Page 113 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 12(2) (2024)

mains and reflect a certain cross-cultural senso- of the world during the so-called Cold War. In
ry symbolism. an overview chapter of research on scent, Moj-
The book also provides an analytically de- ca Ramšak also devotes a detailed reading to
scriptive overview of early field research in mod- the polyhistor Johann Weikhard von Valvasor
ern cultural and social anthropology. Ear- (2017) and his work The Glory of the Duchy of
ly anthropological work includes, among other Carniola, which can be a cognitive tool for
things, partial descriptions of olfactory percep- speculating on the question of the treatment of
tions during fieldwork. Franz Boas (2009), who scent in the 17th century. In his work, he high-
did anthropological fieldwork on Baffin Island lights specific smells: the smell of flowers, medic-
with the Inuit, for example, describes the smell of inal herbs, the smell of food and drink, quince
bear grease used to impregnate tents; Bronisław cheese, fermented wine, also the smells of the
Malinowski’s (1932) anthropological research in material world, e.g. of the industrial world, such
the Trobriand Islands focused on odour in phys- as kamšt (water pump), of the improper, un- 113
ical attraction and repulsion in the sexual life of chaste and virtuous life. Valvasor, for example,
‘savages’, their olfactory magic before marriage, described the smells of people and focused on
and odour in relation to witchcraft and witch- the perception of smells, picking them up from
es. Later anthropologists have also occasion- other sources, criticising the comparison of mor-
ally turned to descriptions of smells. Claude al and olfactory modalities (e.g. the comparison
Lévi-Strauss, for example, documented the ol- of moral depravity and the bad smells charac-
factory aspects of his field experiences in Bra- teristic of immorality). He also conceptualised
zil. In his ‘travelogue’ Tristes tropiques (1955), he the deterrence of people by bad smells, using the
described, among other things, the unpleasant ethnographic description of the protective wear-
smells of the foodstuffs and the ship he was sail- ing of smelly chicken meat between the wombs
ing on. In addition, in his book Le cru et le cuit of young Furlan women to ward off Avar invad-
(1964) he also discussed the importance of smell ers. A survey reading of ethnological and cul-
and other senses, such as the treatment of smell tural historical works describing practices, cus-
in myths, the contrasts between unpleasant and toms, rituals and the preservation of memories Review of Anthropology of Smell (Antropologija vonja) by Mojca Ramšak
pleasant smells, the smell of decay and the smell through smells also provides insights into the ol-
that was considered good. factory dimensions in Slovenia, even if smells are
Anthropologists were interested in the so- only mentioned in a fragmentary way in these
ciocultural meanings of smells and how humans practices, but this is no less important, as they
smell in a physiological and neurological sense in provide a starting point for a more in-depth ap-
relation to the influence of culture in such per- proach to the study of smell.
ceptions: how culture influences the way a per- The great scientific value lies in the illustra-
son perceives something and attributes a pos- tive presentation of the research methodology on
itive or negative olfactory experience to it. The smell and olfaction and related cultural heritage
Ramšak’s book outlines cultural and historical (museum conservation, olfactory reconstruction
studies on physical hygiene and environmen- and recreation, olfactory scenic-ambient and ar-
tal deodorisation. It also focuses on cross-cul- tistic (transformed) olfactory presentation). Be-
tural comparisons of the symbolic meanings of sides the classical fieldwork and cabinet methods
sensory perceptions of aroma and on a series of of cultural and social anthropology, the mon-
overview histories of sensory perception, compi- ograph also highlights innovative techniques,
lations relevant to cultural treatments and un- such as, for example, the use of the ethnogra-
derstandings of smell, and knowledge of the his- phy of smell as a part of sensory ethnographies
tory of particular scents, such as the biography of in cultural and social anthropology and sens-
perfume, which also reflected the bloc division ing with participation The use and creation of