ANTH106 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Bin Bag, Harm Reduction, Morality Play
31 May 2018
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ANTH106 Week 3!
Drug Symbolism !
1!
-patches are replete with the symbolism we associate with drugs !
-Symbols of danger - bat, scorpion, rattle snake !
-Symbols of danger prevail in our association with drugs!
-Twilight - extended metaphor to work to overcome drive for drugs!
3!
-Maderson - need to move away from reasons of drug law b/c that would need to be rationale -
saying our drug laws are not rationale - instead look at the aesthetics !
-Primary example - the needle - aesthetic - needle boundary violation !
-It’s not the primary mechanism for people to take drugs recreationally - yet it is the core symbol
for recreation and illicit drug taking!
-Bodily violation that disturbs - looking away when needle is there!
-Bat story !
-Taboo of boundary violations !
- !
-4!
-Mary Douglas - syringe population out of place!
-What is dirty? - context is way defines dirt, - her definition of population is matter out of
place!
-Core theories: we have an abhorrence for things that transgresses our boundaries - why we
don’t like bodily fluid, spit, etc. !
-Why we don’t like needle = b/c it violates our body and crosses the boundaries of our skin!
-odour - invasion and contagion !
-Other people’s rituals alienate us - focus on particular paraphernalia as symbols of that
alienation !
-Possessing drug paraphernalia is against the law as well !
-needle, tubes, etc evoke other people’s rituals - why we find drug paraphernalia threatening !
-Drug law : not just explaining our own aesthetic aversion but these aesthetics of drug law
itself
-Property law: Humans actively appropriate things - why we buy and sell and so on -!
-criminal law punishment for intentional acts and unintentional acts - but wrong, but worse if you
intended to !
-Drug law doesn’t follow any of these rules - innocent until prove guilt accept for drugs !
-Person if has drugs - instantly guilty and that have to prove themselves innocent !
-Drug law we assume there is an activeness to the drug object that we don’t assume with other
objects - the drugs attaches itself to a person - the thing contaminants the person, not the
other way around!
-The act is made so passive to have virtually vanished !
-All it takes is police to find the drugs on you - they don’t have to prove that you knew you had
them, or intended to sell it - you have to prove your innocence, they just have to prove its on
you!
-Proximity to a dangerous drug establishes a presumptive crime
-The thing contaminates the person - the crime of possession
-Crime of possession assumes the object has possessed the individual !
6!
-seductive power of drugs - Chinese immigrants - opium seductive power !
-Chinese men in dens with wousy white women - symbolic assumption these drugs symbolically
equated with sex and disturbingly powerful outside agents !
-Witches - addicted to sexual pleasure with the devil - same with twilight - drugs, blood, sex,
death - plays so powerfully cultural moment with twilight as best seller for years!
7!
-drug user the threat to the modern !
-Fear keeps us from letting it effect the rest of us !
-Drug law stage !
-They turn drug seize into a sensation !
-Erikson - calling people deviants is to publicise the deviants to make it more public to establish
boundaries between each !
-Drug possessing you !
-Doesn’t mean there is no harm in drugs - but he demonstrates drug law isn't about harm - most
dangerous drugs are legal in terms of health impact!
-Laws are about symbolic meaning - we need them to stage a theatre to show people what not
to be !
-Dramatise our anxieties !
-The inquisition outlaw devil - but they wanted to devil to establish a moral code and authority
over Europe - drug laws do the same - establishing moral authority and hierarchy in society !
-Dramatise and cauterise our anxieties !
9!
-Needle source of aesthetic horror - but for drug users they connote paschal pleasure !
-Quiz: Needles symbols both sex and death - from within connotes sexual desires - symbolically
lots of links between sex and death and connotations of these - why sexual metaphors used to
describe drug use - in terms of organismic experience with the rush !
-Multiple studies of demonstrated needle sharing in groups are symbolic of people’s intimate
connections between these people !
-HIV and Hep B through needles and sex!
-One perspective horrific, the other seductive !
-Heroine users who inject what they know is saline, still experience a rush b/c of their
association between needle and the drug - !
10!
-both law and addict share a common obsession !
-Drugs are fetishes and drug law is about fetish !
-Drug law Makes drugs into symbols of fears in our society and then blame those drugs for
society’s problems !
-Taking all social problems and attributing them to the drug and drug use !
-Drugs in rural film: stages morality play that assumes a directional morality !
Ben: Diary of a Heroin Addict !
- loveable boy. Got away from everything - centre of the party - didn’t realise that, took things a
little further than everything else!
-first was smoking cannabis !
-Realised the addiction - !
-Just wanted to try things!
-Tells himself don’t have self-pity - did it to himself !
-Starting filming at 15 years of use already !
-force of craving proved too much !
-Wish could turn the clock back - didn’t plan to be a drug addict, not his aim in life!
-By 30 - taking herion up to four times a day - would inject into groin b/c veins so damaged !
-From age 7 !
-Father says it makes him feel like he’s in hell !
-25 - full time work!
-When you was happiest was working in the film studio - had real potential - keep job for 3
years, but he lost it b/c he wasn’t doing the job well b/c of his using drugs!
-very manipulative!
-Putting an act on - his whole life just about Ben - getting the next fix then trying to hide that he
used!
-It was almost like a monster that lived beside him !
-Two Ben’s that are constantly - Family Ben and Ben the Addict - addict got 20 times bigger
than ben the brother !
-Wedding day, christenings, Christmas - 9/10 Ben problems - constantly wondering if Ben will
be alright !
Document Summary
Patches are replete with the symbolism we associate with drugs. Symbols of danger - bat, scorpion, rattle snake. Symbols of danger prevail in our association with drugs. Twilight - extended metaphor to work to overcome drive for drugs. Maderson - need to move away from reasons of drug law b/c that would need to be rationale - saying our drug laws are not rationale - instead look at the aesthetics. Primary example - the needle - aesthetic - needle boundary violation. It"s not the primary mechanism for people to take drugs recreationally - yet it is the core symbol for recreation and illicit drug taking. Bodily violation that disturbs - looking away when needle is there. Mary douglas - syringe population out of place. Context is way de nes dirt, - her de nition of population is matter out of place.
