Abstract
Just as drinking fine wine, tea, or coffee unites those who are passionate about these activities, so do cigars. Cigar smoking involves a specific set of rituals and code of ethics that tend to unify those who are willing to learn about them, particularly within establishments dedicated to providing a space to smoke and sell premium cigars. Conducting ethnographic research through observation, participant observation, formal interviews, and informal conversation within two cigar stores in North Carolina over a year long period has shed light on how community manifests itself within these establishments. Cigar lounges in the United States can provide a liminal space between work and home for people to relax, socialize, and partake in an act that requires specialized knowledge which bonds people not only to the cigars themselves, but also the communities that have formed around them. Despite their historical homogeneity amongst upper class white men, some cigar communities are becoming more accessible to and popular amongst women, people of color, and those within the working class.
How to Cite
Segel, E., (2019) “Camaraderie of the Leaf: An Ethnographic Exploration of Cigar Lounge Communities”, Capstone, The UNC Asheville Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship 32(1).
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