Killum and Eatum: Identity Consolidation in a Middle‐Class Poly‐Drug Abuse Sub‐Culture*

This paper utilizes linguistic categories to analyze a middle‐class poly‐drug abuse group called “Killum and Eatum” (K and E). Core members ranged in age from 20‐25 and most were in college or had dropped out after one or two years. The term “Killum and Eatum” was derived from what the group leader (the Wizard) referred to as the group's “ethos”, a set of norms and beliefs based upon the assumption that individuals have a choice in life: to kill and eat or be killed and eaten. The K and E ethos served two functions for the group: (a) as an explanation (account) for their current status in the drug scene, i.e., they had been killed and eaten by the “establishment”, and (b) as a justification for continued commitment to this scene, i.e., to avoid being killed and eaten or to learn to be a killer and eater rather than a victim. K and E also provided a framework in which variations upon certain middle‐class values and skills such as competition and verbal fluency became the basis for improvisational activity around which each member could participate and consolidate a new identity. It is suggested that this fits closely to Gordon's description of the process through which deviant identities are consolidated by creative fusion of old and new belief systems.