
































An American Obsession 

Review by Brittany Brown

The Archaeology of Smoking and Tobacco

by Georgia L. Fox

University Press of Florida, 2015

For thousands of years, Indigenous peoples across the Americas cultivated and consumed tobacco. In

some Indigenous communities, tobacco was ingested by chewing, in others tobacco was consumed by

pipe and cigar smoking (p. 19-20). Native communities from the coast of South America to the North

American Chesapeake have, for the greater part of their histories, reserved the use of this crop for

sacred  rituals  (p.  19-20).  Today,  tobacco  is  one  of  the  most  highly  sought  after  and  commonly

consumed stimulants in the modern world. Within American society, tobacco smoking in particular has

come to symbolize power, sexuality, and wealth. These associations have been constantly reiterated by

widely celebrated public figures like Audrey Hepburn, Albert Einstein, James Dean, Tyga, and Beyoncé

(p. 133). Whether its smoking pipes, Black and Milds, Cuban cigars, cigarettes, or hookah, tobacco

smoking transcends American categories of class, gender, ‘race’, and ethnicity while simultaneously

connoting gender roles, social standings, and economic success (p. 2). Despite the growing awareness

of the health risks involved in consuming tobacco, smoking this “weed” remains one of America’s

favorite obsessions. So how exactly did this sacred plant become a commercialized American cash

crop? In seven chapters, Georgia Fox’s new book, The Archaeology of Smoking and Tobacco (2015),

charts  the  global  expansion  of  tobacco  consumption  and  explores  the  many  roles  this  Indigenous

American crop played in shaping American social life, culture, and economy. The purpose of this book

is to demonstrate how essential  the field of historical  archaeology is  to the study of smoking and

tobacco. Moreover, the author seeks to demonstrate the ways in which tobacco consumption can be

used as a catalyst for culture change and identity formation (p. 23).



Fox begins this book by providing the reader with a unique perspective: the idea that tobacco and pipe

smoking has been embedded within the fabric of American social life, culture, and economy since the

nation’s  inception.  According to  the author,  tobacco’s  commercialization began with the  arrival  of

Europeans in the Americas (p. 19). Following Indigenous American contact with Europeans, samples of

tobacco were brought back to Europe and for a short period of time, tobacco was grown in England (p.

20). Tobacco production was later moved to the English colonies in North America and the Caribbean.

However,  cultivation  in  both  England  and  the  British  Caribbean  was  soon  upstaged  by  tobacco

production in the Chesapeake colonies of Maryland and Virginia (p. 133). Here, small scale tobacco

production quickly snowballed into a major agricultural  operation,  turning unimaginable profits for

England. In the New World, large scale production of crops like tobacco for export and distribution on

a global market required captive African labor. The widespread popularity of tobacco in combination

with  England’s  (and  later  America’s)  participation  in  buying  and  selling  captive  Africans  firmly

established tobacco and the Chesapeake region in the pre-industrial global economy. These intersecting

economic networks  are  the crux of  Fox’s study.  Collectively,  the interactions between Indigenous,

African, and European communities during the colonial period laid the foundation for contemporary

American  social  relations  and  uses  of  tobacco.  The  material  culture  left  behind  by  these  past

communities  has  the  power  to  reveal  social  and  cultural  interactions  that  are  often  missed  in  the

historical  record.  As  Fox  points  out,  historical  archaeology  is  uniquely  equipped  with  the  tools

necessary for investigating such material assemblages and capturing these interactions.

Rarely have historical  archaeologists  taken on the task of  exploring the complex social  history of

tobacco consumption in North America and beyond, despite how frequently practitioners encounter the

material remnants of tobacco production, consumption, and distribution in the archaeological record.

Colonial period smoking pipes are recovered from historical sites more so than any other materials

indicative  of  tobacco  use  (p.  6).  According  to  Fox,  the  frequency  with  which  smoking  pipes  are

recovered from archaeological sites demonstrates the popularity of this particular method of tobacco

consumption  among  Indigenous  Americans,  early  Euro-American  settler,  immigrant,  and  captive

African  communities.  Nevertheless,  historical  archaeologists  have  primarily  used  tobacco pipes  as

diagnostic tools for dating historical sites, burials, and archaeological features (p. 2). Fox’s book has

innovatively  taken  pipe  studies  beyond diagnostics  adding to  a  rather  small  but  growing body of

anthropological literature on the cultural and global impact of pre-industrial consumable goods (p. 2).

Rather than restricting the contributive possibilities of smoking pipes to the field by using and viewing



smoking pipes merely as dating tools, the author investigates the cross-cultural functionality of these

objects.

Fox takes a multidisciplinary approach to examining the ways in which Indigenous, captive African,

and settler communities altered and adapted their customs in a post-contact New World environment.

Fox’s methodology primarily relies on historical archaeology and bioarcheology. The author also draws

on art, advertisement, ethnohistory and historical documentation in order to explore identity formation

and  cultural  change  within  these  communities.  Fox frames  this  interdisciplinary  approach  using  a

unique  theoretical  orientation  that  combines  consumer  theory  and  world-system  analysis,  while

viewing the “desire” to consume tobacco as the nexus between these two perspectives (p. 5). Much of

the  analysis  of  cultural  change and identity  formation  articulated  in  Fox’s  book also  points  to  an

additional  theoretical  influence,  although  the  author  does  not  state  this  influence  explicitly.  By

employing  the  concept  of  transculturation,  Fox’s  framework  draws  influence  from  anthropologist

Fernando Ortiz’s early twentieth century study, Cuban Counterpoint: Tobacco and Sugar (1947), which

both introduces and outlines the concept of transculturation (p. 105).

Transculturation as Ortiz sets forth, describes culture contact and outlines the process of culture change

that  occurred between various ethnic groups in  the New World including Europeans,  Natives,  and

Africans.  For  Ortiz,  this  process  encompassed  cultural  appropriation,  cultural  formation  or

neoculturation, and to some degree, cultural loss which he refers to as deculturation. Furthermore, Ortiz

viewed these cultural  exchanges as mutual transactions. The influence of this concept is illustrated

throughout the text,  but is most apparent in Fox’s discussion of Native and European interactions,

specifically in chapters three and five. In chapter three, Fox outlines the introduction of tobacco to

European settlers by Indigenous American communities as a result of culture contact between these

groups  in  the  fifteenth  century.  Additionally,  the  author  interrogates  the  appropriation  of  tobacco

consumption by Europeans for recreational use both in the colonies and Europe. Lastly, in chapter five,

Fox discusses tobacco’s commodification and “reintroduction” into Indigenous communities “through

trade and gift  exchange” with European settlers,  effectively outlining tobacco smoking’s transition

from ritual to secular within Native communities (p. 105).

While Native and European interactions are a central part of Fox’s narrative, the author explores pipe

smoking within a much wider range of social, cultural, and temporal contexts. Some of these include

seventeenth century Swiss,  Dutch,  and New England women,  Victorian women,  American frontier



soldiers,  nineteenth  century  Prostitutes,  nineteenth  century  Irish  and  German  immigrants,  Captive

Africans, and Chinese businessmen. Within these brief case studies, Fox explores a wide variety of

topics including burial practices, consumerism, gender, gardening, class, and escapism (p. 27, 83, 69).

The  inclusion  of  such  a  vast  breadth  of  literature  helps  to  place  the  author’s  own case  study  of

seventeenth century Port Royal, Jamaica, in conversation with a plethora of anthropological studies.

This  includes but  is  not limited to studies  that  center  on tobacco,  pipes,  private and public space,

culture contact, gardening, African Diasporic burial practices, Native burial practices, women’s studies,

and economic studies. Through these case studies, Fox’s work demonstrates that tobacco consumption

assumed many roles simultaneously that varied according to temporal, social, and cultural contexts.

Additionally,  the author brings to  the forefront  the ways in which marginalized groups throughout

history  have  actively  participated  in  shaping  their  cultural  landscapes.  In  essence,  tobacco  is  a

transformative substance that speaks to the varying degrees to which socially constructed categories are

enforced, participated in, negotiated, and negated within American communities both past and present.

By expanding the academic discourse on pipes beyond diagnostics and dating methods, Fox’s book

enhances anthropological understandings of the impact of tobacco on American social life and culture.

The author contextualizes this study of tobacco consumption within the context of broader economic

networks like Indigenous trade networks,  the Transatlantic ‘slave’ trade,  and the English economy.

Consequently,  Fox  has  couched  the  American  evolution  of  tobacco  consumption  within  a  global

narrative.  Moreover,  by employing historical archaeology as her primary tool of investigation, Fox

makes  clear  that  historical  archaeology  is  particularly  useful  for  examining  the  cross-cultural

functionality of tobacco consumption in North America and the Caribbean. Fox’s work is in tandem

with some recently produced studies that have focused on similar substances like sugar, coffee, and

alcohol. Her nuanced approach to the multifaceted history of smoking pipes and tobacco consumption

successfully  demonstrates  that  smoking  pipes  have  far  more  to  contribute  to  archaeological

understandings  of  the  American  experience  than  previously  assumed.  Fox’s  study  of  tobacco  and

smoking is perhaps the most comprehensive study of its kind and would make a great addition to any

syllabus. The variety of case studies that Fox has included are both informative and entertaining which

makes this book well suited for scholars and the general public alike. Furthermore, Fox’s expansive

knowledge of tobacco and smoking pipes makes this  a must read for anyone interested in tobacco

consumption or smoking pipes.

Brittany Brown is a doctoral candidate in the anthropology department at The College of William and



Mary. Her areas of specialization include the British Caribbean and the African American Southeast.

© 2016 Brittany Brown


