Smells and Bells

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...

As we read these accounts of how different religious traditions and experiences are enhanced through certain senses, I’m reminded that each of these sensory avenues alone is not enough for a complete understanding of a religious experience. I find myself thinking, what is Islam like for a deaf person in Indonesia? And now, what would it be like to be blind in India? I know none of these readings advocate for one sense to be used and considered over all the rest, but the more they talk about how important images and sight is for Hindus in India, the more I think about how exclusive it could be for people who are differently able. I am exceptionally attuned to issues having to do with seeing because my dad is nearly blind. I find myself reacting when I read things like “Not only is seeing a form of “touching,” it is a form of knowing” (9). I know this to be true through my dad’s experience. He can’t tell when someone across a room is trying to make eye contact with him, and he can’t ...

While reading the chapter “Celebrating Religion and Nation; The Festivilization of the Qur’an,” I found myself thinking, ‘isn’t this a little sacrilegious?’ Making Qur’anic recitation into a huge competition (into many huge competitions)? As Rasmussen puts it, the “Festivalization” of religion demonstrated in these recitation competitions combines religion and state authority. “Islamic arts…” Rasmussen argues, “are manifested as authentic Indonesian national praxis” (126). This along with state and corporate sponsorship of these recitation competitions had me thinking that this kind of recitation no longer seems very religious. I thought, if this kind of traditionally religious practice is being performed for monetary gain, personal glory, or upward social mobility, it cheapens or erodes the original intent of the practice. But thinking more specifically in terms of the sensory information we’re focused on in this class, the acts of learning, performing, and perfecting Qur’anic recita...

When I was a little kid I was terrified of dogs. I was scared of all animals, really, but being debilitating afraid of a pet found in many houses and any park became a real challenge. My parents took me to some kind of doctor who told me to take medicine that came out of a blue tube as white little balls, I was to take two or three of these under my tongue every morning. To my great seven-year-old surprise, the “medicine” was sweet! It tasted like little sugar pills. At the time, I was delighted. Taking medicine was usually a chore, but these pills were almost a treat. As a gold older and learned about things like placebos and “sugar pills,” I thought for sure my parents were trying to trick me. I thought by the nature of their sweetness they couldn’t have any healing properties, they must have just been to make me think I was getting over my fears. Credit: https://www.amazon.com/Boiron-Symphytum-Officinale-Homeopathic-Medicine/dp/B00014FG0O In more recent years I’ve run into t...

In the introduction to The Aroma of Righteousness Deborah Green writes about how the sense of smell is left out in all sorts of ways, in all different kinds of studies, because it is one of the “lower sense.” I was particularly interested in how this related to the study of aesthetics. I am in an aesthetics course this semester and I had not thought of smell even once before reading this chapter. Green references someone who completely rules out smell as aspect of aesthetics. People written their pens dry about the aesthetics of visual and auditory sensations but completely ignore smell. I think smell (and touch, but maybe not so much taste) could be a great thing to study aesthetically. We do basically the same things with smell as we do with sight and hearing. Way may not make “art” or museums or theaters for olfactory sensations, but we do have a huge perfume industry and we’re constantly trying to make the space around us smell good just like we try to make the space around us l...

A Natural History of the Senses has helped me see the close relationship between touch and hearing. I’ve long been aware of the connection between smell and taste, but I never thought about how interconnected touch and hearing are. Hearing is only possible because of touch. Ackerman describes the mechanics of hearing, how the sound vibrations stimulate just the right little hairs to make the sounds our brain has come used to giving meaning. I love thinking about how sound is almost like its own kind of touch. Sounds are just a specific, sort of, manipulation of the air around us. I remember first learning about sound waves on a particularly memorable episode of Magic School Bus. I’ve added here a clip from the episode in which they learn about sound waves and get to see them move through the air. Thinking about how much sound is like touch, makes me wonder about the role of sound and hearing in religious ritual. I can think of powerful examples of touch being used in a religious co...