ANTH106: Cultural Anthropology Essay - Social Life of Heroin Use

This essay delves into the cultural anthropology of drug exchange, specifically focusing on the social life within a heroin marketplace. It examines how exchange, including trade, gifts, services, and employment, shapes social hierarchies and relationships. The essay explores the dopamine theory of addiction and its limitations, highlighting the complexity of addiction as a mixture of behaviors and attitudes. It further discusses the prevalence of drug use and dealing within prisons, where drugs are exchanged for goods and services, and the symbolic significance of drug dealing as resistance to the system. The essay concludes by emphasizing that exchange, predating formal currency, underpins social systems, reflecting economic self-interest and obligation. Desklib offers a wealth of similar essays and study resources for students.

Running head: CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Cultural Anthropology
Name of the Study:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Introduction- The practical knowledge of ethnographic research can be potentially taken
from cultural anthropology. Therefore, one can gain a significant amount of knowledge by
conducting and understanding the research. The case study of "The social life of smokes:
Processes of exchange in a heroin marketplace", it can be seen that the exchange is interesting
and due to this valuable and useful thing get transferred from one person to another. The reason
is that the people through this way can maintain and create a social hierarchy. Exchange is an
interesting activity and it is symbolic as well and all sorts of the exchanges carry a social
meaning. It is important to mention that the reciprocity can also be considered as a form of
stored credit. The stored credit allows people to make the claims based on the previous giving.
Exchange of cigarette can be highlighted as a vehicle that can have an ascribed status and it was
transmitted and expressed to the other members of the group (Fox, Oliver and Ellis 2013.).
The social science literature has highlighted 2 major forms of exchange and the exchange
are based on the assumed and underlying characteristics. It is important to mention that the
market place exchange is characterised by the barter or trade as well as gift exchange or
reciprocal. While this is characterised by the generalised sharing and helping that are also based
on the identity and mutual obligations to other social relations and kinships (Zigon 2015). It has
been mentioned by the author that in the Footscray drug marketplace, heroin was exchanged
through the barter (heroin was exchanged for other commodities like the other drugs, mobile
telephones, shoes, clothes) and trade (heroin was exchanged for money). The exchange was also
conducted through the gifts, service and also through employment. The central mode of
exchange was the trade and this was the only exchange from where the dealers used to define
their practices. While it is important to mention that trade of heroin takes place between two
people that have no social ties. The ideal form of the market exchange is the spot transaction

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where the exchange conducted occurred immediately and concluded quickly. In the Footscray
marketplace, a huge portion and quantity of the trade transaction was conducted between the
customers and the dealers that do not know each other. In the trade exchanges, differential
opportunities existed and this was available on the different types of classifications that are based
on the social relationships (Dwyer 2011).
According to Nutt et al. (2015), the dopamine theory itself has an effect on the reward
mechanism and the development of drugs. This is because dopamine targets the brain. Dopamine
plays a role in the regulation of the motivation for seeking drugs. I tis important to note that the
dopamine is proposed to be playing as a motivation more generally. Dopamine plays an
executive function as it also has an inhibitory function and this can also act to prevent addiction.
The other actions like the overheating and dyscontrol also takes place. The dopamine theory of
addiction and reward states that the release of dopamine alone leads to an increased amount of
addition and it has a huge amount of traction. It became famous as a universal theory without
even conducting proper and sufficient amount of research on the findings that can highlight that
the drug addictions in certain cases do not support this particular theory. To be precise, the
dopamine theory did not lead any treatment for addiction. It is important to mention that the role
mentioned in the dopamine theory is a lot different from the dopamine theory of reward. The
author has stated that the stimulant drugs plays a direct role in the release of dopamine. While at
the same time, it is highlighting to mention that the addiction can be designated as a complex
mixture of attitudes and behaviours that varies from one drug to another. Thus, it is very unlikely
that a single drug explains each and every aspect of addiction. The authors see that the addiction
can be conceptualised as neuro-transmitter disorder.

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Since the year 1970 it has been seen that the western world has seen a substantial increase
in the proportion of the prisoners that were found to be using drugs and similar types of cases
were seen to be rising among the prisoners. The researches has been highly flooded with the
patterns and the prevalence of drug usage in prison and the majority of it is highly seen in the
comparative and epidemiological studies. It is important to mention that the drug dealing has
become a illegal economy that has become dominant in the prisons. The drugs that are brought in
to the prison are basically smuggled in and all these are done in the absence of a cash economy.
They are actually distributed among the prisoners in exchange for the canteen goods, phone
cards, tobacco and other types of payments. It is important to highlight that the demand for the
illegal drugs is high in the prison and it is far more than the supply. this leads to the fact that the
drug prices are due to this reason four to five times more than the street value. The prisoners in
order to sustain their heroin habits used to borrow money more than 100 percent of their interest
rates. The most popular prison drugs are the heroin and cannabis that are most widely used. It is
important to mention that the prisoners gained respect by the respect of importing drugs and it
has symbolized as a nerve resistance to the system. The drug dealing gave the dealers a lot of
connections with the organized world and the resistance to the system. It has been seen that drug
dealing is a dominant form of drug exchange and it has been seen that the drugs are swapped and
shared among the prisoners and majorly between the inmates that have close relations and are
actually belonging to the same gang. A similar kind of patterns is also seen among the inmates of
the Scottish prison, where a small number of prisoners that were enrolled in a prison based
opioid treatment. This treatment was meant to help the fellow prisoners that were suffering from
the withdrawal symptoms. The classical anthological theories have started that the exchange are
actually highlighted into the social systems. The principle of exchange has come before the

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formal introduction of money. A fundamental principle that underlies these types of exchange is
that that they are actually free and are disinterested in their form and character. It really presents
a sense of economic self- interest and obligation (Mjåland 2014).
Conclusion- from the above discussion it can be concluded that, the exchange was also
conducted through the gifts, service and also through employment. The central mode of
exchange was the trade and this was the only exchange from where the dealers used to define
their practices. It is highlighting to mention that the addiction can be designated as a complex
mixture of attitudes and behaviours that varies from one drug to another.

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Reference
Dwyer, R., 2011. The social life of smokes: Processes of exchange in a heroin marketplace. In S.
Fraser & D. Moore (Eds), The Drug Effect: Health, Crime and Society. Melbourne: Cambridge
University Press: 19-34.
Fox, T.P., Oliver, G. and Ellis, S.M., 2013. The destructive capacity of drug abuse: an overview
exploring the harmful potential of drug abuse both to the individual and to society. ISRN
addiction, 2013.
Mjåland, K., 2014. ‘A culture of sharing’: Drug exchange in a Norwegian prison. Punishment &
Society, 16(3), pp.336-352.
Nutt, D.J., Lingford-Hughes, A., Erritzoe, D. and Stokes, P.R., 2015. The dopamine theory of
addiction: 40 years of highs and lows. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 16(5), p.305.
Zigon, J., 2015. What is a situation?: An assemblic ethnography of the drug war. Cultural
Anthropology, 30(3), pp.501-524.