Description
Book SynopsisCovering a wide range of substances, including opium, cocaine, coffee, tobacco, kola, and betelnut, from prehistory to the present day, this new edition has been extensively updated, with an updated bibliography and two new chapters on cannabis and khat. Consuming Habits is the perfect companion for all those interested in how different cultures have defined drugs across the ages.
Psychoactive substances have been central to the formation of civilizations, the definition of cultural identities, and the growth of the world economy. The labelling of these substances as 'legal' or 'illegal' has diverted attention away from understanding their important cultural and historical role. This collection explores the rich analytical category of psychoactive substances from challenging historical and anthropological perspectives.
Trade Review'This is a fascinating book because it highlights the way history contributes to the shaping of moral attitudes.' – History Teaching Review
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Peculiar Substances 1. Alcohol and its Alternatives: Symbol and Substance in Pre-Industrial Cultures 2. Coca, Beer, Cigars and Yag'e: Meals and Anti-Meals in an Amerindinian Community 3. Nicotian Dreams: The Prehistory and Early History of Tobacco in Eastern North America 4. Betelnut ‘Bisnis’ and Cosmology: A View from Papua New Guinea 5. Kola Nuts: The 'Coffee' of the Central Sudan 6. Excitantia: Or, How Enlightenment Europe took to Soft Drugs 7. From Coffeehouse to Parlour: The Consumption of Coffee, Tea and Sugar in Northwestern Europe in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries 8. Tobacco Use and Tobacco Taxation: A Battle of Interests in Early Modern Europe 9. Globalising Ganja: The British Empire and International Cannabis Traffic c. 1834 to c. 1939 10. Japan and the World Narcotics Traffic 11. The Rise and Fall and Rise of Cocaine in the United States 12. Building castles of Spit – The Role of Khat in Work, Ritual and Leisure 13. Afterword
