettes (Nero York Times, 23 "places of public resort," and set fines of January 1908: 1). between $5 and $25 for the managers of such The repeal of the Sullivan Law did not establishments that allowed women to smoke resolve the controversy. The members of sev­ on their premises (New York Times, 21 January eral women's clubs had supported the law, 1908: 1; 22 January 1908: 4). There were ques­ although some of their members admitted to tions about the law's legality, and accusations being private smokers (New York Times, 10 Jan­ that Sullivan was seeking revenge on one of uary 1908: 2; 23 January 1908: 4). In March, a the offending restaurants, which had denied group of conservative Newport socialites dis­ him a reservation on New Year's Eve (New cussed ta king a stand against smoking at York Times, 21 January 1908: 1; 22 January dinner parties, and were supported by a Times 1908: 4; 4 February 1908: 1). editorial (New York Times, 3 May 1908: 11; 5 The law was described by the Times as May 1908: 6). Although the European custom "ridiculous" and "utterly absurd," but the edi­ won out, there was still resistance. As late as tors appear to have been opposed to "Little 1940, Emily Post (1940: 37) observed that "a Tim" Sullivan no matter what he did. They woman does not yet smoke on the street." considered women supporters of the law to be American troops stationed in Britain during " misguided," and noted the receipt of "indig­ the Second World War were sometimes nant letters" from "more thoughtful sisters" shocked to find "respectable" women smoking (New York Times, 24 January 1908: 6). Even in public (Kennett 1987: 123). women who did not smoke objected to what What did the complex of rules that sur­ was clearly a discriminatory law. As one rounded tobacco use in the northeast and in woman wrote: Britain mean? Clearly, upper- and middle- Northeast Historiml Archacology(Vol. 26, 1997 31

class smoking behavior was related to the reg­ availability to men. In the highly "miniatur­ ulation of gender relations. Much of the ized" world of Victorian appearances, a man behavior had the effect of preventing women might interpret a "slight discoloration of the from coming into contact with tobacco smoke, teeth" as a sign of sexuality (Sennett 1978: to which no less an authority than Leo Tolstoy 166). To return to Katie Mulcahy, the fact that attributed a loss of purity and innocence: she was an unaccompanied young woman on a Bowery streetcorner at 1:20 a.m. may have There is a certain well-defined, undeniable had as much to do with her arrest as did the interdependence between smoking and cigarette that she was smoking. the need to silence one's conscience, and The public smoking issue became politi­ smoking does undoubtedly produce that cally charged by the passage of the Sullivan effect .... When do boys begin to smoke? Law. The right to smoke was not itself, how­ Almost invariably when they have lost the innocence of childhood .... Why is it that ever, a suffragist concern, though the issue among the female sex the women who brought forward the arbitrary nature of lead blameless, regular lives are the least gender relations. Several factors lay behind the addicted to smoking? Why do courtesans desire of women to be able to smoke in public. and the insane all smoke without excep­ One was undoubtedly the desire to indulge an tion? (Tolstoy 1891: 179) addictive habit without hindrance. Another was the breakdown of Victorian conceptions This is a somewhat pharmacological approach of gender and sexuality. In the 1890s, women to virtue. Much more than the smoke itself, it began wearing makeup, silk petticoats, and was the accompanying behavior that was of marcelled hair, while drab colors and physi­ concern. Smoking had been constructed, cally restrictive garments such as the bustle largely by men, as a social activity that carried and later the corset went out of fashion (Sen­ connotations of places set aside for men­ nett 1978: 183- 190). Women's clubs, while smoking cars, saloons and clubrooms-and essentially conservative on issues such as the behaviors that took place there. If the male smoking, had by their very existence begun to world was coarse, and tobacco smoke was a challenge traditional notions of women's symbol of masculinity, then it is hardly sur­ "sphere" (Smith-Rosenberg 1985: 173- 175; prising that conservative social groups, politi­ Filene 1986: 16-18). The agitation for the right cians, and individuals felt that women should to smoke in public was an outgrowth of the be protected from it. emergence of the "New Woman," a middle­ Women who smoked openly were seen as class shift in gender relations and perceptions making strong statements about sexuality. of sexuality that continued through the 1920s, Elizabeth Biddle's visitor was surprised by the more than it had to do with any direct political staid dress of the women s mokers in the concerns (Smith-Rosenberg 1985: 176-178; London restaurant." All thoroughly respectable Filene 1986: 19). looking, no make-up. In fact, I thoug ht the So much for the native-born middle and women rather dowdy in their dress." He upper classes. How did working-class men clearly had expected something else. An and women and women of different ethnic American woman friend of Biddle's confessed groups view smoking? The answer is unclear, to smoking in private, when she felt "real dev­ although we know that working-class women ilish" (Biddle 1906). One finds references to smoked and dipped snuff, and working-class "promiscuous smoking," which is to say men regularly s moked in the presence of unmarried women smoking in the presence of women. While middle- and upper-class men, or married women smoking with men women favored cigarettes, some women, espe­ other than their husbands, and some writers cially older African-American and Irish attempted to link smoking with infidelity (New women, were known to smoke clay pipes (as York Times, 12 January 1908: 2; 5 May 1908: 6). were young female art students) (Hunting Public smoking, or even displaying visible evi­ 1889-1890: 220-222). The practice is amply dence of being a smoker, was apparently a demonstrated by graphic evidence for urban way in which women could signal sexual areas in Britain and the United States. Several 32 GL't!der arrd Tob4cco Use/Cook

Figure 4. Five Points in 1859, view taken from the forner of Worth and Little Water Street. From Valentine's Ma11ua/. (Valentine 1860, opp. p. 396.) examples should suffice. Figure 4 is a litho­ in 1869. The seated woman in the left fore­ graph depicting the Five Points neighborhood ground, who is clearly supposed to be Irish, is in New York City in 1859. The Five Points was smoking a short-stemmed clay pipe. In this the prototypical American slum, inhabited by image, the artist uses the dress, posture, and Irish immigrants, African Americans, and actions of these women as a contrast to those native-born working-class residents between of the two well -dres~ed bourgeois women the 1820s and the 1880s. Note that three of the walking by them on the sidewalk. five women visible in this image-the woman How is gender visible in the archaeological in the doorway on the rig ht, the woman record of tobacco smoking? For the Lowell coming around the comer to her left, and the pipe assemblage we have evidence for social woman crossing Worth Street in the center­ class in the overall context of the site and in are s mo king pipes. It is impossible to tell the intentional shortening of pipe stems, and whether the other two females (the young girl we have clear evidence about the eth nicity of on the left and the woman in the middle dis­ at least some of the smokers, but there is tance) are smoking, as their faces are not vis­ nothing that tells us whether these pipes were ible. The artist clearly intended to indicate that smoked by men or women! At the time that the smokers were Irish and may have intended the greater part of the assemblage was pro­ to suggest that they were prostitutes, as well. duced (and J mean manufactured here, as well Figure 5 shows a squatter community in New as deposited) the Boott Mills boardinghouses York City, in the area that is now Central Park, had been converted to tenements occupied by Norll!raM Hi,;toncal Arclm<'ology/Vol. 26, 1997 33

Figure 5. D. E. Wyand, Squatters. From Harper's Weekly, June 26, 1869. (Reproduced in Grafton 1977: 55.) 34 Gender ond To!Hlcco Use/Cook families-men and women. Given the class gender, class, and ethnicity. When we do that, and ethnic affiliations of the site's occupants, it then an archaeology of gender will be both is likely that both men and women used the interesting and useful. clay pipes that were recovered. How does an understanding of the Acknowledgments meaning of women's smoking behavior assist us in interpreting the archaeological record of Previous versions of this analysis have gender? Detailed research on the meaning of benefitted from the comments and encourage­ smoking behavior, research that takes gender, ment of Mary C. Beaudry, Robert B. St. class, and ethnicity into account, allows us to George, Anne E. Yentsch, Michael "Smoke" say that women as well as men could have Pfeiffer, and the "Lowell Associates," namely used certain artifacts. Not only has this inter­ Kathleen H. Bond, David H. Dutton, William pretive approach "made women visible," in F. Fisher, Gerald Kelso, David B. Landon, that limited sense, but it has also done so by Stephen A. Mrozowski, and Grace H. Ziesing. demanding that we look at Late Victorian An earlier version of this paper was presented women not as a monolithic group, but as a in the mini-plenary session, "Shaken, Not group cross-cut and divided by class and Stirred: Current Gender Issues in Historical ethnic affiliations. Archaeology," at the Society for Historical Is an "archaeology of gender" possible in Archaeology's annual meetings in Richmond, historical archaeology? If gender is considered Virginia, in January 1991. This version has as a domain of meaningful behavior accessible received useful assistance, input, and critique through both the documentary and material from Mary Beaudry, Ann-Eliza Lewis, Mar­ records, then the answer can only be yes. Is it garet Purser, Belinda Blomberg, Joan Geismar, desirable? If the idea is to isolate gender from Paul Robinson, John P. McCarthy, Philip other social categories, so that hypotheses may Carstairs, and two anonymous reviewers. This be more easily proposed and discarded, then research was supported in part by funding its usefulness will be limited. By presenting from the Department of the Interior, National gender as a sole motive for action, such an Park Service, which does not necessarily agree approach could actually be counterproductive, with its conclusions or bear any responsibility blinding us to the important connections that for them. The same applies to the good folks link gender to other social constructs. Class acknowledged above. and ethnicity are as powerful as gender in the transaction of mean ings and actions, and as References necessary as gender in interpreting the archae­ ological record. If we had not paid attention to Angel, J. Lawrence 1979 Appendix I: Report on Two Colonial class and ethnicity in tobacco use, but had Period (Pre-1730) Women from Newport, assumed a hegemony of the middle-class prac­ Rhode Island. ln Review of Excavations tices described in the sources, we could have During 1969 and 1970 at the Old Quaker concluded that as women smoked cigarettes, Meeting House Site in Newport, Rhode and men pipes and cigars, the pipes recovered Island, by Alme E. Yentsch, Marley Brown at the Boott Mill boardinghouses were the III, and james Deetz. Report prepared by result of exclusively male activities. It serves the Archaeology Labo ratory. Plimoth little purpose to make women (or for that Plantation, Plymouth, MA. matter, men) visible unless we can see and Anonymous study their diversity. 1835 Smoking. New En gland Magazine 9: Interpretive approaches can bring gender 132-135. forward by centering on subjective meanings, 1909 Women and Pipes. Notes at!d Queries 10 through which gender becomes visible. Histor­ ser. 12: 378. ical archaeologists, by adopting such approaches, can link those meanings with the Beaudry, Mary C. material world, offering a multi-dimensional 1989 Introduction. In Interdisciplinary Investiga­ tions of the Boott Mills, Lowell, Massachu­ approach to past culture that incorporates setts. Volume lii: Tl!e Boarding House System Norlllcast fllstorical Arclmco/ogy/Vol. 26, 1997 35

as a Way of Life, ed. by Mary C. Beaudry zowski, 121-139. Cultural Resources Man­ and Stephen A. Mrozowski, 1-5. Cultural agement Study No. 21. U.S. Department of Resources Management Study No. 21. U.S. the Interior, National Park Service, North Department of the Interior, National Park Atlantic Regional Office, Boston. Service, North Atlantic Regional Office, Boston. Brittan, Arthur 1989 Ma sculi11ity a11d Power. Basil Blackwell, Beaudry, Mary C., Lauren J. Cook, and Stephen A. Oxford. Mrozowski 1991 Artifacts and Active Voices: Material Cul­ Burley, David ture as Social Discourse. In The Archaeology 1989 Function, Meaning and Context: Ambigui­ of Inequality, ed. by Randall H . McGuire ties in Ceramic Use by the Hiuema11t Metis and Robert Paynter, 150-191. Basil Black­ of the Northwes tern Plains. Historical well, Oxford. Archaeology 23{1): 97-106.

Beaudry, Mary C., and Stephen A. Mrozowski, eds. Clancey, Gregory K. 1987a Interdisciplinary Investigations of the Boott 1989 The Origin of the Boott Boardinghouse Mills, Lowell, Massachusetts. Volume I: Life Plan and Its Fate After 1836. In Interdisci­ at the Boarding Houses. Cultural Resources plinary lnvl'stigatiolls of the Boott Mills, Management Study No. 18. U.S. Depart­ Lowell, Massachu setts. Volume Ill: The ment of the Interior, National Park Service, Boarding House System as a Way of Life, ed. North Atlantic Regional Office, Boston. by Mary C. Beaudry and Stephen A. Mro­ 1987b Interdisciplinary Investigations of the Boott zowski, 7-21. Cultural Resources Manage­ Mills, Lowell, Massachusetts. Volume ll: The ment Study No. 21. U.S. Department of the Kirk Street Agents' House. Cultural Interior, National Park Service, North Resources Management Study No. 19. U.S. Atlantic Regional Office, Boston. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, North Atlantic Regional Office, Cook, Lauren}. Boston. 1989a Descriptive Analysis of Tobacco-Related 1989 Interdisciplinary Investigations of the Boott Material from the Boott Mills Boarding­ Mills, Lowell, Massachusetts. Volume lll: Tile houses. In I11terdisciplinary l11vestigations of Boarding House System as a Way of Life. Cul­ the Boolt Mills, Lowell, Massachusetts. tural Resources Management Study No. Volume Ill: The Boarding House System as a 21. U.S. Department of the Interior, Way of Life, ed. by Mary C. Beaudry and National Park Service, North Atlantic Stephen A. Mrozowski, 187-207. Cultural Regional Office, Boston. Resources Management Study No. 21. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Biddle, Elizabeth Service, North Atlantic Regional Office, 1906 Cigarette Smoking Among Englishwomen Boston. No Uncommon Practice. New York Times 1989b Tobacco-Related Material and the Con­ 25 March 1906, 3: 7. ' struction of Working-Class Culture. In llltcrdisciplinury l11 vestigations of the Boott Bond, Katherine Mills, Lowell, Mnssacllll$1'lts. Volume III: The 1987 A Preliminary Report on the Demography Boarding House System as a Way of Life, ed. of the Boott Mills Housing Units #33-48, by Mary C. 13eaudry and Stephen A. Mro­ 1838-1942. In Interdisciplinary Investigations zowski, 209-229. Cultural Resources Man­ of the Boot/ Mills, Lowell, Massachusetts. agement Study No. 21. U.S. Department of Volume I: Life at the Boardi11g Houses, ed. by the Interior, National Park Service, North Mary C. Beaudry and Stephen A. Mro­ Atlantic Regional Office, Boston. zowski, 35-55. Cultural Resources Man­ de Certeau, Michel agement Study No. 18. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, North 1984 The Practice of Everyday Life. University of Atlantic Regional Office, Boston. California Press, Berkeley. 1989 The Medicine, Alcohol, and Soda Vessels Dennett, John Richard from the Boott Mills Boardinghouses. In 1%5 The South As It Is: 1865-1866. Viking Press, Interdisciplinary Investigations of the Boott New York Mills, Lowell, Massachusetts. Volume Ill: The Boarding House System as a Way of Life, ed. Dutton, David H. by Mary C. Beaudry and Stephen A. Mro- 1989 "Thrasher's China" or "Colored Porce- 36 Gender and Tobacco Use/Cook

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Mr. Cook is a historical archaeologist specializing in Lauren J. Cook the documentary archaeology of New England and Research Fellow the northeast. He has a Master's degree tn Archaeo­ Department of Archaeology logical Studies from Boston University, where he is currently a Research Fellow in the Department of Boston University Archaeology. Mr. Cook is employed as an archaeol­ 675 Commonwealth Avenue ogist and historian at the Public Archaeology Labo­ Boston, MA 02215 ratory, Inc., in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.