Tobacco Reconsidered: Ongoing Omissions, Original Outlooks in the Slipstreams of Experience, Global Health, and Critical Industry Studies

Abstract

Nearly a decade ago, we published the first Annual Review of Anthropology article on tobacco ( Kohrman & Benson 2011 ). Since then, much has happened, and much has persisted regarding human-tobacco relations. Here, we present a stocktaking of how scholars drawing on anthropological methods have responded.

Peers influence the tobacco and alcohol use of Chinese adolescents

“…Tobacco and alcohol use by Chinese adolescents occurs within the context of cultural meaning systems (Chen, 2020) that are commonly referred to as the Chinese tobacco and alcohol use cultures. These meaning systems and their accompanying norms and rules define the acceptability of substance use, the environments within which smoking and drinking occur, and the patterns of social interactions surrounding the use of these substances (Bennett, 2013; Kohrman & Benson, 2020).…”

#MeToo and beyond: inequality and injustice in marketing practice and academia

“…Unfortunately, for marketing, our discipline -in conjunction with government and its need for taxation from tobacco (Taylor, 1984) -performed a major role in ensuring its uptake, diffusion, and the 'human annihilation' that followed (Kohrman & Benson, 2020). It is an industry that long knew the centrality of need creation to its financial success.…”

“…274-275). Now, of course, this industry has its tentacles in the 'developing world', where they secure access to markets via bribery and through the purchase of local firms, often having been assisted by governmental groups (Kohrman & Benson, 2020;Taylor, 1984). Tobacco, quite literally, is an 'engine of human annihilation, labor exploitation, and environmental degradation' which continues to wreck the communities it touches (Kohrman & Benson, 2020, p. A-5).…”