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Cultural Models and Gender Differences in Tobacco Use Among Congo Basin Hunter-gatherers

出版	Washington State University, 2010
URL	http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=oiBRAQAACAAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api

註釋A paucity of data exists on tobacco smoking in small-scale societies, particularly among central African populations who have had a relationship with tobacco for nearly 500 years. This study aims to extend this largely neglected topic within anthropology by identifying and describing a) indigenous cultural models of tobacco and similar substances smoked and b) age trends and gender differences in smoking, among a group of Aka foragers of the Central African Republic. Several hypotheses exist on why males tend to smoke more than females, particularly in developing countries, yet most studies are conducted in urban-industrial nation states where gender inequality is common. As Aka are a group of egalitarian forest foragers, other factors besides religious and political subjugation are predicted to affect patterns of use for females. This research is placed into a larger theoretical framework integrating cultural, political-economic, and biological factors involved in age trends and gender differences in tobacco use. Aka males use tobacco considerably more than Aka females. While tobacco use appears to be gendered women are not proscribed from smoking, many have tried it, several continue to smoke, and the likelihood of smoking increases with age. Cultural (tobacco as a 'rite of passage' into adulthood), political-economic (acculturation and tobacco as a labor inducer), and biological (sexual selection and pharmacophagy) factors all potentially contribute to the higher rates of smoking among Aka males.