氣味

by Annick Le Guérer, 阿尼克．勒蓋萊

「氣味，只有氣味才製造了神話。」——加斯東．巴舍拉
「感性事物中，只有氣味可以殺死人類或再造人類」——傑洛姆．卡當

看不見、摸不著的氣味，長久以來難以形容，卻散發著無可抵擋的力量。從部落獵人利用氣味誘捕獵物，到紅塵男女塗抹香水吸引異性；從傳說裡的巫婆使用香脂以變形飛行，到歷史上的修女聲稱聞了不吉利的玫瑰花而著魔，人們一度相信疫氣造成了大規模死亡。氣味，既是誘惑也是辨識，甚至具有致命效果，在人類社會中扮演了原始而神秘的角色。

然而，我們在今日獲取的氣味遠比過去貧乏，甚至被不當地判定為「嗅覺減退」。本書由神話、宗教、文學、哲學、科學等不同領域追蹤氣味，描繪氣味如何籠罩人類的物質和精神生活，同時也找到氣味與情欲、超自然、神聖、生命要素的連結。作者援引豐富的傳說、史實和研究文獻，歷歷指出人們對鼻子與嗅覺的愛恨毀譽，也映照出氣味和香料的魔力源頭。

隨著五感經驗成為現代生活風格的重要元素，香水、品酒、薰香與芳療逐漸受到重視。作者認為，人們對嗅覺文化的渴望已然萌芽，氣味充滿復興的潛力，此時不找回我們的鼻子與嗅覺，更待何時？

Genres: History, Science, Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1988

Reviews

[Gretchen Rubin]

An academic book. I skimmed it to focus on the parts that interested me, which were very interesting. It happened to include a lot of material about how people viewed the role of scent during various plagues.

[Sacha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes laborious reading, but interesting subject matter.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an occasionally interesting foray into medical history, cultural history, and the plague years, and how scent was key to medical treatment and divinity in antiquity. I guess we can count ourselves lucky (??) that we weren't ordered to burn aromatic woods and blast cannons down the street during the covid years...