Robert Muchembled has written "Smells: A Cultural History of Odours in Early Modern Times" -
"Until the 1620s, literature and poetry delighted in excreta...
"The smell of excrement and body odours were formative aspects of eroticism and sexuality, for the social elite and the popular classes alike.
"At the same time, medicine explained outbreaks of plague by Satan's poisonous breath corrupting the air.
"In the 18th century when softer, sweeter perfumes, often with floral and fruity scents, came into fashion, reflecting new norms of femininity and a gentler vision of nature."
According to Robert Munchembled -
“"beings learn in early childhood to consider one or the other aspect of the functioning of the body as bad, shameful or dangerous...
"With French civilization in the 16th century ... adults of all social classes show no signs of anal or sexual repression...
"Cleanliness is not an essential value of time, water being deemed dangerous.
"Only a few moralists, following the example of Erasmus, try to begin to repress animality in man.
"It was not until the beginning of the 17th century that the repressive wave rose, in the form of a demonization of the lower body ...."
Jasmine, Frangipani and Rose.
According to a study published in the American Journal of Political Science, we are subconsciously attracted by the smell of people who have the same political views as ourselves.
In other words, if you are a Conservative, you may like the smell of George Bush.
Perfect Match
If people are HAPPY, they give off smells that signal happiness.
If you like happy people, you should be able to locate them by their smell.
Researchers have found that "Exposure to sweat from happy senders elicited a happier facial expression than did sweat from fearful or neutral senders."
It's good to sniff happy people.
How you smell to other people may depend on:
Sweat glands, urine, breath, saliva, skin oils, and sexual secretions.
Humans have apocrine glands in the areas where they have hair.
Apocrine glands give off smells.
The healthier the person, the better they may smell.
A taste for spicy foods and garlic can cause strong body odours.
"A study published in the journal Medicinal Chemistry Communications said the smell of farts has secret health benefits."
Smelling farts can help battle cancer, heart attacks .
Smell is definitely our least-used sense, and as you point out, something we need to utilise in our daily lives.
ReplyDeleteI can smell lots about people, and although we can be fooled with words and appearances, our noses rarely make mistakes. Forinstance, I can often tell if a woman is mestruating, and can recognise may by odour alone.
Cigarettes kill the sense of smell, as do many prescription drugs. I find very few people who use this sense to any great extent, with some even thinking it is indelicate to discuss smells.
As usual, you have a timely and relevant post that seems to resonate with where I am now. Thanks mate.
Dear Anonymous,
DeleteYou are very kind.
- Aangirfan
Is it not tragic that our farts and those of our mammalian cousins,so beneficial to us are occasioning,so we are told,the end of life on earth by their effect on the climate?
ReplyDeleteAangirfan: Nostalgia is associated with smell, Odour 70000 sensors, optics 12000 sensors. They say being blind is half dead.
ReplyDeleteI want to share a fact with you, as you post things about Padeophilia. Apparently you are what you eat. Eating Vegeterian being safest. The point I wanted make is the effect of Sunlight on moods & General thinking ie thinking straight versus crooked. It is Rainy season in India and is very cloudy, this is time I crave more Coffee, seeing no Sun can make your thinking weird very illogical. I once saw a video on Rollsroyce turbines 1Hour documentary, the whole sky was overshadowed , I felt very depressing,, about it's making. I myself have worked such conditions seeing no Sun at all for months.
Lack of Sunlight eating wrong food and perhaps genetics for proclivities towards Padeophilia Muslkms in India fo that, our poorest of poor Hindu wojld lament doing it.
Something about this article... I smell a rat!!
ReplyDeleteDuring or before sex our ‘disgust impulse’ is turned off temporarily... https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/great-ape-expectations/201504/sex-is-disgusting-is-why-we-keep-doing-it-anyway
ReplyDelete