Aroma: the cultural history of smell

Abstract

Aroma breaks the 'olfactory silence' of modernity by offering the first comprehensive exploration of the cultural role of odours 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 'odour of sanctity' to the aroma-therapies of South America, and from olfactory stereotypes of gender and ethnicity in the modern West to the role of smell in postmodernity.

Contents

Introduction: The meaning and power of smell -- Pt. I. In search of lost scents. 1. The aromas of antiquity. 2. Following the scent: From the Middle Ages to modernity -- Pt. II. Explorations in olfactory difference. 3. Universes of odour. 4. The rites of smell -- Pt. III. Odour, power and society. 5. Odour and power: The politics of smell. 6. The aroma of the commodity: The commercialization of smell.