The consumption of psychoactive substances is as ancient as human societies themselves and characteristic of most cultures. These substances have been central to the formation of civilizations, the definition of cultural identities, and the growth of the world economy. Attention has been diverted away, however, from our understanding of their cultural and historical significance by the labelling of these substances as 'legal' or 'illegal.' The central theme of Consuming Habits: Drugs in History and Anthropology is to establish that psychoactive substances are integral to the construction of culture, and a rich analytical category for the study of historical and cultural processes.

This pioneering collection of original essays explores the rich analytical category of psychoactive substances from enlightening historical and anthropological perspectives. Essays cover periods from prehistory, to the early modern period, to the 19th and 20th centuries, and cultural settingsincluding Europe, Papua New Guinea, North and South America, West Africa and Japan. Contributors focus upon substances such as opium, cocaine and heroin, as well as coffee, tea, tobacco, kola and betel nutsubstances often not recognized for their psychoactive properties. Their challenging perspectives revitalize an agenda which has largely been set by politicians, pharmacologists and social scientists, contributing significantly to the contemporary debate on drugs.