Aroma: The Cultural History of SmellSmell is a social phenomenon, given particular meanings and values by different cultures. Odours form the building blocks of cosmologies, class hierarchies, and political odours. They can enforce social structures or transgress them, unite people or divide them, empower or disempower. The authors argue that the sociology of smell is repressed in the modern West, and its social history ignored. This book breaks the "olfactory silence" of modernity. It offers the first comprehensive exploration of the cultural role of odours in Western history - from antiquity to the present. It also covers a wide variey of non-Western societies. Its topics range from the medieval concept of the "odour of sanctity", to the aromatherapies of South America, and from olfactory stereotypes of gender and ethnicity in the modern West to the role of smell in postmodernity. Its subject matter will fascinate anyone who likes to nose around in the inner workings of culture. |
Contents
In search of lost smell | 13 |
Following the scent From the Middle Ages to modernity | 51 |
Explorations in olfactory difference | 95 |
The rites of smell | 123 |
Odour power and society | 161 |
The aroma of the commodity The commercialization of smell | 180 |
Notes | 206 |
| 232 | |
| 243 | |
Other editions - View all
Aroma: The Cultural History of Smell Constance Classen,David Howes,Anthony Synnott Limited preview - 2002 |
Aroma: The Cultural History of Smell Constance Classen,David Howes,Anthony Synnott Limited preview - 2002 |
Aroma: The Cultural History of Smell Constance Classen,David Howes,Anthony Synnott No preview available - 1994 |
Common terms and phrases
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