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The Native-American Peace Pipe (or Pipe of Peace). Two Terms Often Used as Symbol, Idiom, and Metaphor: Difference between revisions
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The Native-American Peace Pipe (or Pipe of Peace). Two Terms Often Used as Symbol, Idiom, and Metaphor (view source)
Revision as of 22:55, 23 May 2023
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There are many examples of the term used figuratively as an attention-grabbing headline. Words and context matter. I’ve included a few examples. | There are many examples of the term used figuratively as an attention-grabbing headline. Words and context matter. I’ve included a few examples. | ||
Daryl Black describes the souvenir program for a Civil War remembrance in 1889: | [[File:PeacePipe-ChattanoogaBarbeque.JPG|thumb|Courtesy, civilwarshades.org]]Daryl Black describes the souvenir program for a Civil War remembrance in 1889: | ||
The representation of smoking works in two ways. First, it brings to mind the camaraderie of shared smoke—a common form of relaxation during war. It no doubt conjured images of the informal truces during the siege of Chattanooga, when pickets from opposing armies met between the lines to trade and socialize. A shared bowl of southern tobacco was a hallmark of these meetings. …One of the ways they [Americans] did this was to appropriate Native American symbols as references to elemental aspects of authentic American culture. …The appearance of the pipes on the cover of the program was not coincidental. In the first lines of text the visual reference on the cover is made clear: ‘Chattanooga Welcomes the Blue and Gray to a Barbeque to Be Given on Veterans Day on the Chickamauga Battle Field, Where They Will Smoke the Pipe of Peace, and Bid Each Thought of Conflict Cease.’ To carry the metaphor further, the seventh act of the event was to ‘Light the Pipe of Peace. Made With Wood Cut on Chickamauga Battlefield’” (Daryl Black, Relics of Reunion. Souvenirs and Memory at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, 1889-1895, in Lawrence A. Kreiser Jr. and Randal W. Allred, The Civil War in Popular Culture, 2014). | <blockquote>The representation of smoking works in two ways. First, it brings to mind the camaraderie of shared smoke—a common form of relaxation during war. It no doubt conjured images of the informal truces during the siege of Chattanooga, when pickets from opposing armies met between the lines to trade and socialize. A shared bowl of southern tobacco was a hallmark of these meetings. …One of the ways they [Americans] did this was to appropriate Native American symbols as references to elemental aspects of authentic American culture. …The appearance of the pipes on the cover of the program was not coincidental. In the first lines of text the visual reference on the cover is made clear: ‘Chattanooga Welcomes the Blue and Gray to a Barbeque to Be Given on Veterans Day on the Chickamauga Battle Field, Where They Will Smoke the Pipe of Peace, and Bid Each Thought of Conflict Cease.’ To carry the metaphor further, the seventh act of the event was to ‘Light the Pipe of Peace. Made With Wood Cut on Chickamauga Battlefield’” (Daryl Black, Relics of Reunion. ''Souvenirs and Memory at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, 1889-1895'', in Lawrence A. Kreiser Jr. and Randal W. Allred, ''The Civil War in Popular Culture'', 2014).</blockquote> | ||
“We all know how everyone dislikes the yearly event of spring cleaning, more especially the sterner sex, who if they are wise would try and vanish from the scene of action. However, many are quite unable to do so; therefore try and do your cleaning as comfortably as you can, always having one sitting-room where they can go and smoke the peace pipe” (“Spring Cleaning, As Done in English Homes,” ''Good Housekeeping'', May 10, 1890). | |||
“Probably it is some relic of this superstition, which makes men more civilised think it their solemn obligation to retire into the sanctum of a smoking room or a club in Pall-Mall or elsewhere, when they wish to sacrifice tobacco to the manes of the more sophisticated Peace-Pipe whose name is Meerschaum?” (''Cope’s Smoke Room Booklets. Number Nine. Pipes and Meerschaum. Part The First. American Pipes'', 1895). | |||
“Smoking the peace pipe in wartime” was a piece in the Cosmopolitan, September 1923, from Hugh Livingstone, Adjutant of Yankee Division Post No. 272 of the VFW, complaining that there was never enough tobacco distributed to the Doughboys to satisfy their need. And here’s a witty play on words, a poem in celebration of Tobacco Week (Tobacco, February 7, 1924): “All smokers now may, so to speak.\Smoke up. This is Tobacco Week.\All in America, we may state,\Have double cause to celebrate.\For in our country, Heaven be praised,\Tobacco was first born and raised.\ And by religious rites invoked\The pungent leaves were lit and smoked.\And warriors would their battles cease\To quietly smoke the Pipe of Peace.\But customs change and culture ripe\Has turned it to a piece of pipe.” “Pretty cigarette girls are now gardenia maidens and cigarettes are passed around in the manner of peace-pipes at dinner parties” (“Cigarette Shortage,” ''Brief'', Vol. 2, No. 6, January 9, 1945). | |||
“Smoking the peace pipe in wartime” was a piece in the Cosmopolitan, September 1923, from Hugh Livingstone, Adjutant of Yankee Division Post No. 272 of the VFW, complaining that there was never enough tobacco distributed to the Doughboys to satisfy their need. And here’s a witty play on words, a poem in celebration of Tobacco Week (Tobacco, February 7, 1924): “All smokers now may, so to speak.\Smoke up. This is Tobacco Week.\All in America, we may state,\Have double cause to celebrate.\For in our country, Heaven be praised,\Tobacco was first born and raised.\ And by religious rites invoked\The pungent leaves were lit and smoked.\And warriors would their battles cease\To quietly smoke the Pipe of Peace.\But customs change and culture ripe\Has turned it to a piece of pipe.” “Pretty cigarette girls are now gardenia maidens and cigarettes are passed around in the manner of peace-pipes at dinner parties” (“Cigarette Shortage,” Brief, Vol. 2, No. 6, January 9, 1945). | |||
If you’ve read Stephen King’s 1977 novel, The Shining, or seen Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 movie interpretation—one of at least 10 interpretations—this symbolism may interest you: | If you’ve read Stephen King’s 1977 novel, The Shining, or seen Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 movie interpretation—one of at least 10 interpretations—this symbolism may interest you: | ||
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“In fact, marijuana was one of the few common-ground experiences left in Vietnam, with dope sometimes being shared and passed between white and black soldiers like a peace pipe” (Martin Torgoff, Can’t Find My Way Home. America in the Great Stoned Age, 2004). In 2005, the UN Refugee Agency announced: “Rival ethnic groups smoke peace pipe in Liberia’s Lofa County.” The reconciliation was not the ritualistic sharing of a smoke by the Lorma and Mandingo tribes, but the slaughter of a cow. | “In fact, marijuana was one of the few common-ground experiences left in Vietnam, with dope sometimes being shared and passed between white and black soldiers like a peace pipe” (Martin Torgoff, Can’t Find My Way Home. America in the Great Stoned Age, 2004). In 2005, the UN Refugee Agency announced: “Rival ethnic groups smoke peace pipe in Liberia’s Lofa County.” The reconciliation was not the ritualistic sharing of a smoke by the Lorma and Mandingo tribes, but the slaughter of a cow. | ||
“The smoke in the peace pipe means many things. It may be the smoke given off by the fires of passion or the intoxicating scent of love itself. Most importantly it is the breath of words, spoken from the heart, seeking true understanding and union” (Teresa Moorey, The Fairy Bible, 2008). The Deseret News, August 2, 2009: “Obama’s modern peace pipe” was about his invitation to Henry Louis Gates and Police Sergeant James Crowley to share a beer at the White House. “Netflix Smokes a $50 Million Peace Pipe With the Satanic Temple” (nasdaq.com) was about the Satanic Temple’s lawsuit against the Netflix show, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Best-selling author, Ta-Nehisi Coates used this metaphor: “I was peace pipes and treaties. My style was to talk and duck. It was an animal tactic, playing dead in hopes that the predators would move to an actual fight” (The Beautiful Struggle, 2009). “It is David’s Heavenly Pastoral; a surpassing ode, which none of the daughters of music can excel. The clarion of war here gives place to the pipe of peace, and he who so lately bewailed the woes of the Shepherd tunefully rehearses the joys of the flock” (Charles H. Spurgeon, “The Treasury of David,” romans45.org).). | “The smoke in the peace pipe means many things. It may be the smoke given off by the fires of passion or the intoxicating scent of love itself. Most importantly it is the breath of words, spoken from the heart, seeking true understanding and union” (Teresa Moorey, The Fairy Bible, 2008). The Deseret News, August 2, 2009: “Obama’s modern peace pipe” was about his invitation to Henry Louis Gates and Police Sergeant James Crowley to share a beer at the White House. “Netflix Smokes a $50 Million Peace Pipe With the Satanic Temple” (nasdaq.com) was about the Satanic Temple’s lawsuit against the Netflix show, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Best-selling author, Ta-Nehisi Coates used this metaphor: “I was peace pipes and treaties. My style was to talk and duck. It was an animal tactic, playing dead in hopes that the predators would move to an actual fight” (The Beautiful Struggle, 2009). “It is David’s Heavenly Pastoral; a surpassing ode, which none of the daughters of music can excel. The clarion of war here gives place to the pipe of peace, and he who so lately bewailed the woes of the Shepherd tunefully rehearses the joys of the flock” (Charles H. Spurgeon, “The Treasury of David,” romans45.org).). | ||
=== A Much Different Pipe of Peace === | ===A Much Different Pipe of Peace=== | ||
I’ve saved this for last. Today, for some, tobacco smoke is inhaled. Centuries ago, smoke was inserted into another body orifice, the rectum. An early example of European use of this procedure was described in 1686 by Thomas Sydenham who, to cure iliac passion prescribed bleeding, followed by a tobacco-smoke enema. Physicians in Europe used it as treatment for a range of ailments, from colds to cholera. Intra-rectal insufflation was a resuscitation method for drowning victims in the 17th century. | I’ve saved this for last. Today, for some, tobacco smoke is inhaled. Centuries ago, smoke was inserted into another body orifice, the rectum. An early example of European use of this procedure was described in 1686 by Thomas Sydenham who, to cure iliac passion prescribed bleeding, followed by a tobacco-smoke enema. Physicians in Europe used it as treatment for a range of ailments, from colds to cholera. Intra-rectal insufflation was a resuscitation method for drowning victims in the 17th century. | ||
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This pipe of peace is no peace pipe, but Maxim and the other man in this ad sure look like they’re smoking. Etsy.com offers an assortment of glass peace pipes that have an uncanny similarity to Maxim’s glass bulb. The comparison is not lost on me. | This pipe of peace is no peace pipe, but Maxim and the other man in this ad sure look like they’re smoking. Etsy.com offers an assortment of glass peace pipes that have an uncanny similarity to Maxim’s glass bulb. The comparison is not lost on me. | ||
== In Conclusion == | ==In Conclusion== | ||
This exhaustive study has multiple levels of meaning, and I’ve made every effort to focus on one objective, to demonstrate that the peace pipe and the pipe of peace have meant and continue to mean different things at different times to different people. In closing, a few lofty quotes—historical nuggets—from George Edward Lockwood, “Pipes of Peace Idealistic Emblems of a Practical Smoker’s World” (Tobacco, August 19, 1926) are appropriate: | This exhaustive study has multiple levels of meaning, and I’ve made every effort to focus on one objective, to demonstrate that the peace pipe and the pipe of peace have meant and continue to mean different things at different times to different people. In closing, a few lofty quotes—historical nuggets—from George Edward Lockwood, “Pipes of Peace Idealistic Emblems of a Practical Smoker’s World” (Tobacco, August 19, 1926) are appropriate: | ||