Page 116 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 12(2) (2024)

for using fragrances to attract others dates to the darin smell is used in schools, which is supposed
19th century when people wanted to smell good to contribute to the concentration, calmness and
to others, coinciding with the industrial produc- well-being of schoolchildren to influence bet-
tion of fragrances and the deliberate desire to de- ter concentration in learning, which was carried
odorise the environment and people. Studies on out by one of the schools in Primorska. Some ho-
the masking and deterrence of human odours tel and spa chains use synthetic ambient scents,
are also presented when, for example, in non-ur- which are supposed to be their hallmark and
banised environments, there was no basic mu- are produced by specialised companies only for
nicipal infrastructure to maintain personal hy- them.
giene by washing and thus deter body odours. Mojca Ramšak concludes her pioneering
There was also a developing erotic scent culture scientific monograph, The Anthropology of
and the use of fragrances for this purpose. Smell, with a chapter on smell and cultural her-
116 Certain exhibitions in museums or tour- itage, which outlines her important research in
ist destinations are referred through the smell this field. The chapter includes an in-depth anal-
of the sea, and through gastronomy by marking ysis of international and domestic legal docu-
studia universitatis hereditati, letnik 12 (2024), številka 2 / volume 12 (2024), number 2
the natural smells of the maritime landscape, the ments regulating cultural heritage and registered
smell of salt, or by culinary (eating) habits, and knowledge and practices related to scent. The
specific dishes, such as fish, shellfish. author analytically summarises the legal doc-
Large shopping centres also seek to influ- uments on the protection of olfactory cultural
ence consumers through scents and use diffus- heritage dating back to the late 20th and early
ers on their premises, not only in the toilet are- 21st centuries, which regulate the cultural sig-
as where synthetic toilet scents deliberately mask nificance of smell and smell as part of intangible
odours but also elsewhere. Ambient synthetic cultural heritage. It was not until 2021 that the
scents coincide with the seasons and holidays, French law on olfactory heritage was adopted,
where scents are used to encourage consump- while the UNESCO Convention for the Safe-
tion practices that coincide with certain events. guarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of
Synthetic and almost imperceptible smells are 2023 does not mention smell directly but allows
consistent with different festive seasons, other- for the protection of knowledge and practic-
wise dominated by culinary or natural smells. es related to smells. It was only on this legal ba-
By scenting the premises through scent diffus- sis that, in 2018, knowledge and practices relat-
ers at the entrance doors of shopping centres, e.g. ed to perfume production in the Grasse region
by spraying the smell of mulled wine and festive of France were thus inscribed on the Representa-
food in the run-up to New Year, they aim to keep tive List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage un-
consumers indoors and encourage them to shop. der the keyword sensory systems. After this year,
The marketing and use of synthetic scents in mu- when scents and the knowledge and practices as-
seums, for example, also aims to allow us to ex- sociated with this aspect of the sensory are rec-
perience the use of the objects on display, some ognised as an important aspect of intangible
of which are also linked to the baggage of per- cultural heritage, a significant effort to protect
sonal memories or the associated cultural mem- local scents through UNESCO begins. The au-
ory of the environment in which we live. thor presents the UNESCO List of the Intan-
The author has also conducted some small- gible Heritage of Humanity, which contains the
scale research to verify the findings of contem- nominations for listing on the UNESCO list,
porary research on the perception of smell. She with explicit descriptions of odours and aromas
has investigated the use of scents for marketing in the rationale and keywords. By 2024, 12 nom-
purposes in specific Slovenian spaces – e.g. tea inations referenced scent, including the protect-
rooms, where the smell of vanilla is used. Man- ed beekeeping in Slovenia, which explicitly men-