Chapter 7. Smell

Abstract

The research in olfaction presented here was first developed within the paradigm elaborated by Rosch and Lloyd (1978) in psychology and by Berlin and Kay (1969) in linguistic anthropology. This research was decisive in our theoretical evolution1 and in the development of alternative concepts and methods to study olfactory experience (and sensory experience in general) both in everyday life situations, in expert professional practices as well as in experimental conditions. The exploration of olfactory experience requires us to consider sensory experience as embodied, multisensory, and cultural i.e. situated and critically invested with symbolic, social and emotional values. Olfactory experience is also, as other sense modalities, constrained by the material and technological development as well as the diverse cultural practices involving smells and odors. It also critically imposes to reconsider the epistemological grounding of the relations between language and cognition and invites to position psychological investigations accounting for humanities and social sciences (mainly anthropology and history).