Scents of Self and Other: Smell, the Sense of Transition

This chapter deals with scents of self and other and the sense of transition. People try to conceal or disguise natural odors, add scents to common objects, rearrange the olfactory ambiance of everyday places. Odor is a marker of atmosphere, it imprints the emotional tone of a moment that we want to differentiate from others, extract from the ordinary. In amorous relationships, the exchange of odors is part of the exchange between bodies. Intimacy allows bodies to intermingle without the protection of interaction rituals that maintain distance. The chapter explains western denigration of smell, odor as moral atmosphere, the relative value of odors, the odors of existence, the odor of sanctity, erotic odors and racist conceptions of the other's odor. Body odors related to metabolism vary depending on the time of day and the individual's state of health. The pleasant odors of effusions and fumigations purified the air, increased the organism's resistance, and protected doctors from contagion.