Smells and Bells

 In her book Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India Diana Eck discusses the importance and role of vision in Hindu religious practices. One element of this that stood out, is how the idea of looking in Hindu practice seems to be reciprocal. Looking upon the statue of a deity is a significant religious act and so is being looked at by one. The gaze of a newly sanctified statue is considered powerful enough that when their eyes are painted on they must not be looking directly at someone. This significance of looking, with vision having the power to transfer blessings and curses between humans and gods is particularly interesting when considered in comparison with other religious contexts. In The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch by Constance Classen, an important topic is the importance of touch in Medieval Christianity. During the era of relics, a different example of a religious object thought to be imbued with holiness, in some sense, and able to bestow its blessings on...

Part of the reason why our current situation in quarantine is so difficult is that we can only look at our loved ones from afar. We can't hug, hold hands, kiss, high-five, or do any of our usual mannerisms we could do in person. Seeing my friend's faces on a screen is much too different than seeing them in person. Though my love language is expressed through words of affirmation and not touch, I'm willing to believe that touch comes to a very close second. Marco Bianchetti The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch by Constance Classen emphasizes how touch can impact someone's experience of the world. What might be brushed off as casual handshakes, high fives and so on actually contribute deeply to our understanding of what it's like to be human. As we are social creatures, it's only natural that touching is such an important part of our lives. Whether the touches be platonic or sensual, it seems that we cannot help but crave physical intimacy with o...

Touch can prove a way to connect people and things to each other as well as evoke many different emotions. Religion can provide the same experiences for many. Constance Classen’s “The Deepest Sense : A Cultural History of Touch” goes into detail of how touch can mean so many different things for people. She writes on how important the sense is for interacting with one’s surroundings, this is because without the sense of touch there is a level of disconnect between one and the physical world.   Classen’s ideas made me think about how many people including myself don’t believe in any religion or faith, because they can’t physically touch a god or deity. For myself if I can’t see or touch or have tangible proof of something, especially religion, it is hard to believe that its real. So, I fully acknowledge the irony in the fact that I don’t believe in religion yet I’m a religion major. This may be the case because I want to se e how other people can believe despite my not...

Touch has been symbolized in various ways throughout history The historical setting of the medieval age Europe provides a context for why was symbolized in certain ways. In that age, most people had a very low quality of life and developed a sense of camaraderie from others being in the same situation as them. Strong social ties were emphasized in the various actions that were social: eating together, bathing together, and sleeping together. Other common forms of social touching were embracing, kissing, and holding hands. The social nature demanded from most people was furthered by the social practices that were common. Social touching was used to illustrate a sense of holy intimacy and forgiveness such as "Jesus healing with a touch, having his feet anointed, washing his disciples' feet, kissed by Judas, [and] scourged by Roman soldiers," (30). Another interesting finding was that work was described as incredibly hard and physically taxing by the vocabulary used to ...

During the first week of May, we started a new unit: Touch. First, we had a massage therapist employed by professor give a presentation about her line of work. We also read The Deepest Sense by Constance Classen, which gave a history of touch in the Middle Ages. The masseuse’s presentation covered how she first got into the field, as well as how different massage therapies work on a patient. A memorable part of the presentation was the raki energy exercise with Ann and her sore shoulder. Three people got up, placed hands on her back, and directed positive energy at her shoulders. When they were done, Ann said her shoulder felt better. How? I could write this off as a placebo effect, but touch, after all, is the deepest sense. Touch is emotionally interconnected to our well-being, studies show babies need touch to develop healthily. In a theoretical sense, the raki energy exercise seems plausible because touch facilities the connection between two bodies, transferring warmth and go...

          In The Deepest Sense , one of the ideas I found most intriguing was trying to imagine the sensory experience of the working class in Medieval Europe. Classen examines many aspects of communal living and the ways in which our sense of touch made it possible for us to exist in the society of the time. Our sense of touch was even more vital to survival back then because it was the main way for us to interact with our world. I hadn’t ever considered it before, but Classen made me aware of the vision problems many people suffered through during this time. Without corrective eyewear, many people were forced to live their entire lives without seeing properly. Obviously, in this environment, one’s sense of touch becomes even more significant to appreciating the world.            Her description of this historical sensory environment reminded me of certain elements of the King Arthur story, and made me reconsider...

"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...

At the beginning of the chapter “A Woman’s Touch,” Classen writes “Hot, dry, cold and moist. The same qualities thought to shape the cosmos in premodernity were also believed to shape the bodies of men and women” (71). This sentence reminded me of the theme song from one of my favorite cartoons as a kid: “Earth, fire, wind, water, heart, go planet!” While not the same kind of elements, in both cases the elements that make up the earth also make up people. In the show Captain Planet, five kids from different countries each represent one of the elements (earth, fire, wind, water, and “heart”) with a magical ring. They fight villains representing pollution and greed and other threats to the planet. They join their magic ring powers together to summon Captain Planet to help save the day.   The kids and their elemental rings aren’t the same as the hot, dry, cold, and moist qualities believed to shape all things including people, what’s the same is an identification with the earth, wit...

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’...

Constance Classen's The Deepest Sense  discusses touch in relation to women's historically social roles.  Traditionally, women were connected to the lower senses because of the scripture of Adam and Eve.  Because Eve gave into temptation, she was constructed as a sensual being without high intellect and easily swayed by her lower senses. Classen links this to the place of women in the household and the fear of a woman's touch affecting male dominance.  Her discussion of the connection between women and animals is interesting because it depicts the desired woman and the feared woman.  The desired woman is like a tortoise and lives within its cold, west shell, while the feared woman is like a spider, continually spinning her web of seduction like her household handwork. The spider is also connected to Delilah in the story of Samson and Delilah, as she seduced him and then destroyed him, this story serves as an example of a woman's touch to male dominance.  Th...

“Exploring the history of touch makes the past come alive … It clothes the dry bones of historical fact with the flesh of physical sensation” -Constance Classen Constance Classen is a very interesting figure because she takes something I love (history) and completely revolutionizes how it is understood. From her reading what I understood is that rather than viewing history through visual prowess she incorporated the sense of touch as a way to better understand history.  Classen's book deepens her own impressive influence on the emerging field of sensory history, a field grounded not only in uncovering lost sensory worlds of the past but also in examining how those sensory worlds connect to one another. This is interesting because I personally love history and throughout my time learning about history it has been very visual in recounting events. By inducing sensory history I think it is a way to better understand history as a whole. It also reminds me of when I did a WWI...

In Deepest Sense: A History of Touch by Constance Classen the book explains the historical use of touch as a means of healing in the middle ages. Religion and spiritual ideals were closely related to health practices during that time. For example, monasteries often functioned as medical centers. The book described many healing practices some of which were later disclaimed. However among these practices were methods that still carry relevance today."Surgeons were advised to have 'light hands', expeditious in operating, lest you cause the patient pain." While "Physicians, the 'medical masters' might prescribe tactile treatments ranging from cupping to massage to hot baths" (49). Classen also spoke of different practices that relied on superstition or trickery. For example she referenced the German physician Franz Anton Mesmer "who postulated the existence of a universal magnetic fluid that can be felt not seen" and he worked to channel and...

Man’s best friend or your baby right? I’m sure you refer to your dog that way. I mean everyone loves their puppies, well except if they have a terrible allergy, but many still continue loving them. Humans and dogs have been companions for thousands of years, according to Classen, they have been hunting assistants, chest and lap warmers, they were given to ladies to be play companions and entertain them during long carriage rides, and even in some depictions biblically present at events such as the last supper eating the crumbs. Touch plays a role in this human animal bond, because if there is no loving and trusting touch between the human and animal, there is no relationship. And as Classen points out, the word pet explains within itself a pet, we pet a pet! Good news is that if you are obsessed with your pooch and call them your best friend or baby you actually aren’t crazy, science is on your side. Studies show that a few minutes of stroking our pet dog prompts a release of a n...

       Finger food! When I went to Copenhagen to study abroad my Junior spring semester, I was told about all kind of Danish traditions, customs, and fashion trends. One thing that I found was that at almost every gathering the host would provide some kind of food or drink. This is certainly not uncommon in the States, however, rather than things being store bought they were homemade. Having homemade treats to share with everyone seemed to makes everyone more comfortable. In "The Deepest Sense" Constance Classen discusses the medieval traditions of eating together. "Eating as a group not only made the most efficient use of food and fuel resources, it also strengthened social bonds" (2) As in the medieval tradition, if a large group of people were gathering the food would be made so that you could eat with your hands as you walked around or sat on couches. I really like the way Classen described how eating with your hands "indicated that no artificial ...