10th December 2013, 01:32 PM
I was just reading an article about I-fags http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/...94118.html and it got me thinking....
I haven't had a cigarette in 18 years, I don't consider myself cured. I am just a smoker that isn't, at the moment, smoking. My problem is that I used to love smoking and I think smoking was also an important part of archaeological culture. Standing back from what you were doing, reviewing the progress of the trench/feature, it seemed natural to roll a cigarette and take the precise time it took to make and smoke (maybe a couple of minutes) to think about the job. Likewise communicating with your fellow workers it seemed natural to do so whilst sharing the social nicety of a cigarette.....what I know the Australians call a 'smoko'. Further you could see this extended into out of work hours. Many people who didn't normally smoke would have a cigarette with a beer with their colleagues.
I am not in anyway trying to justify smoking. I totally agree with Wax that it is injurious to health. But it used to be an important part of the way archaeologists interacted and I'm not sure that it has been adequately replaced. Of course there were always supervisors that seemed to think any respite from toil was a bad thing and frowned upon any kind of break. But I think they would object to the general principle of archaeologists talking to each other or standing back to review their work, so smoking wasn't really anything to do with their objection. I also think that John may have touched upon another aspect of archaeological smoking i.e as a means of stress relief. Sure fags don't do much good, but stress is a killer as well.
Yet to see an archaeologist smoking an I-fag by the way, but its probably only a matter of time.....
I haven't had a cigarette in 18 years, I don't consider myself cured. I am just a smoker that isn't, at the moment, smoking. My problem is that I used to love smoking and I think smoking was also an important part of archaeological culture. Standing back from what you were doing, reviewing the progress of the trench/feature, it seemed natural to roll a cigarette and take the precise time it took to make and smoke (maybe a couple of minutes) to think about the job. Likewise communicating with your fellow workers it seemed natural to do so whilst sharing the social nicety of a cigarette.....what I know the Australians call a 'smoko'. Further you could see this extended into out of work hours. Many people who didn't normally smoke would have a cigarette with a beer with their colleagues.
I am not in anyway trying to justify smoking. I totally agree with Wax that it is injurious to health. But it used to be an important part of the way archaeologists interacted and I'm not sure that it has been adequately replaced. Of course there were always supervisors that seemed to think any respite from toil was a bad thing and frowned upon any kind of break. But I think they would object to the general principle of archaeologists talking to each other or standing back to review their work, so smoking wasn't really anything to do with their objection. I also think that John may have touched upon another aspect of archaeological smoking i.e as a means of stress relief. Sure fags don't do much good, but stress is a killer as well.
Yet to see an archaeologist smoking an I-fag by the way, but its probably only a matter of time.....
With peace and consolation hath dismist, And calm of mind all passion spent...