The Smell Culture Reader

Scents are essential to sexuality, social status, personal and cultural identity. From hygiene to aromatherapy, the foul to the fragrant, smell is shown here to be much more than a physical act of perception. Considered ephemeral, scents have survived throughout the ages as crucial to religious practices. This book addresses the sense of smell.Smell is fundamental to experience but mired in paradox. Stigmatized as animalistic, it nonetheless feeds a vast fragrance industry. Considered ephemeral, scents have survived throughout the ages as crucial to religious practices. Perhaps most surprising, smell has been largely overlooked in cultural studies. "The Smell Culture Reader" provides a much-needed overview of what is arguably our most elusive sense. Sight and hearing have been the subject of numerous books, while the so-called 'lower senses' have remained relatively unexplored despite powerful and complex social meanings. Scents are essential to sexuality, social status, personal and cultural identity. From hygiene to aromatherapy, the foul to the fragrant, smell is shown here to be much more than a physical act of perception. Addressing this engaging sense in redolent detail, "The Smell Culture Reader" will be essential reading for anyone who really wants to put their nose in a book.