Hard Drink and Cigarettes: Restrictive and Expansive Modes of Consumption in an East Malaysian Community

Abstract

Based on field research in a Kayan community in Sarawak, East Malaysia, this paper explores new modes of consumption associated with the growth of wage labour in the timber industry. The paper focuses on tobacco and alcohol, and considers the role of consumption, particularly of the products of the global industrial economy, in local efforts toward the creation and recreation of social and cultural identities. Within this, a significant factor is found to be the teachings of the local Protestant evangelical church which are implicated in the choices people make, and attitudes they express, about expanding opportunities for consuming, and consumption of alcohol and tobacco, in particular. It is also suggested that modes of alcohol and tobacco consumption in this community may be usefully seen in terms of a generalised contrast between the restrictive and the expansive.