14
READING PASSAGE 5
The meaning and power of smell
The sense of smell, or olfaction, is powerful. Odours affect us on a physical, psychological and social level.
For the most part, however, we breathe in the aromas which surround us without being consciously aware of
their importance to us. It is only when the faculty of smell is impaired for some reason that we begin to realise
the essential role the sense of smell plays in our sense of well-being
A
A survey conducted by Anthony Synott at Montreal’s Concordia University asked participants to comment on
how important smell was to them in their lives. It became apparent that smell can evoke strong emotional
responses. A scent associated with a good experience can bring a rush of joy, while a foul odour or
one associated with a bad memory may make us grimace with disgust. Respondents to the survey noted that
many of their olfactory likes and dislikes were based on emotional associations. Such associations can be
powerful enough so that odours that we would generally label unpleasant become agreeable, and those that
we would generally consider fragrant become disagreeable for particular individuals. The perception of
smell, therefore, consists not only of the sensation of the odours themselves,
but of the experiences and
emotions associated with them.
B
Odours are also essential cues in social bonding. One respondent to the survey believed that there is no true
emotional bonding without touching and smelling a loved one. In fact, infants recognise the odours of their
mothers soon after birth and adults can often identify their children or spouses by scent. In one well-
known test, women and men were able to distinguish by smell alone clothing worn by their marriage partners
from similar clothing worn by other people. Most of the subjects would probably never have given much
thought to odour as a cue for identifying family members before being involved in the test, but as the
experiment revealed, even when
not consciously considered, smells register.
C
In spite of its importance to our emotional and sensory lives, smell is probably the most undervalued sense in
many cultures. The reason often given for the low regard in which smell is held is that, in comparison with its
importance among animals, the human sense of smell is feeble and undeveloped. While it is true that the
olfactory powers of humans are nothing like as fine as those possessed by certain animals, they are still
remarkably acute. Our noses are able to
recognise thousands of smells, and to perceive odours which are
present only in extremely small quantities.
D
Smell, however, is a highly elusive phenomenon. Odours, unlike colours, for instance, cannot be named in
many languages because the specific vocabulary simply doesn’t exist. ‘It smells like . . . ,’ we have to say
when describing an odour, struggling to express our olfactory experience. Nor can odours be recorded: there is
no effective way to either capture or store them over time. In the realm of olfaction, we must make do with
descriptions and recollections. This has implications for olfactory research.
E
Most of the research on smell undertaken to date has been of a physical scientific nature. Significant advances
have been made in the understanding of the biological and chemical nature of olfaction, but
many fundamental questions have yet to be answered. Researchers have still to
decide whether smell is one
sense or two - one responding to odours proper and the other registering odourless chemicals in the air. Other
unanswered questions are whether the nose is the only part of the body affected by odours, and how smells can
be measured objectively given the nonphysical components. Questions like these mean that interest in
the psychology of smell is inevitably set to play an increasingly important role for researchers.
F
However, smell is not simply a biological and psychological phenomenon. Smell is cultural, hence it is a social
and historical phenomenon. Odours are invested with cultural values: smells that are
considered to be offensive
in some cultures may be perfectly acceptable in others. Therefore, our sense of smell is a means of, and model
for, interacting with the world. Different smells can provide us with intimate and emotionally charged
experiences and the value that we attach to these experiences is interiorised by the members of society in a
15
deeply personal way. Importantly, our commonly held feelings about smells can help distinguish us from other
cultures. The study of the cultural history of smell is, therefore, in
a very real sense, an investigation into
the essence of human culture.
