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Sutton I Rituals of Smoking in Hollywood's Golden Age: Hawks, Furthman and the Ethnographic History of Film Donald Sutton Carnegie Mellon University Rituals of Smoking in Hollywood's Golden Age: Hawks, Furthman and the Ethnographic History of Film In these days of the tobacco wars, as cigarette manufacturers battle in the courts and smokers are expelled from public buildings, smoking in the U.S.A., instead of being taken for granted, is moving clearly into view as a cultural practice with its own distinctive history. We become keenly aware of this ifwe return, newly knowledgeable about health risks, to the celluloid world of Hollywood fifty or sixty years ago, to witness the universal, open, guiltfree enjoyment of the strike of a match, the burst of flame, the curl of smoke, the first inhaled breath, the exhaled puff through mouth or nostrils; and to recall the mix of attendant associations stimulated by the rush of nicotinelife , power, sociability, luxury, relaxation and more. Smoking, it can be maintained, is and has always been not merely a sensory pleasure but a cultural expression open to diverse interpretation and a social instrument in the play of power. While its past forms and effects could scarcely be studied ethnographically, one could attempt a sort of visual ethnographic history by tracing the adaptation of cigarette to film. In its simplest form, on stage as well as in film, cigaretteact.1 All of these simple, solo actions are copied from everyplay was merely a shorthand to signal the emotion an actorday practice, which had long adapted older gestures to the was trying to communicate. Shyness could be instantly con-20th century habit of the cigarette. veyed through an awkwardly offered or lit cigarette; irrita-Yetwhen elaborated, contextualized andjuxtaposed with tion by frequently tapping offthe ash; anxiety by lightingQther actionS) such gestures in fflm œuld notQnlyhelp tQ cre_ clumsily, puffing rapidly and discarding an unfinished butt;afe aconvincingrealitybutalso explicate socialrelationships deliberation by a slow draw and exhalation; indecision by de-and advanœ a plot suggestively and economically. To apprecilayed or prolonged lighting or extinguishing ofa cigarette;ate their efficacityj we mightusefuHyunderstand a social act decisionby stubbing out firmly and then standing up; angeruke offering amatch or cigarette, even aparticularwayof by crushing ahalf-smoked butt; shockby stubbing out andsmokingin the companyofotherS; as akind ofritual. Ritual, standing stock still; surprise or outrage by suddenly remov-acording tQ currentscholarsnip> neednotconcern tne sacred ing a cigarette from the mouth; incredulity or amusementbyQreyenfitafixed definition. WnU6 itmayweHbe highlyfor. slowly exhaling smoke while leaning back and assuming thema]ized; repetitive, obligatory and stereotyped,2 none ofthese appropriate expression. As atleast one writer pointed out,feamres is essential: they are just some ofthe possible means such devices were clichés that thinly disguised an inability toofritua]ization; a process bywhich "one group ofactivities is 70 I Film & History Current Events in Film | Special Section set offas distinct and privileged vis-a-vis other activities ."3 Clearly this is something readily done in film. When the camera focuses on a character smoking in a distinctive way, or on several characters exchanging cigarettes and a light, an ordinary event is in this respect being ritualized: we take note that they have not been smoking before, or that others are not smoking, and know we must watch them closely. What is the effect ofritual? Extending the work of such social theorists as Lukes, Bourdieu, Foucault and Comaroff, Catherine Bell argues that ritual is conducted not so much for the reasons offered by its practitioners , nor for the Durkheimian purpose ofsocial solidarity. Rather ritualization has to do with the "practical knowledge" that forms binary oppositions orchestrated so that they bear a hierarchical relationship to each other. It produces "ritualized agents" who by means ofritualization acquire and put to use such practical knowledge, in the process constructing power relationships, which are the more effective for being partly unconscious or misrecognized, and evoking a coherent scheme ofimplicit values.4 The effects of ritualization will depend on the context and the many viewpoints ofparticipants and observers, but it is likely to distribute power differentially among people who participate in it and witness it, and at the same time to obscure the source...

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