Tobacco

Abstract

Anthropologists have long studied tobacco, what is today the world's greatest cause of preventable death. Their publications have garnered modest attention, however, even as the academy is increasingly interested in global health, transnational commoditization, pharmaceuticals, and the politics of life and death. We take stock of anthropology's tobacco literature and our discipline's broader appetites. We review how colleagues have studied health issues related to tobacco and engaged with theory and policy pertaining to the production, consumption, and regulation of drugs. We assess ways scholars working at the interface of anthropology and cigarettes have analyzed gender and ethnicity, corporate predation and industry-related harm, governmental management of disease, and the semiotics of misinformation. We discuss why anthropology has not more broadly and ardently engaged the study of tobacco. And we identify areas for further research capable of illuminating more fully tobacco's analytical potential and toxic effects.

Theories of practice and public health: understanding (un)healthy practices

“…To this end, Dennis (2011) has detailed the lived experiences, and the meanings and narratives that smokers use to maintain their resilient habits in the face of anti-smoking policies, whilst Bell (2011) unpicks the 'discursive formation' of second-hand smoke to show that both popular and public health responses to health concerns are formed more by 'subjectively' experienced discomfort than by 'objectively' demonstrated harms. In concluding their review of the anthropological literature on tobacco, Kohrman and Benson (2011) call for more of this kind of detailed investigation into the subjective experiences and narratives of smokers.…”

The architecture of cigarette circulation: marketing work on Indonesia's retail infrastructure

“…: 2). The intimate proximity of cigarettes and cigarette advertising is a form of social and environmental injustice corresponding to an uneven distribution of life chances (Wilson : 251, citing Povinelli ; ) that is not accidental, but a product of the capitalist pursuit of markets for harmful commodities in areas where consumers are least protected (Benson & Kirsch ; Kohrman & Benson ). Like racially, sexually, economically, and otherwise socially marginalized groups in the United States (Appollonio & Malone ; Jain ), Indonesians are targeted and over‐served rather than under‐served by the cigarette industry's marketing apparatus.…”

A Chilling Example? Uruguay, Philip Morris International, and WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

“…“Tobacco smoke is the single greatest cause of preventable death worldwide” (Kohrman and Benson :330; and see U.S. Department of Health and Social Services ). The FCTC was established as a response to the need for collective, global action to the global health threat represented by tobacco (Yach ).…”