The Smell Culture Reader

by Jim Drobnick (Editor)

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Anthropology

454 pages, Paperback

First published August 7, 2006

Reviews

[Lisa Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

The anthology covers a specific topic with a broad range of rhetorical approaches to olfaction. The articles offer bibliographic references.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an occasionally stellar but mostly academic collection of essays on all things scent and aroma. I definitely enjoyed a gems: an essay about aroma-triggered PTSD in Khmer Rouge survivors; a jewel of Mandy Aftel's; critical essays about Perfume and The Tale of Genji; a deeply fascinating review of first-hand accounts of Holocaust survivors, Nazis, and death camp liberators that likely inspired The Zone of Interest.