Dissecação do artigo “Anthropology and addiction: an historical review”, de Merril Singer
SINGER, M. (2012), Anthropology and Addiction: na historical review. Addiction, 107(10), 1747-55.
Analisar o que se escreveu acerca da antropologia de consumo de álcool e drogas, bem como identificar as principais temáticas abordadas pelos antropólogos, a metodologia utilizada, mas também os modelos teóricos desenvolvidos e o que se procurará no futuro.
Pesquisa de artigos e livros através de palavras-chave (como “etnografia do consumo de drogas”, “antropologia do consumo de drogas”, etc.) na internet.
Verifica-se desde 1970 uma tendência crescente para a realização de estudos antropológicos sobre o consumo de álcool e de drogas (impulsionada pela pandemia da SIDA), mas também que os mesmos são cada vez mais valorizados.
O artigo ressalta também que as experiências dos consumidores são culturalmente moldadas e que, para tais indivíduos, certos aspetos da dependência podem ser encarados de forma positiva e sustentável.
Singer começa por revelar que os consumidores de álcool ou de outras drogas não foram sempre considerados “problemáticos” ou “dependentes”. De facto, a própria dependência surge apenas no século XIX aquando do refinamento das drogas existentes a fim destas serem capazes de produzir apetência e necessidade compulsiva. Curiosamente, também foi este o período em que a Antropologia floresceu — tempo, mas também espaço — surge inclusive nos mesmos lugares em que a dependência nasce por ambos estarem ligados à emergência do capitalismo. Todavia, a Antropologia não se foca no consumo de drogas até 1970 por evitar assuntos tabu e se dedicar mais aos padrões sociais do que a quem deles fugia. Mas a década de setenta trouxe a revolução das drogas — o momento em que a droga deixou de ser o vício dos artistas para ser a chaga da juventude —, para além da Antropologia se voltar agora para as sociedades ocidentais e aplicar-se na resolução de problemas sociais. Outra razão para o súbito interesse no tema foi a pandemia da SIDA (percebeu-se a relação entre o consumo de drogas e a doença).
O modelo cultural, proposto por Heath, é a principal abordagem antropológica quanto à utilização de drogas. Dá-se o exemplo dos Camba — onde a ingestão de álcool (ou substância semelhante) é socialmente valorizada, mas onde não há sinais de alcoolismo (das consequências que lhe atribuímos). Presumiu-se então que tal acontece pelas experiências aquando do consumo de substâncias serem influenciadas pela cultura. Os Lele são também referenciados como argumento para o modelo cultural. No entanto, a teoria está sujeita a críticas como as apresentadas por Robin Room: de que os antropólogos têm a tendência de suavizar o problema do álcool, já que, por exemplo, muitos deles provêm de contextos onde beber era considerado normal. Com o tempo, também o mundo dos Camba foi-se modernizando, sugerindo que o consumo de álcool sem as consequências por nós conhecidas acontece somente quando a vida social tradicional não foi conspurcada pelos capitalistas.
Apela-se à ideia de que o consumo de drogas é também um estilo de vida e não uma “fuga” à vida; que os consumidores passam a fazer parte de uma subcultura (também ela com valores e estatutos sociais) e que, portanto, tomar drogas é algo benéfico e que lhes traz recompensas.
A antropologia médica crítica enfatiza três questões quanto às razões do consumo de substâncias — a produção social do sofrimento, automedicação (por lesões sociais) e a estruturação política dos mercados de drogas lícitas e ilícitas. Analisando os primeiros dois, percebe-se que o primeiro tem a ver com muitos toxicodependentes viverem parcamente, mas serem diariamente expostos à grande riqueza de outros indivíduos (sofrimento social), e o segundo por muitos destes indivíduos viverem ciclos viciosos de stress sentido, seguido da intoxicação e da consequente estigmatização social.
A sindemia, a interação/relação entre doenças estudadas pelo contexto socioecónomico dos indivíduos, tem vindo a valorizar cada vez mais a etnografia e a antropologia na prevenção e detecção de populações em risco.
“the fairly long human interaction with mind-altering and potentially addictive drugs — dating to at least 8–10 000 years ago — did not lead directly or immediately to the social delineation of a subset of consumers who were identified as problematic by their peers.” (p. 1)
“he advocated the use of beer or even opium, noting that the ‘the different preparations of opium are a thousand times more safe and innocent than spirituous liquors in all spasmodic affections of the stomach and bowels’” (p. 1)
“the term ‘addiction’— with reference to drug consumption at least — appears to be relatively new, dating to the refinement of various drug preparations into very concentrated forms that were capable of producing craving and compulsive use. This occurred during the 19th century as a consequence of political economic changes in Europe and North America leading to drugs becoming widely available global commodities.” (p. 1)
“by 1900 it became possible to be labeled publically an alcoholic (or inebriate) or a drug addict (although a number of decades earlier for alcoholic/inebriate)” (p. 1)
“The late 19th century was also the period during which anthropology developed, and it occurred in the same locations that drug addiction became a socially recognized pathological condition.” (p. 1)
“Indeed, both these developments can be linked historically to the emergence of global capitalism and its desire for labor control, with anthropology focusing (at least initially) on understanding peoples of subordinate colonial status (including their potential as passive laborers) and addiction being used commonly to label possibly unruly and resistant sectors within dominant colonial societies.” (pp. 1-2)
“historically, anthropologists ‘avoided tackling taboo subjects such as personal violence, sexual abuse, addiction, alienation, and self-destruction’. During the 1970s this began to change, influenced by the drug revolution and the significant expansion in the numbers of people reporting using drugs in the West, as well as by the growing anthropological focus on western societies and the application of anthropology to addressing social problems.” (p. 2)
“The core component of the anthropological approach to human interaction with psychotropic drugs is known as the ‘cultural model’.” (p. 2)
“the association of drinking with any specific ‘problem’, be it physical, economic, psychological or interpersonal, is quite rare among cultures throughout history.” (p. 2)
“most consequences of alcohol consumption are mediated by cultural factors rather than being narrowly determined by pharmacobiological factors.” (p. 2)
“While not denying that alcohol is a potent chemical, from the cultural model what is of key to determining the effects of heavy drinking are culturally constituted beliefs about the effects of alcohol.” (p. 2)
“Of equal importance is the issue of meaning. As a culturally constructed social practice, drinking (and the type and context of consumption) evokes emotionally charged cultural meanings about diverse issues, including social solidarity, identity, recognition of new social statuses and accomplishment, nostalgic remembrances, the honoring of loved ones, hospitality, mourning, initiation of work efforts, transitions, celebration of cultural heroes, intimacy, fun, health, religious experience and anticipated futures.” (pp. 2-3)
“MacAndrew & Edgerton [25]: ‘The way people comport themselves when they are drunk is determined not by alcohol’s toxic assault upon the seat of moral judgment, conscience, or the like, but by what their society makes of and imparts to them concerning the state of drunkenness’.” (p. 3)
“Heath’s work, and that of other anthropological contributors to the cultural model, suggests that while routine heavy drinking without signs of addiction still occurs, it tends to be in settings in which traditional community social life has not been penetrated fully and disrupted by the forces of capitalist globalization.” (p. 3)
“the cultural model found expression in anthropological research on drug use as a life-style or a distinctive subculture tradition.” (p. 3)
“In an effort to counter simplistic stereotypes and narrow pathological accounts of drug users and addiction, Preble & Casey [56] argued: ‘Their behavior is anything but an escape from life. They are actively engaged in meaningful activities and relationships seven days a week’.” (pp. 3-4)
“In constructing their description of drug users and addicts, anthropological and related ethnographic researchers of other disciplines use participant-observation ethnography to better understand and represent the world as it was actually seen and experienced by drug addicts. As Friedman et al. [57] comment: In contrast to views that see [injection] drug use as simply a matter of individual pathology, it is more fruitful to describe [injection] drug users as constituting a ‘subculture’... This calls our attention to the structured sets of values, roles, and status allocations that exist among [injection] drug users... From the perspective of its members, participating in the subculture is a meaningful activity that provides desired rewards, rather than psychopathology, an ‘escape from reality,’ or an ‘illness’.” (p. 4)
“Within the domain of drug use and addiction, the critical medical anthropology model has emphasized three issues: the social production of suffering, the use of drugs to self-medicate the emotional injuries of injustice and mistreatment and the political economy of the licit and illicit drug markets, including their parallels and entwinements.” (p. 4)
“In the context of structurally imposed distress, the term ‘social suffering’ has been used by anthropologists to refer to the immediate personal experience of broad human problems caused by the exercise of political and economic power. In other words, social suffering refers the misery among those on the weaker end of power relations in terms of physical health, mental health and lived experience.” (p. 5)
“From the perspective of critical medical anthropology, inequality as it is experienced by people who must endure its consequence is a major force driving heavy drug use and addiction. Life for a drug addict is often a vicious cycle of felt stress followed by self-medicating drug consumption and resulting social stigmatization and a sense of damaged self-worth (which, in turn, triggers the desire for comfort through drugs).” (p. 5)
“Whatever the harm wrought by legal and illegal drug use, at the moment of craving and desire they are seen as relief, temporarily removing the sufferer from their prison of personal misery. The consequences of such ‘relief’ always come back to haunt the user as craving returns and they are confronted with the fact that there are always more drugs seeking those in need of being ‘fixed’.” (p. 5)
“in addition to suffering, addiction has other dimensions including creating opportunities for new experiences and new social relationships, some of which provide positive, self-affirming occasions for drug users. (…) Addiction, in short, plays a role in the making of personal identities, and is thus more than suffering and social rejection.” (p. 5)
Críticas e Reflexões Pessoais:
Considero o artigo extremamente interessante na medida em que explora a relação do consumo de drogas (álcool incluído) e a Antropologia, revelando-nos simultaneamente o modo como foram percebidos os indivíduos consumidores ao longo da História. Nos dias que correm, especialmente proveitosa e importante é a noção de que os efeitos que esperamos destas substâncias, o que assumimos que provoquem, influencia grandemente o que de facto acontecerá. A meu ver, interiorizar que a cultura molda as experiências leva a uma maior consciencialização do que de facto acontecerá ou poderá vir a acontecer, bem como um maior autocontrolo.
Critico apenas o facto do modelo cultural de Heath ser somente explorado no universo do álcool.
Em última análise, a Antropologia contribui para a compreensão contextualizada do consumo de substâncias, fornecendo bases para a futura aplicação de medidas que visem controlá-lo.
Antropologia, antropologia médica crítica, etnografia, drogas, sindemia.
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