To the students of the MIT ethnography course:

Here’s a research report I did in the late 1990s. It may serve as a model for your presentation January 31st.

Please treat as a rough guide. You are free to invent your

own form.

Best, Grant McCracken

Smoking Culture: the real “benefits” of

smokingthe true costs of quitting•

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•

•

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• text by Grant McCracken, Ph.D.

• video by Suzanne Stein, M.A.

• Health Canada

• March 12, 1998

presentation

• objectives• methods• research• smoking culture• section 1

– cultural meanings

• section 2– cultural practices

• section 3– strategic responses

• conclusion

objectives

• to investigate “smoking culture”

• an anthropological account

• smoking from the respondent’s point of view

• beyond “peer group pressure”

• cultural logic of smoking

• cultural significance of smoking

• the “benefits” of smoking

• the true costs of quitting

• what people are giving up when they quit

methods

• ethnographic interviews

• open-ended– seeking key terms in situ– asking for their illumination– determination of cultural

meanings & logic

• respondent directed

• ethnographer a simpleton who knows that he doesn’t know

research

• “intercept” interviews– school grounds, street corners

– 10 minutes (+/-)

• drop-in interviews– schools, skateboard parks

– 1-2 hour interviews (+/-)

• prearranged interviews– homes

– 2 hours (+/-)

• 30 hours of interviewing

• 50 teens

• November 1997 - January 1998

caveats

• “teens” no homogeneous category– “teens” in fact more various than

“adults”

• a dubious category– “teens” not for reification

• surest way to get this wrong is to talk to teens as “teens” (Jaya)– wellspring of bad communications

• these results speak for – some but not all groups– some individuals but not all the time

shared objectives

• for all the diversity, there are some commonalities:

• shared project

• moving away from parental influences and authorities

• the end of colonialism

• a new imperative: how to construct this thing called a self

• that is externally & internally plausible & habitable

• esp. in a world without “franchising”

• when, increasingly, selves are “custom-built” & “hand-made”

smoking culture I

• some liberties with term

• extraordinary resource

• rich in definitional elements

• experimental “routines”

• the playwright’s chap book

• not perfectly discrete

• but robust & resilient

• not impervious to commercial messages, the “movies.” or public health communications

• but not changed without extraordinary effort & some cunning

smoking culture II

• an ancient & active culture

• knowledge passed down from generation to generation

• a kind of folklore: what’s in a Player’s filter?

• rituals of initiation

• a liminal activity

• a repertoire of behaviors

• body of meanings, tissue of lies

• affirmed constantly by marketing, movies, & every school yard

preliminary goods news

• health warnings have had effect• as one respondent says

– “[warnings] scare the shit out of you”

• years of education have done their work

• ancient culture penetrated• oral tradition has new content• given sheer density & power of

smoking culture, no small accomplishment

enduring bad news

• Canada > 500,000 teens smoke

• with knowledge of health risks

• with repeated warnings from– school education– print advertising & TV spots– pack warnings

• the oral traditions of smoking culture shot through with new knowledge of hazards

• but the culture continues, the culture recruits, the culture flourishes

smoking culture

• one way out of the bad news?• teens look to smoking for

something more than – nicotine– group pressure– social accessory– dieting aid

• smoking culture perseveres because it serves as a definitional resource

• a bundle of ways of thinking, acting, constructing the self

true proportions of the problem

• when we ask people not to start• when we ask people to stop• we are asking them to give up

nicotine, resist group pressure, forgo social accessory & dieting aid

• but we’re also asking them to give up

• a smoking culture• a chap book and repertoire• ways of thinking, acting,

constructing the self

the strategic challenge

• assess smoking culture

• mapping the meanings

• establishing the “meta-pragmatic” functions

• what smoking means

• how smoking is put to work

• penetrating an ancient culture

• reaffirmed by marketing, movies, & school yard

• with communications strategies

• that acknowledge the culture & the community

Smoking culture in 3 sections

• section 1: cultural meanings

• section 2: cultural practices

• section 3: strategic responses

section 1: cultural meanings

smoking meaningless

• no intrinsic cultural meaning

• the Bob Newhart routine

• “you do what with it, Walter?”

• well placed incredulity

• smoking is a peculiar activity

• we have given it cultural meaning & potency

• we have made it meaningful

• we have made it a definitional resource

cultural meanings

• gender

• age

• rebellion

• style

• showing cool

• showing warm

• mood manipulation

• (not all of these mutually exclusive)

gender

• smoking gets cultured

• loaded up with meaning

• more particularly

• smoking gets gendered

• as it turns out, in this culture it begins to take on maleness

• the military legacy

• the open range legacy

• the noir legacy

• (a partial list and hasty review)

a caveat

• “maleness”

• just as much a cultural construction as smoking

• we resist this reading with notions of the biological & natural but culture > nature

• this analysis treats “maleness” as a cultural construct

• (indeed the culture of smoking and culture of maleness have helped construct one another)

Lucky Strike

• war good to tobacco

• took soldiers off to places tobacco cheap & plentiful

• soldiers treated cigarettes the way prisoners do

• U.S. Generals Grant & Sherman

• British battleship Formidable

• Lucky Strike & US troops

• a clear cultural formulae

• war helps define “maleness” and smoking together

• smoking takes on “maleness”

Marlboro

• the mythical world of wild west

• more imagined than real

• rugged individuals

• rugged individualism

• freedoms of the open plain

• several notions of the frontier

• a clear cultural formulae

• frontier defines “maleness” and smoking together

• smoking takes on “maleness”

gumshoe tobacco

• smoking, prop of noir tradition• Humphrey Bogart’s transformation:

hood to hero• defining image: HB squinting through

a wall of smoke• definition of resourcefulness• symbol of self control, detachment,

power• a clear cultural formulae• noir fiction defines “maleness” and

smoking together• smoking takes on “maleness”

tobacco and gender

• smoking taking on cultural meaning

• gendered with “male” meanings from domains of war, frontier and noir– outside worlds

– worlds of action

• places of – struggle and contest

– toughness, aggression

• smoking a marker of self and other mastery

the Camel caveat

• Camel’s originally an exercise in Said’s orientalism

• made to evoke not gendered meanings but colonial ones

• Marlboro began as a “female” brand & was regendered by the marketplace

• in sum: “maleness” not the only gendered meaning in smoking culture

smoking and males

• smoking puts a repertoire at the disposal of males

• at crucial developmental moment: when constructing maleness

• to create/claim certain qualities• proof must be forthcoming• smoking definitional, helps:

– “cure” the self– burn off eagerness– show toughness, aggression– self & (for?) other mastery

smoking and females(circa 1998)

• gender under construction• a rethinking of femaleness esp.• Mary Tyler Moore Cybil• Marilyn Madonna• Madonna Courtney Love• Donna Reed Roseanne• Joan Baez Ani DiFranco• Phyllis DillerJaneane Garofalo• Barbara Walters Kathy Griffin

(updated)• Ike & Tina Turner Tina

gender breakout

• breaking out of the prison house of gender

• systematic refusal of old meanings assigned by gender

• systematic survey of new definitional opportunities

• taking possession of new meanings

• some of them apparently “male” meanings

• these will do nicely, thank you

Boy Capel’s pants

• long standing strategy

• Coco Chanel

• the designer btw the wars

• wore her lover’s riding pants

• the world held its breath

• a strategy to accompany that of the suffragette

• power of the vote

• power of rights of property

• now, the secrets of hegemony

• the very language of power

smoking and females

• Ani DiFranco as the key text

• coming of age in NA society

• the horrifying discovery

• “that i live in a breakable, take-able body

• an ever-increasingly valuable body” (My IQ, Puddle Dive)

• the traditional qualities of “femaleness” are– assumptions of vulnerability– invitations to harassment

• coming of age as exposure to risk

smoking culture in action

• meanings of smoking useful• allow females to summon cultural

meanings against sexist definitions of the self

• allow construction of new selves with defensive properties

• several interpretive possibilities:– I refuse trad. gender defs. (&?)

– I show invulnerability (&?)

– I corrupt myself before you do

– I corrupt myself so you cannot

• more work needed but one “benefit” of smoking culture

age

• age a matter of culture• some cultures usher people into

adulthood upon sexual maturity• our culture makes a space between

childhood & adulthood• & provides no rite of passage• always a contested transition

– “teen” claiming early entry– parents demanding late

• people must fashion own passage• claim & construct their maturity

smoking and age

• many things make smoking redolent of maturity

• one of the viseral experiences of the adults around you

• cigar smoke and starch

• but we are always saying “this is for adults”

• and now we do it as health policy

• smoking always forbidden fruit

• now especially so

vexing paradox

• the more we decry smoking

• the more we declare not for children and teens

• the more we mark it off as risk and danger

• the more attractive it becomes

• much of the health policy that has worked so well

• has only helped to increase this particular cultural meaning

• cause for other and new strategies

the promethean factor(?)

• it’s almost as if...

• (anthropological heresy)

• smoking is the fire/power of the Gods

• to steal this substance

• is to steal this power

• the thrill of that first cigarette

• the cunning, stealth, the liminal space, the stolen cigarette

• as close as anything gets to a rite of passage

the post-promethean factor(?)

• it’s almost as if...• (caveat goes here)• one respondent:• it’s like fire coming out of your mouth• is this a claiming of powers beyond

the parental• a claiming of powers beyond the

bourgeois• a claiming of powers unknown or

repudiated by the adult• a suggestion only

claiming age

• single most telling marker of youth, childhood is eagerness

• the way teens know children is by the latter’s excitableness

• the most embarrassing moment is the irruption of excitableness

• smoking a superb device for extinguishing eagerness

• at a stroke (?) eagerness is gone

• a useful way to prevent irruption

smoking culture in action

• cultural meanings of tobacco• make smoking an opportunity to

claim maturity• to prosecute the case for new

freedoms and privileges• and new autonomy from parental

control• smoking culture provides home-

made, self bestowed rite of passage• another “benefit” of smoking

culture

rebellion

• smoking as the badge of refusal

• the American cult of the outsider

• a James Dean Legacy

• now stock Hollywood image

• at the movies still

• “the villain always smokes”

• once largely male, less and less gendered (cf. Thelma & Louise)

• rule breaking

• the self damage logic (tattooing)

familiar paradox

• the more we decry smoking

• the more we declare not for children and teens

• the more we mark it off as risk and danger

• the more it becomes an opportunity to break rules

• to play out the outsider’s posture

• much of the health policy that has worked so well

• cause for other and new strategies

cosa nostra

• one respondent: It’s our thing• do not tell us what to do• inverted refusal• under “age:” adults saying it’s our

thing• here: teens saying it’s our thing • our badge of refusal• we refuse your terms of

engagement• we will make our own way• a key “benefit” of smoking culture

style and pattern

• the great induction

• to an arbitrary system

• the things you have to learn

• how to – hold in hand– hold in mouth– to open, extract, hide, exchange– to inhale, exhale

• highly patterned, specific

• big penalties for error

• getting to sprezzatura

messages in the bottle

• style the medium of many messages• i.e., gender, age, rebellion• place of hiding (see section 2)• the opportunity for scrutiny: the line

of tin cans• marker of membership• texture of social experience• the stuff of an ancient culture• ritual architecture of the moment• sub-group differences: ravers...

smoking culture in action

• not hard wired but hot wired

• repeated until burned into muscle memory

• habitual knowledge

• difficult to learn

• deeply comforting to know

• a useful marker in the world

• the very door of induction

• the very stuff of “our thing”

• a “benefit” of smoking culture

the construction of cool

• a moment in the field

• very young teen makes mistake

• an error actually of style

• cigarette mishandled, disappears

• the collapse of the managed self

• momentary panic: coat in flames?

• then surveillance

• had cool produced by smoking been damaged by smoking?

• were friends smirking? yes!

• remarkably, his cool held

cool and power

• “cool” in our culture several origins, several meanings

• our concern, disengagement

• Elizabethan cool

• men’s hearts be free and they will love whom they lyste

• we don’t have to show our compliance

• we may offer up obedience, but we will withhold this

• smoking as a show of withholding

cool as contract

• smoking invested with cool by military, Western, & noir trads.

• Humphrey Bogart as an early creature of cool

• self control at work in our culture, this community & incident

• but, more pressingly, cool is:

• distance and disengagement from the social moment

• a withholding, a show of discretionary power

• that participation is not coerced

smoking culture in action

• another message of messages• distance from childhood• refusal of parenthood• protective barrier behind which the

difficult business of self construction can be conducted

• a political message• a statement of structural place in

the world at the moment this place is disputed and negotiated

• a “benefit” of smoking culture

construction of warm

• smoking culture a rich one

• contains X and not-X

• easy to make too much of cool

• smoking also a means to be “warm”

• a way to show engagement, vividness

• to be present, engaged, excited

• more on this in section 2

• another “benefit” smoking culture

the construction of threat

• the visual preemptive strike

• a way not just of declaring toughness (within or without gender idiom)

• also a way of declaring malevolent intent

• sometimes merely preemptive

• if you attack me, you can expect response in kind

• but sometimes more forthright

• I am to be feared

• “benefit” of smoking culture

mood manipulation

• respondents clear on use of smoking for “self medication”

• smoking as calming

• creates a place in space

• creates a moment in time

• creates a focus

• creates justification in a culture that treats inactivity as idleness

• creates an “away” experience

• change in focal plane

• disengagement not as politics but as palliative

mood manipulation

• highly structured, ritualized• breaks individuals out of time and

space• gives pretext• forgives, allows disengagement• an opportunity to reestablish self

possession and/or cool• meanings working in concert• smoking as place of respite• smoking as reliable companion• key “benefit” of smoking culture

section 2: cultural practices

smoking useful

• gets “social work” done

• from Canada’s contribution to social sciences: Irving Goffman

• highly strategic device in “impression management” & the presentation of self

• from Michael Silverstein

• highly strategic “meta-pragmatic function”

• how smoking helps get work done

sociality

• solitary smoking

• ticket of admission

• meeting someone (micro)

• license to join (macro)

• sustain self/role/occasion/face

• the problem of social smoking

solitary smoking• solitary smoking is a social act

• there is a relationship between smoking and smoker

• writing, thinking, walking

• giving respite, separation, pacing, concentration

• “portable world” phenomenon

• the companionable cigarette

• whatever happens at least I have my smokes

• building and maintaining the rlts with the self

• self management, meta-pragmatic function & benefit

ticket of admission

• smoking has still more powerful uses as instrument of sociality

• for some a ticket of admission

• one respondent: “I never came out here before I started smoking because I found everyone so intimidating”

• some spaces & friends off limits to many non-smokers

• cigarettes work crudely as badge of membership

• meta-pragmatic function & benefit

meeting someone

• a more micro social device

• smoking as pretext & text for meeting

• style and pattern of smoking offers permission and script

• you may approach to ask for a cigarette/drag/puff

• how you approach to ask for a cigarette/drag/puff

• & then manage relationships through exchange of smokes

• some social circles a Kula ring

sustaining performances at risk

• Goffman argues every social actor (teen or not) constantly at risk of error and loss of face

• what is not successfully “in process” at risk of coming undone

• nothing is utterly, definitively said or done in social life

• everything must be renewed and acquitted

• everyone inclined to social error, some teens esp. inclined to it

when things to wrong

• we are gifted with impression management strategies

• & meta-management strategies

• what to do when things go wrong

• pea on table; you cannot bale

• smoking as a perfect place of first resort

• finding, lighting, smoking all give pretexts for the removal, renewal, repair

• strategy and benefit without which you’re vulnerable

sustaining role/occasion in danger

• Goffman argues every social moment (teen or not) constantly at risk of error and loss of face

• what is not in process at risk of dissolution

• when things go wrong, they can get bad

• a great sliding into difficult

• arrest the slide or ...

• smoking culture to the rescue

section 3: strategic responses

smoking culture

• meanings in review– gender

– age

– rebellion

– style

– cool

– warm

– threat

– mood

• real “benefits” • true costs

smoking culture II

• practices in review– solitary smoking– joining a group– establishing a relationship– sustaining performances at risk– smoking as text and pretext

• real “benefits”

• true costs

communications caveat I

• this group deeply suspicious – of an adult world – and more particularly of– medical authority– government authority– marketing “persuasions”– social scientists– journalists– popular culture makers (Hollywood,

music...)

• they have seen the “man behind the curtain”

• they are not impressed

communications caveat II

• this is not a group– that can be patronized– that can be “played”– that will respond to threats– that will respond to promises– that will respond to blandishments– that will suffer fools gladly

• this group possesses media literacy• they will spot artifice, stratagem• all but the most candid, transparent

strategies ill advised

communications caveat III

• they do not wish to be called “teens”

• they do not wish to be treated as a group (Jesse)

• they do not wish to be “played back” to themselves

• esp. not by an art director’s (or anthropologist)

• most important: don’t try to be one of them

• don’t try to be “cool” (or “warm”)

existing communications strategies

• government efforts in general

• recollected advertising

• health warnings on packages

government efforts in general

• evidence of accomplishment

• “scare the crap out of you and that’s good”

• “I remember the first time I saw the woman withering away, I went whoa”

• “they should go extreme, otherwise kids won’t here, they’re listening to MTV”

• mixed reviews

health warnings on package

• some approve:

• warning on boxes is good, a second thought

• some disregard

• some mock

• some collect and mock

• some rework to mock

problem with health warnings on package

• voice of authority

• voice of adult authority

• voice of adult government authority

• voice of adult government and medical authority

• “don’t tell me what I can and can’t do”

new communications strats

• when to intervene

• older to younger

• ad busting

• new warnings on pack

• media literacy

• website

• CD ROM

• anthropologist

• noticing how people smoke

• noticing all the things noticed here

when to intervene

• a crucial summer

• a liminal time

• no longer the lord of junior high

• no longer the captive of day care

• newly attentive to popular culture

• between programs

• a moment of vulnerability, opportunity, curiosity

• the moment to make contact

new strategies: older to younger

• it is clear that some younger teens smoke to establish credentials to join older teens

• they believe that they look older

• collect video of older teens saying otherwise

• e.g., “they look disparate to me, like they are trying to hard”

• this is teens talking to teens through intermediary of government

new strategies: ad busting

• we know that the corporate connection helps sensitize teens to smoking

• we know there is activism here

• we know there is an “anti-smoking culture” in the works

• encourage “anti-smoking culture”

• encourage ad busting ideology

• this is teens by teens for teens

new strategies: health warnings

• design according to teen suggestions, e.g.,

• person’s face before and after smoking

• tongue cancer, throat cancer

• x-ray of cancerous lung

• wake-up stupid

• cancer cell mutating

• a crowd of people standing around a hospital bed

• you’re cool

new strategies: noticing media (media literacy)

• create materials for school boards and websites

• encourage media literacy courses at younger age

• supply movie footage, advertising reels, print ads

• supply some “things to look for” possibilities

• leave it to teens to instruct teens

• wait for adbusting perspective to emerge

new strategies: noticing smoking culture (anthropology)

• create materials for school boards and websites

• encourage “culture busting” • a sensitivity that encourages self

consciousness and intervention• supply movie footage, etc.• supply some noticing possibilities• leave teens to instruct teens• wait for culture busting sentiment

to emerge

new strategies: website & CD

• delivery vehicle for classrooms & noticing media and noticing smoking culture programs

• archive– movie clips– TV & print tobacco ads– ethnograpic video

• critiquing opportunities– old communications– proposed communications– voting & comment systems

• (for CD) chat line

new strategies: “smokes and booze” strategy

• Avi Lewis’ New Music treatment “Smokes and Booze”

• new penetration of beer & cigarette marketing in rock

• clear discomfort on part of musicians & fans

• create “musicians against tobacco” campaign fund

• each band contributes % of tobacco supported work

bands come clean

• creates a concert system that needs no Tobacco Ind. support

industry/fans come clean

summary

• objectives• methods• research• smoking culture• section 1

– cultural meanings

• section 2– cultural practices

• section 3– strategic responses

• conclusion