Scents and scent-sibilities: A sociocultural inquiry of smells in everyday life experiences

Abstract

Here, smells take on a social character. Scents influence how we think, act and behave. The study argues for smell as a social intermediary that fleshes out issues concerning personhood and the presentation of self, and smells as employed in the (re)constructions of social boundaries running along dimensions of race, class and gender. Also, the project addresses the roles of smell in society by locating olfaction in relation to processes of modernisation and civilisation, demonstrating how malodours depict not merely hygienic defilement, but indicate backwardness and a threat to social order. Smell as a postmodern entity is also deliberated upon, where (wo)men are able to produce and simulate particular smells for specific purposes, demonstrating a certain amount of control over olfaction that (wo)mankind possesses. Within these, I show that smells aid in the erection of boundaries, where they may or may not be homogeneous; challenged, transgressed or crossed.