Smells and Bells

"Intimate contact with animals was a part of daily life in the premodern world. Animals were everywhere" (Classen,93)  What has become of our connection to what and who is around us? Is out lose of connection to the animals and nature surrounding us play a role in our increase hostility and fading compassion as a society? How important are animals to human life? Beyond that of serving as food (for some). What have we lost as a people when we cut off connections to animals? Since when have animals become denigrated as lesser than humans? It's despairing that we live in a world where the only way we can connect with the natural world around us via animals has to be sanctioned - but the same cannot be said vice versa. Our regular contact with animals in the Western world is under control and defined by domestication and segregation. We eroticize the exoticism of species of foreign terrain but why must it suffer for our amusement? Is this all connected to our conne...

In the book The Deepest Sense, Classen writes that medieval Europeans believed strongly in the power of touch. The touch of a saint, according to their conception, could heal the sick. A witch’s touch could cause someone to become ill. While perhaps most of us no longer worry that a women who is sleeping with the devil is going to poison us, we certainly recognize the power of touch in new ways. The connection between health and touch has come up several times in this class now. After reading this most recent book, I can’t help but think back to A Natural History of the Senses, which recounted how important touch is in helping premature babies start to thrive. Apparently, a person doesn’t have to be a saint to heal someone with a touch; all they have to do is volunteer at a NICU. This is just one of the cases in which the sense of touch can help us heal.  The discussion of touch and animals in The Deepest Sense reminded of something I had read about how pets lower children’...

“it is both our panic and our privilege to be mortal and sense-full. We live on the leash of our senses" (xvii)  Roses in the water to reference Ackerman's section on the smell of roses.  Our sensations have been intrinsic in our human survival and experience and have probably changed and evolved over time. What once was integral for survival and the continuation of the species is now what shapes our human experience. According to Ackerman, our senses both limit and restrain us in our interpretations and understandings of the world in a way that isn't cerebral. Looking at animals and analyzing their senses gives us an idea of what our senses could have been. What’s the importance of the interplay between animalistic senses and our own and how much can we learn from them? Some things, in my opinion can be learned, but it must be noted that animals and humans (both actually animals) evolved and adapted in different ways that ultimately best suited them fo...

Throughout Spell of the Sensuous, Abram references the human connection to nature and the importance of this ecological relationship.  For some reason, when I think of the concept of a 6th sense, I also connect it to nature. More specifically, animals. When I was little I always dreamed of being able to talk to my dog, and I feel the most spiritual presence out in nature. Just recently, I learned about the idea that every person has a "power animal" (or animals) which are described as "an energy pattern that exists in the spiritual realms, more specifically, the spiritual animal kingdom.  This energy pattern appears in animal form and expresses the characteristics or abilities that the animal form represents"   According to some, we all have power animals and they are "connected to us as protectors, guides, healers and teachers." To me it seems that Abram would embrace this idea that everyone has a special connection with a specific animal not only for it...