Aroma: The Cultural History of Smell

Roses, musk, incense and myrrh--smells have always been associated with magic, healing and sexual power. Yet what is experienced as fragrant varies dramatically from one culture to the other and from one epoch to the next. Aromauncovers the secret history of smells: from the perfumed banquets of ancient Greece to "the best blueberry flavor ever made", from the sweet "odor of sanctity" to the latest in designer fragrances. A journey of discovery that takes place in the perfume potions of the Pacific as well as Andean aromatherapies,Aromamaps the "smellscapes" of different cultures and explores the roles that odors have played throughout history. Along the way, the authors open our senses to the powerful cultural meaings of smells. Odors, they show, inform power relations between the sexes, between classes and ethnic groups--the sultryfemme fatale, the "sweaty working class", the body odor of "the foreigner" are cultural stereotypes made strikinglyreal. WithAromaConstance Classen, David Howes and Anthony Synnott invite us to follow the scent of cultures present and past and to discover a universe criss-crossed by the scent trails of the people, animals and plants that inhabit it. them, unite people or divide them, empower or disempower. The book breaks the "olfactory silence" of modernity by offering the first comprehensive exploration of the cultural role of odors in Western history--from antiquity to the present--and in a wide variety of non-Western societies. Its topics range from the medieval concept of the "odor 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.