The Reorganization of the Sensory World

Abstract

Although anthropological and critical social theory have a long interest in sensory experience, work on the senses has intensified within the past 20 years. This article traces three sensory genealogies within anthropology: the work of Ong and McLuhan as critiqued and advanced by David Howes and the Concordia Project; phenomenological studies as advanced by Paul Stoller; and a focus on materialities as advanced by Nadia Seremetakis. Studies of individual senses, which we survey, led to calls for a more integrated approach to the senses, both within anthropology and from cinema and media studies. In various ways, the senses are constituted by their imbrication in mediated cultural practices, whether mediated by technology, discourse, or local epistemologies. We argue that integrating language and discourse into the study of the senses along with new media insights more fully articulates the significance of body-sensorial knowledge.

Sensations, Symptoms and Healthcare Seeking

“…As aptly phrased by Herzfeld when delineating an anthropology of the senses, the issue in medical anthropology 'is no longer simply one of recognizing that culture mediates experience but has become a focus on how such mediation is negotiated and modulated through actual changes in the social sphere' (Herzfeld 2007: 433). The anthropological work on the senses originates from a critique of functionalism in studies of religion and ritual and its neglect of a lived bodily experience, and from a critique of Western occularcentrism and the universality of fi ve senses modalities (Porcello et al 2010). Porcello and colleagues (2010) thus identify the development of three diff erent genealogies as reactions to these critiques and assumptions.…”

“…Inherent in such discussions is on one hand the departure and dismissal of language and discourse to the advantage of bodily knowledge that to some scholars represents the fundamental and presumably only key to culture analysis. Others, on the other hand, argue that discourse is 'part and parcel of processes of embodiment and knowledge and sense-making' making it irrelevant to dichotomise bodily sensorial knowledge and linguistic expression (Porcello et al 2010). Consider, for example, discussions brought forward by Bourdieu on the intricate relations between class, taste and embodiment in his work on social class in France, and which has been reproduced in other social sett ings.…”

Directing the senses in the contemporary orientations to cancer disease control: Debating symptom research

“…It is thus well established that the body is both a biological phenomenon as well as a cultural product, and that discourse is 'part and parcel of processes of embodiment and sense-making' (Porcello et al, 2010:61). As noted by several scholars, it is the tracing out of the complex relations between these domains -or the tracing out of how biopower(s) become productive in the configuring of embodied experience -that is the remaining, ongoing project (Whyte, 2009;Porcello et al, 2010). Following the work of Hinton (2002Hinton ( , 2008 and Geurts (2002) along with others (e.g.…”

Sensing the Airs: The Cultural Context for Breathing and Breathlessness in Uruguay

“…Breathlessness, or feeling short of breath, is described by Hinton, Howes, and Kirmayer (2008:146) as a polymodal sensation made up of "muscle-and-tendon-tension (e.g., in the respiratory muscles in the chest or neck), temperature (e.g., a hot day), skin-pressure (e.g., a feeling of the stomach not rising as one inhales), gastrointestinal-tract-distension (e.g., the abdomen being distended, preventing normal inhalation), and O 2 and CO 2 senses." Senses and sensations are a growing topic of anthropological inquiry (Howes 1991;Pink 2015;Porcello et al 2010;Throop 2010), yet explicit works on breathing and shortness of breath are few. Ingold's (2007Ingold's ( , 2010 work on breathing, walking, and air, Harper's (2004) political-ecology of breathlessness, and Lande's (2007) ethnographic exploration of learning to breathe like a soldier, highlight the rich potential of the topic.…”