ABSTRACT
The child sways to the rhythms of the mother's body as she works and sings, baby strapped to her back in an Indonesian rice paddy, or rocks to the steady movement of an electric swing in a Texas kitchen, country tunes streaming on the radio, bacon sizzling on the hot stove. The benefits of skin-to-skin contact extend from the prolonged and intimate bonding of infants with their caregivers and pregnancy massage to "boncsetting" and other kinds of body work practiced in societies worldwide. The body knows the world through odors, flavors, sounds, colors, touch pam and the rhythms of cultural routines and revelries, but it is the sense of smell that provides a most direct link to the brain through the olfactory nerve. The sense of taste has been historically considered one of the "lower" senses and gluttony has been associated with animality, which in turn lias been contrasted with the higher faculties and senses, concerned with philosophy and art.
