The future of sensory anthropology/the anthropology of the senses

Abstract

A focus on the senses has become a key theme in contemporary anthropology. In this short piece I suggest that this focus can be understood in terms of two strands, the original anthropology of the senses on the one hand, and the newer sensory anthropology on the other. Given the recent rapid development of interest in this field, an assessment of its status and speculation about its future is now rather timely. A sensory anthropology implies a ‘re-thought’ anthropology, informed by theories of sensory perception, rather than a sub-discipline exclusively or empirically about the senses. Rather like the cumulative ‘re-thinkings’ of anthropology over the last decades this adds to the discipline having become (albeit unevenly) reflexive, gendered, embodied and visual, while rejecting ‘traditional’ forms of cross-cultural comparison, and disassociating the relationship between culture and place. Notably these rethinkings have parallels across cognate disciplines and indeed bring the research and theoretical commitments of anthropologists closer to those of some geographers and sociologists. Anthropologists are increasingly attending to arts and media practices and are engaging more closely with public and applied roles. While the former shifts enable anthropologists to re-think the discipline with other anthropologists, all of these moves encourage interdisciplinary collaborations. A contemporary sensory anthropology is thus inevitably intertwined with the lasting residues of these other revisions and the connections they forge in interdisciplinary fields. Sensory anthropology both has its roots in and departs from the anthropological study of sensory perception and categories that characterises the anthropology of the senses. While the former engages directly across disciplines, the latter is more specialised. While in some contexts it has great potential, it has fewer possibilities. Some of which include providing examples that contest the universality of modern western categories or as part of interdisciplinary research that shares a focus on the senses as its object of study. Indeed, the anthropology of the senses informed by the principles outlined above would be subsumed as part of sensory anthropology. What then might be the future of sensory anthropology? Below I outline two possible areas of influence – as part of interdisciplinary scholarship and as a leading approach to innovative interdisciplinary ethnography. Sensory anthropology is essentially an interdisciplinary approach. It is dependent on other disciplines for its foundational ideas. This signifies one of its departures from the anthropology of the senses. Philosophical principles are influential in understanding