ABSTRACT
This chapter opens with an account of the ‘sensory turn’ in the humanities and social sciences. This approach to sociocultural analysis has eclipsed the purely linguistic and pictorial paradigms that formerly prevailed, and brought the senses from the margins to the centre of contemporary scholarship. My account focuses on the evolution of the anthropology of the senses, and makes reference to parallel developments in the history of the senses, before moving on to explore the relevance of the sensory turn in socio-legal studies. I suggest that media of legal presentation and representation are deeply imbued with sensory values and how the social life of the senses differs signifi cantly across cultures and historical periods. This can result in sharp confl icts over the evidence of the senses when, for example, oral and literate legal traditions intersect. A case in point considered here is the institution of the feast or potlatch among First Nations peoples of British Columbia, Canada, and the role it played both in the Indigenous socio-legal order and in the landmark Aboriginal title case known as Delgamuukw v. British Columbia . The chapter goes on to investigate the sensory, social and cross-cultural implications of the increasing importance of video and digital evidence both in the courtroom proper and the court of public opinion. Throughout, the emphasis is on the mediatory role played by the senses and their extensions in the form of diverse media on the judicial process.
