Aroma begins with an idea that pulled me up short:
"Smell is not simply a biological and psychological phenomenon ... Smell is cultural, hence a social and historical phenomenon. Odours are invested with cultural values and employed by societies as a means of a model for definiting and interacting with the world. The intimate, emotionally charged nature of the olfactory experience ensures that such value-coded odours are interiorized by members of society in a deeply personal way." (p. 3)
I like to think I'm pretty well switched on to the nature of cultural constructs, yet I'd never really thought about how my reaction to a "good" or a "bad" smell might have only a small biological component.
The first part of Aroma consists of a survey of the ancient history of smell, which contains some great tales, if lacking in an overall theme to tie it altogether. And indeed from this it is obvious that some elements of the sense of smell are probably biological, since we and the ancients shared many reactions of distaste, although Aroma never explores this fact. (There are some examples on my blog post here.
"Modern" Western ideas of appropriate smells for various classes of people developed only relatively recently, however, as the next section of the book explores. During the Renaissance strong scents of animal origin, including musk, civet and ambergris, were popular, but by the late 18th century these were consider too strong, too beastly. (Although the Empress Josephine bucked the trend by adoring musk.) (p. 71-73)
The second half of the book takes first a ethnographic turn, skipping across Asia, Africa and South America, before going sociological about the last century in the West.
It was disappointing because I'd been expecting a clearer methodological and theoretical approach and it never came. Overall this is a collection of anecdotes about smell from all parts of the world, with the thesis that smell is as much a cultural as a biological construct, but it never gets beyond its parts to make a real whole. If it was an undergraduate essay you'd say the sources were under-digested.
Article comments
1 - DrPat
The term "accelerator toe" is documented in Hump Day 2003, No. 61:
2 - Natalie
I want to know what WAS it, having never suffered from the affliction despite driving some serious long-distance stuff in my time.
A stiff big toe, a broken nail on the little toe, a nasty fungal growth ...?
And what was the solution that you were supposed to buy?
3 - Fred Bortz
This has inspired me to dust off a couple of old reviews and post them.
Watch for reviews of "Why We Love" by Helen Fisher and Jacobson's Organ and the Remarkable Sense of Smell by Lyall Watson.
Or read them on my website at
http://www.scienceshelf.com/WhyWeLove.htm
and
http://www.scienceshelf.com/JacobsonsOrgan.htm
4 - Natalie
Thanks for those links Fred - it is interesting to balance this book with more biological approaches.
As always, of course, the answer must lie in the middle, but which side of it?
If attraction is biological, how do you explain the Dogons with their heavy scent of fried onion? They might make my mouth water, but would certainly be a sexual turnoff for me!