Ethnographic essay about smokers Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Ethnographic about smokers - Essay Example Smoking becomes more acceptable in other culture and this could explain why there are more smokers in certain group of people compared to others. To illustrate, I will compare my two friends John and Jose. John is a Caucasian whose roots hailed from Louisiana and we can say that John is all-American by cultural background and orientation. Jose on the other hand is an immigrant from Mexico and prides himself as Mexican. John and Jose are of the same age bracket of 17 years old. John hates smoking while Jose is a chain smoker. When asked why John hates smoking, he replied that it is dangerous to his health and that it â€Å"stinks†. He also narrated that his parents will not also tolerate him if he smokes and that there will be dire consequences if he will smoke such as cutting off his allowance. This is a concern shared by the American general public as they are now becoming more health conscious with parents who generally dislike smoking. Jose on the other hand is more relaxed on his attitude about smoking. He said he knows that smoking is dangerous to one’s health but he reasoned that everybody dies anyway. He explained further that smoking is more acceptable among Mexicans because it makes them look more â€Å"macho† or manly. It is important to stress here that manliness or being â€Å"macho† is more important among Mexicans than Americans. According to Jose, smoking is part of that cultural thing to look like a â€Å"real man†. He said that among Mexicans, parents are not that strict about their children who will smoke. This observation is validated with most of Jose’s male friends smoke at an early age. Another ethnographic profile of smokers is those people who are in need of â€Å"stimulants† to do a certain job. They are the type of people whose vocation a lot of thinking and imagination that they need to be in a â€Å"mood† to do it. Thus, a stimulant or a relaxing tool, such as cigarette is common for