Smells and Bells

In Religion in the Kitchen: Cooking, Talking, and the Making of Black Atlantic Traditions , Perez talks of Ashabi and her grandchildren providing food offerings to their ancestors. This immediately reminded me of the practice of food sacrifice in early China. I've taken Chinese language classes for about 7 years now and in one of the lessons, we learned about food as well as the history of food in Chinese culture. Ashabi and her grandchildren would give food offerings to their ancestors every day. This included nine beverages (coffee, liquor, and water mixed with sugar and molasses) and nine square pieces of coconut topped with red palm oil and guinea pepper. The offerings would also include whatever food was dropped on the ground. In their house, food dropping on the floor signified more than it would in common American households. It signified that the ancestors wanted that food and had willingly made it fall to the floor. They also used dishware that had been chipped which was...

Orchestra Sounds fill our world to an almost deafening degree. Sound is layered in the perception of the world. In a single moment, there can be some many different sounds bombarding our ears. Music is a great example of the layers of sound. A song can have a melody, counter melody and bass line with multiple instruments in each group. The separate rhythms come together to create the song. Harmonies exist from instruments intertwining their notes together to create more than the notes alone. While music does show how sound can be beautiful and harmonize, everyday life is not filled with such wonderous melodies. Noise-cancelling Headphones Most background noise is considered annoying. A peaceful summer afternoon does not involve the sounds of cars rushing by or people screaming in the background. A quiet night is not made better by the honking and beeping of construction vehicles outside your room. In Women, theRecited Qur'an, and Islamic Music in Indonesia , Rasmussen n...

In A Natural History of the Senses , Diane Ackerman mentions that smell is a unique sense, different from senses such as sound or sight. In sight or sound, whatever we hear or see first goes into a relay center in the cerebral hemisphere of our brain, and then it travels to other regions of our brain. However with smell, it travels directly to different regions of the brain. This is due to the fact that our sense of smell evolved before our other senses. When we inhale, chemicals we inhale land in a mucus membrane covering our olfactory neurons. The chemicals dissolve and then bind to our neurons, which triggers a signal, and follows a pathway to different parts of the brain.  There is a chemical known as androstenone. This chemical is found in boar’s saliva. It is the first mammalian pheromone to be identified. Androstenone can smell like vanilla to some people, while for others it smells like sweat and gives off an unpleasant odor.  For example, fresh cut grass ...

When I see the title of chapter two, "Kitchen, Food, and Family", in Religion in the Kitchen: Cooking, Talking, and the Making of Black Atlantic Traditions by Elizabeth Pérez I immediately think of Thanksgiving. While the traditions of my family Thanksgiving are far from what is described in this book, it is the closest connection I can relate to her described experiences. My kitchen- decorated for Thanksgiving. In A Natural History of The Senses by Diane Ackerman she describes the sense of taste as "the social sense" because "humans rarely choose to dine in solitude, and food has a powerful social component" (Ackerman, 127). I think this social element that can be seen in Religion in the Kitchen is what I am most strongly connecting to my personal experience during Thanksgiving. Pérez states that "practitioners talk while they cook... around kitchen tables...over charcoal grills, wood fires, and gas stoves" and describes this as "comm...

I found “Women, the Recited Qur'an, and Islamic Music in Indonesia” by Anne K. Rasmussen to be very insightful on Islam, the women of Islam, and how western culture is viewed in the east. I have never really learned much about Islam in my life and I have met very few muslims in person as well. But, I was very eager to learn more going into this reading. I was fascinated learning about the true nature of Islam when it came to sounds, like she states in the second chapter, I had only heard sound in Islam depicted as in her words, “A chilling voice that slices through the air.” I was very pleased to learn that that was not the case. I was fascinated to learn that it is a group of voices all reciting the Qu’ran in a loose free-meter fashion. I feel that learning about religion in its true form is crucial in a world where seemingly all media outlets have a bias.  I have always been involved with sound in the context of religion. When I was very young I was in the choir at my local...

Some of my favorite activities and memories are held during the holiday season. As someone who goes to college in a different state, coming back home for winter break makes it even more meaningful. It’s a time to catch up with my family, enjoy home-cooked meals, annoy my siblings, and sometimes find some peace and quiet during the busy holiday season. My Mom's Santa  One of my favorite things about the time leading up to Christmas is how my mom burns incense. It's always a comforting smell to me. Maybe it's because I have grown up Catholic so I am used to it, but it just adds that extra Christmas feeling. I've caught myself saying, "it smells like Christmas" when I walk into the house and my mom has lit the little Santa. My parents  Even when it is not winter, the smell of incense makes me think of being home at Christmas time. I can hear my dad complaining to my mom that the smell gives ...

Anne Rasmussen's book Women, the Recited Qur'an, and Islamic Music in Indonesia successfully demonstrates how the role of women in Islamic practices extends far beyond stereotypes and challenges western perceptions. Despite how much social progress we have made, there are still many issues and gaps in knowledge and understanding of other cultures and religious practices that are often perpetuated by a lack of education in this country. I grew up in a very diverse community and yet still, I knew about the stereotypes given to those dedicated to Islam. I remember thinking that it was a religion that sometimes stifled women and did not give them "rights" before I actually learned about it, This reading shows the truth and shares how valuable women are to the practice and points out how Westerners often project their own standards onto people from different parts of the world - which is very problematic; “...progress as construed by Western feminism is not always cons...

     In most religions, taste is a sense that seems to be very underrated. The foods prepared for religious holidays, ceremonies, etc. all have special meanings to the religion. Things such as where it is prepared, how it is prepared, and what is said before it is to be eaten is tradition. Also, getting together with family members for religious meals is very meaningful, which is touched upon by Elizabeth Pèrez in her book, Religion in the Kitchen: Cooking, Talking, and the Making of Black Atlantic Traditions (2016).      Growing up Jewish, I can definitely relate to how taste is incorporated within Judaism. Holidays such as Hanukkah, Rosh Hashanah, and Pesach (Passover) all have certain foods meaningful to them, as we say the respective prayers and feast. The holiday that has always been a point of emphasis for our family to get together is Passover. Every year, my grandparents host both sides of the family for Passover. My grandmother being very religio...

Sound is so important for so many different faiths and religions because sound is how so many people communicate with each other as well as pray to their god(s) or deities. The one thing we can expect to find when attending a place of worship of any faith is song, prayer and talking. Sounds such as specking and singing are such a large part of cultures and we can clearly see this in the videos of showing people practicing parts of the Islamic faith.  Another large part of religion and faith when it comes to sound is music. One can find different types of instruments such as drums, guitars, pianos and many others being used while praying and worshiping god(s) and deities. There so are many ways to show that one is dedicated to their faith or religion and using music is key role way of showing dedication in many groups. Every religion has different approaches to how they wanted to use it, sometimes it depends on gender, age, location, position of power, language and inten...

        Taste is often seen as lesser sense, especially concerning religion. There is less revelation in taste, sublime experiences are seen, not tasted. This view of taste means that its importance to religious practices and bonding are easily overlooked. Taste subtly brings people together by sharing meals and cooking together. This sense is the foundation of bonding by being a daily activity. People need to eat multiple times a day every day in order to survive. This provides ample amounts of time to connect with one another while cooking and eating. Day by day, small conversations that slowly build into something greater.  Spaghetti In her experience with Afro-Cuban religious practices in Chicago detailed in her book, Religion in the Kitchen: Cooking, Talking, and the making of Black Atlantic Traditions , Elizabeth Perez noted the general unwillingness many of the converts initially had about joining the community. The people Perez met were not to th...

The book, Religion in the Kitchen: Cooking, Talking, and the Making of Black Atlantic Tradition by Elizabeth Pérez is a very interesting Anthropological look at different Black Atlantic religions. The readings from this book lead me to thinking in an introspective way about what I eat and how I eat, as well as what I cook and how I cook.  I eat a lot of meat, I would say that I average somewhere between two and three meals a day with meat in it, but I have never killed an animal (besides the one bird I killed while driving), butchered an animal or cleaned an animal for meal preparation. Reading about how much effort goes into these steps, hunched backs of people plucking chickens, the spoons being separated to their pot with electrical tape and the significance that each part of the animal has to the Lucumí religion, makes me rethink how I prepare and eat food. It makes me think about how I treat cooking in my life, and all of the purpose that I lack within it.   ...

Smell, memory, and emotion are deeply connected. The Olfactory receptors (where smell is processed) are directly connected to the limbic system (center of emotions). This interaction happens before the cortex can recognize the odor itself. Emotional responses and memories linked to the scent are triggered by the primitive brain before other parts of the brain can cognitively recognize the scent separately from the individual's personal connection with it (11). Something I wonder about is if the reason aromatherapy is effective is because of the scent itself or the memories attached to it. Do we smell floral oils and the brain produces chemicals in response to that scent or does our brain take a trip back to a springtime of our younger selves when the flowers were blooming and we were calm, happy, and carefree? According to Dr. Herz, smell is not hard-wired. People will react differently to smells based on their past experiences and memories with those smells. What calms one ...

Throughout Religion in the Kitchen, Pérez explains how the religious practices of the Lacumi are more centralized around the idea of devotion rather than understanding or actual belief. She illustrates that the micropractices that the members of the Lacumi do on a daily basis maintain their devotion to the gods and keep them within the sphere of influence of the religion itself. To me, I see this as more of a cult than a religion because this organization prizes membership higher than actual faith. The ways that  the Lacumi are kept in line and a part of the religion are that they constantly follow what they are told to do without question and value the gods above all else. We referenced in class the man who was forced to quit his business job because it posed a threat to his devotion, thus showing that this religion demands quite a bit from its members. But what I believe is one of the more impactful ways that the Lacumi cultivate devotion is described in the Conclusion....