Who Really Made Tobacco 'Cool?' or Not so Cool

Who Really Made Tobacco 'Cool?' or Not so Cool

Abstract 

(Photograph by: http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/book/export/html/1015)

            When you think about tobacco use being made popular, I am sure that the era surrounding the 1920's and onward comes to mind.  Following this, as media and technology began to advance, the smoking culture became more widely spread and deemed 'cool' before all of the major health defects came to light.  What if I told you that it wasn't during this time that smoking became a cultural phenomenon?  Ever think about the natives to America?  Even more specifically, the Yup'ik Alaskan Native's made tobacco use 'cool' before the people in the 1900's ever even thought about making it cool.  Well, cool as in not really cool at all. Tobacco use is never actually cool, but it did have it's fad where people thought they were cool to do it culturally because society was screaming at them that it was.  Don't mistake the high school popular kids in their leather jackets, sitting on fancy cars and smoking a cigarette as cool, because trust me; those are the ones who will be dealing with nasty lung problems and lots of other health hiccups down the road.  

            In the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region of Alaska, a study with the Yup'ik natives was conducted on tobacco use in correlation with age, sex, and psychosocial ties.  According to the article, Smoking, Chewing, and Cultural Identity: Prevelance and Correlates of Tobacco Use among the Yup'ik- The Center for Alaska Native Health Research (CANHR) Study by Christopher Wolsko, Gerald V. Mohatt, Cecile Lardon, and Rebekah Burket, tobacco use in indigenous people of North America dates back to 2,000 years ago. This is a cultural tie within these people groups and as stated in this article, American Indian and Alaskan Natives have the highest rates of tobacco use. Understanding why this statistic is the way it is, holds importance because of the health problems that tobacco can cause.  This article seeks to find the direct relation between the culture of the indigenous people and the tobacco that they use. The culture of this people group includes things such as hunting, fishing, symbolic rituals, etc. Tobacco is used widely among these people in forms such as smoking pipes, chewing tobacco, and snuff. Iq'mik is a popular leaf they chew in their mouth to get a high.  This  may be the  most cultural of all the tobacco use, for it is traditional living for the Yup'ik people. Below is a photograph of what it looks like by a native:

(Disclaimer: Photograph by http://www.adn.com/article/20121006/supercharged-chew-tradition-yukon-kuskokwim-delta)

             In order to find the relationship between culture and tobacco use, the experiment conducted used 853 Yup'ik people from the area and differentiated between age and sex right off the bat as well as their tobacco use. More women then men were used in this method. The people came from eight different villages, which were used to collect data from leaders in the tribe regarding health.  Location and population of the tribe were also factored into this data. Following this, four questions were asked to each individuals about their tobacco use.  These included questions about the amount of cigarettes they have smoked, or are currently smoking, and then questions about snuff and chew use.

            The results were broken up among categories revolving around cultural identity, traditional food and medicine, language, and coping. They experiment concluded that 75.4% of the people currently use tobacco, 55.6% chew, and 28.2% smoke regularly. chewing tobacco was the most prevalent, then smoking, and finally snuff. The study proved a direct relation between those using chew linked to the culture of Yup'ik.  They identified with the language, medicine, food, and overall life of this people group.  Those who smoked rather than chewing tobacco identified more with the 'white' people over the lifestyle of the Yup'ik.

            This research has limitations including being able to grasp developing cultures mean new trends.  This is research that will have to continue in order to provide adequate evidence that tobacco use is directly tied to the culture identity. Also, only one Alaskan group was used, therefore you can not simply say that all are the same. This study also reported that the people of the Yup'ik felt safer using chew over smoking, however it is important to remember that no tobacco is safe.  Don't forget, using tobacco will never make you cool, despite certain cultural fads and media portrayals. 

Resource:

Wolsko, Christopher; Mohatt, Gerald V; Lardon, Cecile; Burket, Rebekah.  Smoking, chewing, and cultural identity: Prevalence and correlates of tobacco use among the Yup’ik—The Center for Alaska Native Health Research (CANHR) study. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, Vol 15(2), Apr 2009, 165-172.