# origins of smoking. . . **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 26, 2001, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-smoking/89753 "2001-10-26T12:13:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![grettle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/aeb1de/32.png) [@grettle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grettle)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-smoking/89753/1 "2001-10-26T12:13:00Z")
instinctively, when a person finds a substance that they do not immediately recognixe, they look at it, smell it, touch it, listen to it if it makes noise, and perhaps even taste it. this person does not smoke it. so why did people start smoking (dried flowers, plants, crystals, etc)? it has never made sense to me and no one has ever been able to give a satisfactory answer. . . -jewels ---
**Author:** ![geepee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ebca7d/32.png) [@geepee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/geepee)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-smoking/89753/2 "2001-10-26T12:32:07Z")
well here is one , smoking was popularised in the plague years humans had in the middle ages as smoking was thought to keep whats that word , bad gasses trapped in the earth away from you worked in a way but fumigation was better ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-smoking/89753/3 "2001-10-26T16:28:51Z")
> [@](#): > > smoking was popularised in the plague years humans had in the middle ages as smoking was thought to keep whats that word Any idea what substances were being smoked? (By which I assume we’re talking about drawing the smoke into the mouth or nose, not simply burning incense.) Tobacco is a product of the Americas and was not known or used in Europe or Asia until it came back with early explorers. I’m not sure when the use of the hookah developed in the Middle East, but I have seen no reference earlier than the mid-sixteenth century–hashish was originally eaten, rather than smoked. (I’m open to better information showing earlier dates.) My guess would be that since people are generally aware that taste and smell are related, at some point someone decided to transfer the sensations of pleasant aromas directly to the tongue through the mouth. North American Indians used pipes to burn tobacco and draw the smoke into the mouth. Once the practice was brought back to Europe and Asia, it spread rapidly as a novelty, then became habitual. The Encyclopædia Britannica explicitly notes that opium was not smoked before Europeans began to mix it with tobacco. I suspect that hashish and its cousin marijuana began to be smoked for the same reasons. (Hashish is extracted from the resin of the plant, while marijuana uses the leaves–an obvious substitution once one has begun smoking the leaves of tobacco.) The burning of plants for their aroma (as with incense) predates the inhalation of smoked products by thousands of years, and it would have been used during the plague years as **geepee** mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![grettle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/aeb1de/32.png) [@grettle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grettle)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-smoking/89753/4 "2001-10-28T12:45:21Z")
but why did native americans start smoking? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-smoking/89753/5 "2001-10-28T14:33:27Z")
In Ancient history, the Scynthians(sp?) smoked hemp. ---
**Author:** ![grettle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/aeb1de/32.png) [@grettle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grettle)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-smoking/89753/6 "2001-10-28T14:58:17Z")
what sense does smoking anything make. is it an instinct? WHY did anyone start smoking anything? ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-smoking/89753/7 "2001-10-28T15:05:43Z")
Sorry, I can’t do any better than my first WAG: > [@](#): > > My guess would be that since people are generally aware that taste and smell are related, at some point someone decided to transfer the sensations of pleasant aromas directly to the tongue through the mouth. ---
**Author:** ![grettle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/aeb1de/32.png) [@grettle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grettle)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-smoking/89753/8 "2001-10-28T15:08:06Z")
good call, thanks tomndebb, and everyone else, let me know if you think of anything else. . . . . ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-smoking/89753/9 "2001-10-28T15:52:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jkbelle \* > \*\*what sense does smoking anything make. is it an instinct? WHY did anyone start smoking anything? \*\* My WAG: They’re human. Those humans will try to do _the damnedest things_. Sticking things up their butts, snorting stuff up their noses, jumping from high places into water! Always looking for a new thrill. ---
**Author:** ![geepee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ebca7d/32.png) [@geepee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/geepee)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-smoking/89753/10 "2001-10-28T16:58:16Z")
that nicely explains why people started eating oysters and abalone ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-smoking/89753/11 "2001-10-28T18:35:18Z")
Well, as long as we’re WAGging… After people discovered fire, they discovered that putting certain things in fire made nice smelling smoke. Thus came incense and incense type customs. When they started doing this in confined places, they discovered that burning some things made them feel good, and the effect was heightened by concentrating the smoke. Then it’s just a matter of making something that delivers the smoke directly to the airways, rather than having the smoke dissipate into the night.