Avunculate

The avunculate, sometimes called avunculism or avuncularism, is a feature of some societies whereby men have a special role in relation to their sisters' children.

Definition

The term avunculate comes from the Latin kinship term avunculus ("mother's brother", in opposition to the brother of the father). In societies where maternal filiation is strongly represented, the role of a father could be taken over by a maternal uncle, who becomes a "social father" of his sister's children and becomes a father figure to his nephews and/or nieces.

The 1989 Oxford English Dictionary defines "avunculate" as follows:

At avunculate time the maternal family is already headed by a man, a father or a brother of the woman given into another's family or clan. The matrilocal spousal residence is replaced with patrilocal one, the man does not move any more into the house of his wife, but just the opposite, in marriage he takes her into his house. At the same time a wife and her children retain their affiliation with the former maternal family and clan. In such system the factual father of the child, instead of the blood father, is the uncle on the maternal side. And while a mother remains in the husband's house, her children (sons) "return home". The blood father and his relatives are obligated to turn the child over to his uncle, "return" him to his family. M.O.Kosven called this order "return of the children". The nephews are all-powerful and have exclusive privileges in the family of the uncle on the maternal side.

Smoking

Smoking is a practice in which a substance is burned and the resulting smoke breathed in to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream. Most commonly the substance is the dried leaves of the tobacco plant which have been rolled into a small square of rice paper to create a small, round cylinder called a "cigarette". Smoking is primarily practiced as a route of administration for recreational drug use because the combustion of the dried plant leaves vaporizes and delivers active substances into the lungs where they are rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream and reach bodily tissue. In the case of cigarette smoking these substances are contained in a mixture of aerosol particles and gasses and include the pharmacologically active alkaloid nicotine; the vaporization creates heated aerosol and gas to form that allows inhalation and deep penetration into the lungs where absorption into the bloodstream of the active substances occurs. In some cultures, smoking is also carried out as a part of various rituals, where participants use it to help induce trance-like states that, they believe, can lead them to "spiritual enlightenment".

Smoking (disambiguation)

Smoking is an activity that involves the intentional burning and inhaling of a substance, most often tobacco.

It may take the form of:

The practice of smoking specific substances include:

It may also refer to:

See also

Smoking (rolling paper)

Smoking is a brand of rolling papers, manufactured by Miquel y Costas in Barcelona, Spain. According to their website, they were one of the earliest factories to produce rolling papers. Smoking offers different color packages to differentiate the weights or materials of the paper inside.

History

1725 is the earliest documented reference of this company. At that time the Miquel family made paper by hand in mills driven by the Anoja River. It was not until almost 100 years later that the Miquel family started specializing in cigarette paper. In 1879, the company moved production to La Pobla de Claramunt and founded the company Miquel y Costas Hermanos.

In 1929, the company was incorporated and took its present name, Miquel y Costas & Miquel S.A. Cigarette paper booklets first appeared in the 19th century and their international brand, Smoking, was introduced in 1924. Miguel Y Costas is now one of the largest cigarette paper manufacturers in the world. They manufacture Smoking, Pure Hemp, Guarani, Bugler, Hempire, SMK, Mantra and Bambu brand papers. They also produce many private label brands for other companies.