ABSTRACT

Covering 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.

chapter |10 pages

Introduction

Peculiar substances

chapter 1|35 pages

Alcohol and Its Alternatives

Symbol and substance in pre-industrial cultures 1

chapter 2|19 pages

Coca, Beer, Cigars and Yagé

Meals and anti-meals in an Amerindian community

chapter 3|21 pages

Nicotian Dreams

The prehistory and early history of tobacco in eastern North America

chapter 4|12 pages

Betelnut ‘Bisnis' and Cosmology

A view from Papua New Guinea 1

chapter 5|23 pages

Kola Nuts

The ‘coffee' of the central Sudan

chapter 6|21 pages

Excitantia

Or, how Enlightenment Europe took to soft drugs 1

chapter 7|16 pages

From Coffeehouse to Parlour

The consumption of coffee, tea and sugar in north-western Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

chapter 8|20 pages

Tobacco Use and Tobacco Taxation

A battle of interests in early modern Europe

chapter 9|16 pages

Globalizing Ganja

The British Empire and international cannabis traffic c.1834 to c.1939

chapter 12|17 pages

Building Castles of Spit

The role of khat in work, ritual and leisure

chapter |13 pages

Afterword