ABSTRACT
Tobacco smoke blessings are performed by a blesser, an elder normally from a high-ranking sib. Tobacco smoke blessings form an integral part of good care practices employed during pregnancy, childbirth, post-partum, during infancy and in early childhood, both for the perinatal family and for the infant itself. This chapter describes tobacco blessings and baby washing, when carefully executed, are precisely those nurturing acts that make babies grow and develop properly, maintaining them in good health. It looks more closely at the specific techniques of use that render tobacco and water capable – as Xie dwellers contend – of having a positive, health-promoting effect. The chapter contends that tobacco blessings constitute mindful acts and that it is minutiae of attention cultivated during these blessings that renders the substances of tobacco and water both health-promoting and body-making. It considers how cylindrical cigars offer a means through which to cool and calm a special type of relation – that with potentially fiery affine.
