The Senses in Self, Society, and Culture: a Sociology of the Senses
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THE SENSES IN SELF, SOCIETY, AND CULTURE The Senses in Self, Society, and Culture is the definitive guide to the sociological and anthropological study of the senses. Vannini, Waskul, and Gottschalk provide a comprehensive map of the social and cultural significance of the senses that is woven in a thorough analytical review of classical, recent, and emerging scholarship and grounded in original empirical data that deepens the review and analysis. By bridging cultural/qualitative sociology and cultural/ humanistic anthropology, The Senses in Self, Society, and Culture explicitly blurs boundaries that are particularly weak in this field due to the ethnographic scope of much research. Serving both the sociological and anthropological constituen- cies at once means bridging ethnographic traditions, cultural foci, and socio- ecological approaches to embodiment and sensuousness. The Senses in Self, Society, and Culture is intended to be a milestone in the social sciences’ somatic turn. Phillip Vannini is Professor in the School of Communication and Culture at Royal Roads University,Victoria, Canada, and Canada Research Chair in Innovative Learning and Public Ethnography. He is author and editor of eight books, including Understanding Society through Popular Music (with Joe Kotarba, 2006, Routledge), and Ferry Tales: An Ethnography of Mobilities, Place, and Time on Canada’s West Coast (2011, Routledge). Dennis Waskul is Professor of Sociology at Minnesota State University, Mankato. He is author of Self-Games and Body-Play (2003, Peter Lang), production editor for Symbolic Interaction, editor of net.seXXX (2004, Peter Lang), and co-editor of Body/Embodiment (2006, Ashgate). He has published numerous studies on the sociology of the body, senses, sexualities, and computer-mediated communications. Simon Gottschalk is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He was editor of Symbolic Interaction (2003–2007), and is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on self-environment relations, postmodern culture, social psychology, qualitative research, the mass media, and interaction in virtual environments. Contemporary Sociological Perspectives Edited by Valerie Jenness, University of California, Irvine and Jodi O’Brien, Seattle University This innovative series is for all readers interested in books that provide frameworks for making sense of the complexities of contemporary social life. Each of the books in this series uses a sociological lens to provide current critical and analytical perspectives on significant social issues, patterns, and trends. The series consists of books that integrate the best ideas in sociological thought with an aim toward public education and engagement. These books are designed for use in the classroom as well as for scholars and socially curious general readers. 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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Vannini, Phillip. The senses in self, society, and culture : a sociology of the senses / Phillip Vannini, Dennis Waskul, Simon Gottschalk. p. cm. – (Contemporary sociological perspectives) Includes bibliographical references. 1. Senses and sensation–Social aspects. 2. Ethnopsychology. I. Waskul, Dennis D., 1969– II. Gottschalk, Simon. III. Title. BF233.V36 2011 302'.1–dc22 2011008517 ISBN13: 978-0-415-87991-0 (hbk) ISBN13: 978-0-203-80598-5 (ebk) Typeset in Abode Caslon by Keystroke, Station Road, Codsall, Wolverhampton Printed and bound in the United States of America on acid-free paper by Walsworth Publishing Company, Marceline, MO CONTENTS Series Editors’ Foreword vii Preface and Acknowledgments ix PART I: UNDERSTANDING SENSORY STUDIES 1 1 Toward a Sociology of the Senses 3 2 The Sensual Body 23 3 Sensual Ritual and Performance 40 4 Sensuous Scholarship 61 PART II: DOING SENSORY RESEARCH 81 5 The Sensuous Self and Identity 83 6 A Sense of Place, a Sense of Time 103 7 The Sensory Order 126 8 Media, Consumer, and Material Culture 148 Notes 170 References 172 Index 188 CONTENTS v SERIES EDITORS’ FOREWORD This innovative series is for all readers interested in books that provide frameworks for making sense of the complexities of contemporary social life. Each of the books in this series uses a sociological lens to provide current critical and analytical perspectives on significant social issues, patterns, and trends. The series consists of books that integrate the best ideas in sociological thought with an aim toward public education and engagement. These books are designed for use in the classroom as well as for scholars and socially curious general readers. The Senses in Self, Society, and Culture contributes to a newly emerging literature on the connections between the body, mind, and culture. Most people assume their sensory responses are automatic and purely physical, but recent studies in the cultural processes of physical experience teach us that our responses are more complex than we realize. In this breakthrough book, Phillip Vannini, Dennis Waskul, and Simon Gottschalk identify the social processes that shape the seemingly physical responses associated with the five senses. Using empirical studies and provocative everyday examples, the authors illustrate the social construction of sensory experience. The book is ideal for anyone interested in sensory experiences such as “acquired taste” for specific foods, shifting changes in color preferences for fashion, smell memories, or cultural concepts of hygiene and odor. Valerie Jenness and Jodi O’Brien Series Editors SERIES EDITORS’ FOREWORD vii PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Fueled by the cultural and the bodily turn, for the last decade the social sciences have been witnessing a rapid growth of new subfields of study, such as the sociology and anthropology of the body and of the senses. Whereas the study of the body has enjoyed tremendous growth over the past decades and has perhaps by now reached maturity, the study of the senses is only recently coming into its own with the recent (2006) publication of the peer-reviewed journal The Senses and Society, the production of a few interdisciplinary readers, and the publication of a handful of foundational scholarly essays and mono- graphs. Still absent, however, is a focused and comprehensive book that works as a map to the field and as the engine for further intellectual growth. Combining a thorough review of classical, recent, and emerging scholarship with grounded original empirical material as a strategy for sparking interest and deepening review and analysis, this book intends to be a key reference tool. In contrast to books that separate the five (or six, or seven) senses from one another, our book is divided alongside points of intersections with existing sociological and anthropological fields of study. In doing so, we intend to appeal to a wide variety of scholars and students who are interested in a particular field of study other than