It's Easy to Smoke Here: An Anthropological Examination of Cigarette Exchange (original) (raw)
Though a great deal of research has been done on the health effects of smoking, the habit has gone largely unexamined by more qualitative perspectives such as that provided by anthropology. During the fall of 2011, I conducted ethnographic research among Beloit College’s student smoking population, employing the usual methods of participant-observation and interviews. This paper examines the informal exchange of cigarettes, a practice known as “bumming,” within the context of a larger system which I refer to as the “cigarette economy.” Through the lens of economic anthropology, I attempt to explain the economic behavior of smokers and situate the cigarette economy in relation to common understandings of the gift economy. I conclude that students exchange cigarettes in a manner similar to that of a gift economy, using these seemingly altruistic exchanges to create social relations, but also to maintain security in their access to cigarettes during the financial instability which is frequently experienced by college students. By injecting cigarettes into the smoking community when they are affluent, smokers earn social capital and good standing with other smokers which they can draw from to support their habit during times of economic hardship. In this way, they exhibit calculative self-interest while maintaining an appearance of generosity. This represents one facet of smoking culture, and this paper recommends more extensive ethnographic research on such a prevalent phenomenon as tobacco consumption by other subfields of anthropology.
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