Smell is fundamental to experience but mired in paradox. Stigmatized as animalistic, it nonetheless feeds a vast fragrance and marketing industry. Considered ephemeral, scents have survived throughout the ages in a number of religious practices. The Smell Culture Reader provides a much-needed overview of what is arguably the most elusive sense. From hygiene to aromatherapy, the fetid to the fragrant, smells are shown to be much more than just an adornment or a nuisance. Addressing this engaging sense in redolent detail, The Smell Culture Reader demonstrates how essential smell is to sexuality, social status, personal identity, and cultural tradition.

About the Author/Editor

Jim Drobnick is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Manchester. He is the editor of Aural Cultures (2004), co-author of Museopathy (2002) and CounterPoses (2002), and is working on a book on smell in contemporary art.

Contents

* Introduction Olfactocentrism
Jim Drobnick

* Part I: Odorphobia

* Preface
Jim Drobnick

* Polish and Deodorize: Paving the City in Late Eighteenth-Century France
Rodolphe el-Khoury, California College of the Arts, USA

* The Sociology of Odors
Gale Largey, Mansfield University, USA, and Rod Watson, University of Manchester, UK

* Immigrant Lives and the Politics of Olfaction in the Global City
Martin F. Manalansan IV, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA

* Offensive Bodies
Alan Hyde, Rutgers University School of Law at Newark, USA

* Base Notes: Odor, Breath and Moral Contagion in Ilahita
Donald Tuzin, University of California, San Diego, USA

* Olfactory-Triggered Panic Attacks Among Khmer Refugees
Devon E. Hinton, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, USA, Vuth Pich, Arbour Counseling Center and the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, USA, Dara Chhean, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, USA, and Mark H. Pollack, Massachusetts General Hospital, USA

* Part II: Toposmia

* Preface
Jim Drobnick

* Smellscape
J. Douglas Porteous, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

* Vagueness Gridlocked: A Map of the Smells of New York
Eleanor Margolies, writer and independent scholar

* The Broken Cycle: Smell in a Bangkok Lane
Erik Cohen, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

* Fragrant Signals and Festive Spaces in Eurasia
Lucienne A. Roubin (author deceased)

* The Stench of Power
Hans J. Rindisbacher, Pomona College, USA

* Environmental Fragrancing
Peter Damian and Kate Damian, both authors and independent scholars

* Part III: Flaireurs

* Preface
Jim Drobnick

* The New Calculus of Olfactory Pleasure
Alain Corbin, the Sorbonne, Paris

* Sense and Sensibility
Helen Keller, author deceased

* The Dog Beneath the Skin
Oliver Sacks, author and neurologist, independent scholar

* Nostalgia, the Odors of Childhood and Society
Alan R. Hirsch, Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, USA

* I Know What I Like: Understanding Odor Preferences
Rachel S. Herz, Brown University, USA

* Part IV: Perfume

* Preface
Jim Drobnick

* Another Memory
Marcel Proust, author, deceased

* Perfumed Obsession
Mandy Aftel, author, perfumer and independent scholar

* Accords and Discords: Perfume Reviews
Luca Turin, CTO of the odorant design firm Flexitral

* Perfumeros and the Sacred Use of Fragrance in Amazonian Shamanism
John J. Steele, author and independent scholar

* The Dialectic of 'Enscentment': Patrick Sueskind's 'Perfume' as Critical History of Enlightenment Culture
Richard T. Gray, University of Washington, USA

* Part V: Scentsuality

* Preface
Jim Drobnick

* The Eros and Thanatos of Scents
Richard Stamelman, Williams College, USA

* Odor di Femina: Though You May Not See Her, You Can Certainly Smell Her
Carol Mavor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA

* 'The Roots of the Orchis, the Iuli of Chesnuts': The Odor of Male Solitude
Christopher Looby, University of California, Los Angeles, USA

* Queer Smells: Fragrances of Late Capitalism or Scents of Subversion?
Mark Graham, Stockholm University, Sweden

* In Noritoshi Hirakawas Garden of Nirvana
Jennifer Fisher, York University, Canada, and Jim Drobnick

* Part VI: Volatile Art

* Preface
Jim Drobnick

* A Wisp of Smoke: Scent and Character in The Tale of Genji
Aileen Gatten, University of Michigan, USA

* Eating Nothing: Cooking Aromas in Art and Culture
Jim Drobnick, University of Manchester, Canada

* Self-Portrait in Scent: Sketch #1
Clara Ursitti, Artist, UK

* Digital Scratch and Virtual Sniff: Simulating Scents
Mark W.D. Paterson, University of the West of England, UK

* Part VII: Sublime Essences

* Preface
Jim Drobnick

* The Breath of God: Sacred Histories of Scent
Constance Classen, author and independent scholar

* Bodies, Odors and Perfumes in Arab-Muslim Societies
Francoise Aubaile-Sallenave, CNRS - Musee National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France

* Magic, Perfume, Dream . . .
Alfred Gell, author, deceased

* The Scent of Memory in Hindu South India
David Shulman, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

* Olfactory After-Death Communications,
William Guggenheim and Judith Guggenheim, both independent scholars