Page 114 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 12(2) (2024)

olfactory maps were created through olfactory in different types of discourse, that are related
walks, circular olfactory charts, and measure- to the cognitive dimension and evocate memo-
ment methods with different measuring devic- ries of everyday life and its ritual rhythms. The
es such as olfactometers, olfactory cameras, and conceptual metaphors of smell and the multiple
e-noses. Particularly convincing and illustrative meanings of olfactory expressions are particular-
is the autobiographical method presented in the ly interesting in the book. The author gives ex-
foreword, which has a great epistemological po- amples of the use of conceptual metaphors (in
tential recognised elsewhere in Europe but is ne- Slovenian language), e.g. ‘smell is the pursuer’,
glected and less practised among ethnologists, ‘smell is the air’, ‘smell is a lifelong event’, ‘smell is
social and cultural anthropologists in the Slo- architecture’, ‘smell is the object’, ‘smell is the ag-
venian national context, and some anthropolo- gressor’, associated with ‘suspicion’, but also ‘pro-
gists also have reservations/prejudices towards tector’, exploration and discovery are also meta-
114 its use, due to its alleged subjectivity. In The An- phorically linked to smell.
thropology of Smell, we find a detailed descrip- Mojca Ramšak shows the interaction be-
tion of the methodology of studying smells, tak- tween smell and the linguistic system, and the
studia universitatis hereditati, letnik 12 (2024), številka 2 / volume 12 (2024), number 2
en from David Howes (1991) and David Howes semantic dimensions of good and bad smells,
and Constance Classen (2014), which can also which are connected with figurative uses and
be an excellent source of methodological train- addressed to inferior ethnically distinct (social)
ing in sensory anthropology for (future) anthro- groups, which are the target of olfactory misog-
pologists and museum professionals and a pres- yny, olfactory racism and olfactory xenophobia.
entation of the classification systems of smells The author presents the olfactory imaginary in
in the natural sciences, psychology, and anthro- the Bible and the High Song, which she takes as a
pology, for which we also find visual schematics source for cultural analyses, using particular ob-
made by the author. jects in sacred rituals and using myrrh, aloes and
Besides autobiographical, anthropological, frankincense scents as cultural fragrances. She
and cultural-historical olfactory perceptions, then goes on to present the olfactory imaginary
the author also elaborates on the conceptu- in relation to selected social groups: enslaved Af-
al representation of smell inscribed in language ricans, black women, and Native Americans –
and cognition, produced in the interaction of ‘Indians’ – which she links to colonialism and
the sense of smell and the language system. The the racism of the capitalist invaders and to the
monograph exposes more recent research in cultural-historical conception of the smells of
cross-cultural comparison and in culturally spe- the time, with which she also associates, for ex-
cific contexts, neurocognitive mechanisms (from ample, the Roma and the Jews. The book repeat-
odour perception to lexical-semantic integration edly emphasises the Eurocentric principle in
and phrasing) and processes in olfactory social- describing olfactory imaginaries. Still, conceptu-
isation, and olfactory terminology in synchron- alisations from sub-disciplines or specialisations
ic and diachronic perspectives. Additionally, the such as the anthropology of ethnicity, postco-
important role play also others non-linguistic lonial anthropology, Romani and Jewish stud-
culturally mediated communication tools, that ies are missing, as are some of their findings. In
are described in the book, such as facial expres- the chapters dealing with ‘social commons’, the
sions, gesticulation, and pictogram representa- book would have benefited considerably more by
tion. Ramšak also focuses on the study of ol- drawing on a more in-depth and complex treat-
factory terminology and the cultural-linguistic ment of postcolonial anthropological perspec-
characteristics of olfactory vocabularies, in par- tives in addressing racism towards black women,
ticular the symbolic dimensions of smells mean- men (‘Black’) and Native Americans and oth-
dings, which are mapped out in metaphors used er indigenous peoples; antigypsyism concern-