353

 SENSORIAL URBANISM AND SMELLSCAPES:

DOCUMENTING AND EXHIBITING ISTANBUL’S

CULTURAL HERITAGE

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Copyright Declaration

I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in

accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that as required by these rules

and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all materials and results that are not original to this

work.

To my parents

i

Abstract

This dissertation examines scent as a form of intangible heritage. Often overlooked,

the sense of smell is a unique medium through which we can explore history, heritage, and

place. A sensory approach serves as a catalyst for creating a greater awareness of the

interaction between the body, the senses, memory, and the environment. Using Istanbul as a

case study, this dissertation elucidates how smell can constitute a record of history, be a way

to measure change, and how it can be used to access communal memories and heritage. This

study focuses on smellscapes of the Spice Market and Eminönü, a historic marketplace and

neighborhood of Istanbul. It utilizes oral history, mapping, historical research, and creative

practice combined with research from psychology and neuroscience to help us better

understand and value the sensory past.

This dissertation project also resulted in the exhibit “Scent and the City,” held at Koç

University’s Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations in Istanbul, Turkey from April 14 to

June 8, 2016. “Scent and the City” invited visitors to explore history, modernization, and

change in Turkey through scents and also to contribute to our sensory knowledge of Istanbul

through interactive displays and conversations. This dissertation both analyzes “Scent and the

City” and contextualizes it within the larger trajectory of museological practice.

This dissertation provides new sensory data about the city of Istanbul and contributes

to new methodologies of documenting, analyzing, and exhibiting sensory information. There

is much to be gained as cultural heritage practitioners expand the notion of what constitutes

intangible heritage. As this dissertation suggests, it must include smellscapes, as well as the

other senses, and the spirit of embodiment.

ii

Özet

Bu tez, kokuyu somut olmayan kültürel miras kapsamında inceler. Koku alanı her ne

kadar göz ardı edilmiş olsa da tarih, kültürel miras ve mekânı deneyimleyebileceğimiz eşsiz

bir ortamdır. Duyusal yaklaşım bir katalizör gibi beden, duyular, bellek ve çevre arasındaki

etkileşimi daha iyi algılamamızı sağlar. Bu tez, İstanbul örneği üzerinden kokunun tarihsel

belge ve değişim ölçütü niteliklerini vurgular ve toplumsal bellek ile mirasa erişimde nasıl

kullanılabileceğini açıklar. Bu çalışma tarihi Mısır Çarşısı ile Eminönü’nün koku alanlarına

odaklanır. Sözlü tarih, haritalama, tarih araştırması ve yaratıcı uygulamaların yanı sıra

psikoloji ve nöroloji bilimlerinden faydalanarak geçmişi daha iyi anlama ve

değerlendirmemize yardımcı olur.

Bu doktora araştırmasının önemli bir bölümünü de 14 Nisan ve 8 Haziran 2016

tarihleri arasında Koç Üniversitesi Anadolu Medeniyetleri Araştırma Merkezi’nin ev

sahipliği yaptığı “Koku ve Şehir” sergisi oluşturur. Bu sergi, ziyaretçileri Türkiye’nin tarihi

ile modernleşme süreci ve değişimini koku üzerinden deneyimlemeye davet etmiştir. Ayrıca

ziyaretçilere koku ile etkileşim imkânı sunarak İstanbul’un duyu alanları ile ilgili bilgi

birikimimize katkıda bulunmuştur. Bu tez hem “Koku ve Şehir” sergisini analiz eder hem de

müzecilik uygulamaları üzerinden bir bağlama oturtur.

Bu tez İstanbul’a dair yeni duyusal veriler ortaya koyar ve bunları belgeleme,

inceleme ve sergilemede yardımcı olabilecek yeni yöntemlere katkıda bulunur. Araştırmalar,

somut olmayan kültürel miras üzerine olan bu gibi çalışmalar ile kuşkusuz zenginleşecektir.

Bu tezin de vurguladığı gibi, somut olmayan kültürel miras diğer duyularla birlikte koku ve

bedensel deneyimleri kapsamalıdır.

iii

Acknowledgements

This dissertation would not have been possible without the help and support of many

people. First and foremost, I wish to extend my deepest gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Lucienne

Thys-Şenocak. Her endless support and encouragement made this dissertation possible and I

am incredibly grateful for all the time, advice, and energy she gave to make my PhD

experience both productive and meaningful. It was her involvement in the Urban Cultural

Heritage and Creative Practice Consortium that spearheaded my own participation and

interest in sensory heritage. To her, as well as the other project leaders from Koç University

(who eventually became my monitoring committee)—Dr. Nina Ergin and Dr. Ilgım Veryeri

Alaca—I am eternally grateful for helping me close my eyes and experience the wonder of

the past and the present through the other senses. I would like to express my gratitude to Dr.

Richard Leventhal and Dr. Melanie Kiechle for accepting to take part in my defense, the final

and immensely important part of this Ph.D. dissertation. Finally, I am indebted to Koc

University for their financial support, as well as to for the GSSSH faculty and staff who were

always willing to lend a hand, especially Tuğçe Şatana.

Curating and producing any exhibition is inherently a team effort. Again, I need to

thank Dr. Lucienne Thys-Şenocak for advising “Scent and the City” and for all the time and

effort she put into helping me realize my ideas. I would like to thank the entire staff of Koç

University’s Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations who believed in the exhibition idea

and helped bring it to life, especially Şeyda Çetin, Buket Coşkuner, and Esra Satıcı. Thanks

also go to the incredible team of Cem Kozar and Işıl Ünal at PATTU for their design and to

Duygu Beşbıçak and the MG Gülçiçek company for donating the scents. I would like to thank

the Gülsha rose company, Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi, Atelier Rebul, Fulya Yayha, Vedat

Ozan, Aybala and Nejat Yentürk, Rüksan and Mehmet Ürgüplü, and Sümer Ayer for their

donations of time, ideas, objects, and some particularly special smells. Finally, there is a

iv

never-ending list of people who helped support the exhibition: the participants and advisors

of the UCHCP Smellscapes of Eminönü workshop, the ARHA faculty who answered all my

last-minute questions about Byzantine, Greek, and Roman history, Sabiha Göloğlu, who

helped with the oral history project, exhibition volunteers M. Kemal Baran and Berk Koçak,

and the people who translated various parts of the exhibition—Yiğit Adam, Serra Tanman,

M. Kemal Baran, and Rick Wohmann.

I am grateful to the ARHA department and to Koç University for creating an

intellectual atmosphere that encouraged, inspired, and challenged me. It was thanks to ARHA

and Koç that I found a family here in Turkey—my wonderful friends, who have supported

me since the beginning. To Sabiha Göloğlu, Gülşah Günata, Deniz Sever, Emily Arauz,

Gizem Dörter, and M. Kemal Baran: I am eternally grateful for the love, laughter, and

friendship we have shared over these past 6 years. To my best friends back in America—

Tabitha Silver, Danielle Daidone, Hannah Lau, Melissa Meek, Summer Tucker, Tracy

Yuslum Hey, and Courtney Lykins—thank you for all the long-distance Skype sessions,

catch-ups at my favorite restaurants, and endless enthusiasm, curiosity, and love as I pursued

my PhD.

I would not be here today without the loving support of my family, to whom this

dissertation is dedicated. I am thankful to my parents, Newt and Sandy, for their patience,

limitless love, and encouragement. It is from them that I developed my love of reading and

history and it thanks to them that I could explore the world and pursue my passions. I am also

eternally grateful for my brother, Nate, whose innate curiosity and ability to think outside the

box has always challenged me and inspired me.

Lastly, I owe thanks to my husband, Ahad Khaleghi Ardabili. With unwavering

kindness, empathy, and love, he held my hand and stood beside me through the joys and

challenges of graduate school and life. Wherever is your heart, I call home.

v

Table of Contents

Abstract .......................................................................................................................................i

Özet ............................................................................................................................................ii

Acknowledgements.................................................................................................................. iii

List of Figures ..........................................................................................................................vii

Introduction................................................................................................................................1

A Note on Language...............................................................................................................7

Chapter 1: Literature Review...................................................................................................11

Introduction ..........................................................................................................................11

Sensory Studies.....................................................................................................................12

Sensory Anthropology..........................................................................................................12

Embodiment and Phenomenology........................................................................................18

Sensory History ....................................................................................................................20

Urban Studies .......................................................................................................................25

Cultural Heritage ..................................................................................................................29

Intangible Heritage ...............................................................................................................31

Psychology and Neurobiology..............................................................................................35

Methodologies ......................................................................................................................42

Oral History.......................................................................................................................44

Mapping ............................................................................................................................47

“Urban Cultural Heritage and Creative Practice” Workshop and Experimental

Methodologies...................................................................................................................49

A Sensorial View of Eminönü..............................................................................................54

Chapter 2: The History and Evolution of Smell ......................................................................66

Part 1: The Science and Physiology of Smell.......................................................................67

Basic physiology of how we smell....................................................................................67

The System........................................................................................................................67

How are smells produced? ................................................................................................69

Problems processing smells in the brain ...........................................................................73

Smell and Memory............................................................................................................74

Age and Smell ...................................................................................................................74

Anosmia ............................................................................................................................75

Synaesthesia ......................................................................................................................77

Part 2: A History of Thought on Smell.................................................................................79

Part 3: Language and Semiotics ...........................................................................................85

Semiotics ...........................................................................................................................89

Categorization ...................................................................................................................90

vi

Part 4: Smell and Culture......................................................................................................94

Gender and Ethnicity.........................................................................................................94

Religion and Royalty.........................................................................................................96

Islam and Christianity .......................................................................................................97

From Paganism to Byzantine Christianity ......................................................................101

Cleanliness: Cities and Bodies ........................................................................................105

Travelogues and Memoirs...............................................................................................111

Olfactory Projects, Products, and the Digital Future ......................................................115

Chapter 3: Aromatic Exhibitions ...........................................................................................124

Part 1: Creative Museums and Sensory Interaction............................................................125

Part 2: “Scent and the City”................................................................................................137

What was the purpose of the exhibition? What needs did it fill?....................................137

Design, Layout, and Content...........................................................................................137

Section Information.........................................................................................................141

Specific Exhibit Activities Goals ....................................................................................144

Mapping Activity ............................................................................................................145

Scent Bar .........................................................................................................................147

Surveys ............................................................................................................................148

Marketing Strategy..........................................................................................................149

Front-End Evaluation ......................................................................................................150

Formative Evaluation ......................................................................................................150

Summative Evaluation ....................................................................................................151

Exhibition Survey Discussion ............................................................................................161

Conclusions and Recommendations................................................................................167

Chapter 4: Discussion and Conclusion ..................................................................................170

Oral History: Green Spaces, Modernization, and Olfactory Economies............................171

Conclusion..........................................................................................................................180

Bibliography ..........................................................................................................................188

Appendix A............................................................................................................................215

Appendix B ...........................................................................................................................237

vii

List of Figures

Figure 1: Examples of facial expressions of neonates in response to odors. A, B, and C are

responding to formula milk; D is responding to vanilla; E and F to butyric acid

Figure 2: Givaudan perfumist Roman Kaiser using headspace. Kaiser developed the

technology in the 1980s. Photo courtesy Givaudan promotional material.

Figure 3: Inside the Spice Market. Photograph by Anthony Haughey, part of the Smellscapes

of Eminönü archive project.

Figure 4: Participants trying a blindfolded scent walk. Part of the Smellscapes of Eminönü

archive project.

Figure 5: The molecular shapes of ferrocene and nickelocene. Despite being the same shape,

they produce different odors. Image from the Science Photo Library.

Figure 6: All of these molecules, although shaped differently, produce the same camphor

odor. Image from the Science Photo Library.

Figure 7: Smell map of Amsterdam designed by Kate McLean.

Figure 8: Word Cloud 1

Figure 9: Surveys by age group

Figure 10: Surveys by gender

Figure 11: Surveys by nationality

Figure 12: Countries of non-Turkish surveys

Figure 13: Survey Question 1

Figure 14: Survey Question 2

Figure 15: Survey Question 3

Figure 16: Survey Question 4

Figure 17: Survey Question 5

Figure 18: Word Cloud 2

Figure 19: Opening ceremony of the linden planting in Pendik.

Figure 20: Peanuts still being sold in a jute bag. Source: Photograph by Emily Arauz, part of

the Smellscapes of Eminönü archive project.

Figure 21: Plastic bags ready for use in Eminönü. Photograph by Pat Cooke, part of the

Smellscapes of Eminönü archive.

1

Introduction

The sense of smell is a unique medium through which we can explore history and place.

Smell has risen in prominence in recent academic research and literature. The sensory

experience has become a way to study and connect to the present and past while contributing

to our understanding of the lived heritage of people and places. Moving beyond sight and

experiencing, smell is a new way to interpret and present material culture and information

about a place to museum and heritage site visitors. It is also an often-overlooked aspect of

intangible heritage and history. Sensory studies open new paths for the investigation of urban

history and use an approach which combines state of the art research in psychology and

neuroscience. Further, it serves as a catalyst for creating a greater awareness of the body and

the senses. My dissertation project examines scent as a form of intangible heritage. Using

Istanbul as a case study, I examine how smell can constitute a record of history, be a way to

measure change, and how it can be used to access communal memories and heritage.

Both smell and odorlessness can define time and space, and each can be used to

represent societal values and ideologies. Smell was, and still is, a created, manipulated, and

significant part of the material world, and by extension, cultural heritage. This sensory

approach has led to the term “smellscape,” a term coined by geographer J. Douglas Porteous,

in his book Landscapes of the Mind: Worlds of Senses and Metaphor. He suggests that “like

visual impressions, smells may be spatially ordered or place-related”; therefore they describe

the environment around us through both individual odors and the resulting combination of

smells as they mix and react to each other, maturing through contact and due to weather

conditions.1 The smell environment is fluid and dynamic. Humans can detect only a small

1 J. Douglas Porteous, “Smellscape,” Progress in Physical Geography 9, no. 3 (1985): 359,

https://doi.org/10.1177/030913338500900303.

2

part of this fluctuating smellscape and may be able to remember only very specific aspects of

these scented environments.

Almost three decades have passed since the “sensorial turn” made its debut in the

fields of in anthropology and history. The past few years have witnessed an increased interest

in the senses and numerous studies have been published recently about sensorial studies and

the future of this avenue of inquiry. The dependence on vision and text for most disciplines

throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has been well-established. In his

introduction to the special volume of the Journal of Material Culture, Christopher Tilley

comments on this privileging of vision in relation to the other senses, noting that a

perspective that ignores “soundscapes, smellscapes and the tactile involvement of people with

the land…distorts our understanding of the significance of place and identity, either in the

past or the present. Gazing at…has taken precedence over a consideration of activities

shaping and altering the land in various ways.”2

Jon Prosser, in his article on the “darker side” of visual research, acknowledges the

importance “seeing” has in research agendas. Not only does it “slow down” and “focus”

observations on how and why we perceive visual material, visual styles of communication

can be quite effective in transmitting information.3 However, he argues, visual research has

numerous problems, the most relevant being that it “encourages fragmentation, discourages

collaboration, and the establishment of one dominant model, thereby limiting evolutionary

potential.”4 Furthermore, the divisions and general “institutional, territorial…or

epistemological inflexibility” between various academic disciplines—anthropology, art

2 Christopher Tilley, “Introduction: Identity, Place, Landscape and Heritage,” Journal of Material Culture 11,

no. 1–2 (July 1, 2006): 26, https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183506062990.

3 Jon Prosser, “The Darker Side of Visual Research,” NCRM Working Paper. Realities, Morgan Centre,

Manchester, UK, no. 9 (2008): 2, http://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/534/.

4 Prosser, 13.

3

history, cultural studies—often result in minimal collaboration and limits the potential for a

lively intellectual discourse on the topic to develop.5

This dissertation takes a multi-disciplinary approach to sensory studies and draws

upon history, anthropology, art history, cultural heritage, museology, architecture, cultural

studies, cultural geography, sociology, and the sciences. A multi-disciplinary approach, in

addition to providing for greater transparency among many different disciplines, allows us to

recognize the weaknesses of various sensory approaches. Greene summarizes the possibilities

that open to researchers when we approach questions through multiple methodologies, stating

“mixed methods way of thinking also generates questions, alongside possible answers; it

generates results that are both smooth and jagged, full of relative certainties alongside

possibilities and even surprises, offering some stories not yet told.”6

Why is it important to study the senses? First, we must recognize that we have

prioritized vision in the repertoire of senses and we need to reassess that methodology.

Second, in some ways, our world is becoming increasingly desensitized and deodorized. In

our sanitized, odor-controlled environments, we are not encouraged to engage with the

sensory environment or embrace the sensuous world around us. We react to aberrations

negatively; if that includes smell we regulate the spaces around our lives to punish “bad”

smells and sounds and the agents that produce them.7 The environment in which we live is

evaluated according to modern values and definitions of cleanliness.8 These definitions are

5 Ibid., 4.

6 Jennifer C. Greene, “Is Mixed Methods Social Inquiry a Distinctive Methodology?,” Journal of Mixed

Methods Research 2, no. 1 (January 1, 2008): 20, https://doi.org/10.1177/1558689807309969.

7 In less than one year, the city of New York received more than one hundred and forty thousand noise

complaints and about 10,000 odor complaints(Ben Wellington, “Mapping New York’s Noisiest

Neighborhoods,” The New Yorker, January 17, 2015, http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/mapping-newyork-

noise-complaints.). Given these statistics, it is apparent that these residents of NYC were not living in a

sensory-deprived or sterile environment, but one that is sense-filled and rapidly changing.

8 I do not mean to imply that other ages did not value cleanliness. In fact, throughout history humans have

embarked on campaigns to cleanse their environments, which also, especially starting in the nineteenth century,

included smells and sounds (cf. Melanie Kiechle, “Navigating by Nose: Fresh Air, Stench Nuisance, and the

Urban Environment, 1840–1880,” Journal of Urban History 42, no. 4 (2016): 753–71,

https://doi.org/10.1177/0096144214566981.).

4

both culturally-bound and they are indices of the industrialized, global society in which we

live.

Given the increased importance of sensory studies in the past decades, there are still

some notable gaps in our knowledge about scent. Of particular relevance to this dissertation

is the fact that some disciplines have still not embraced a sensory approach to research.

Cultural heritage, for example, has been slow to incorporate the other senses as integral parts

of the heritage of people and places. As defined by the International Council on Monuments

and Sites, cultural heritage is “an expression of the ways of living developed by a community

and passed on from generation to generation, including customs, practices, places, objects,

artistic expressions and values.”9 Cultural heritage practitioners, therefore, support local

communities and countries in researching, documenting, sharing, and preserving heritage.

Even as the senses are ignored today by many people, Turner’s notion of reverse valuation, in

which we identify and activate values from the past that we have come to appreciate in the

present, provides a useful framework through which we could approach a more sensorial

cultural heritage.10

How should sensory heritage be studied? Decades of charters have established bestpractices

within the cultural heritage sector relating to tangible material heritage; there is less

equivalent literature for intangible heritage and practically none for sensory heritage.

Studying the heritage of senses poses several difficult methodological problems. Most

significantly, the senses are always subjective and embedded in cultural connotations that

make it impossible to study them outside of their context.11 Every society has a unique

sensory hierarchy and meanings. Can people outside these societies really understand these

9 ICOMOS International Cultural Tourism Committee., “ICOMOS, International Cultural Tourism Charter:

Principles and Guidelines For Managing Tourism At Places Of Cultural And Heritage Significance,” 2002, 21.

10 Victor Witter Turner, Process, Performance, and Pilgrimage: A Study in Comparative Symbology (Concept

Publishing Company, 1979).

11 Joel C. Kuipers, “Matters of Taste in Weyéwa,” Anthropological Linguistics 35, no. 1/4 (1993): 539,

https://doi.org/10.2307/30028268.

5

embedded sensory values? Classen and Howes argue that “cultural outsiders” cannot ever

really understand, but we have the opportunity to do better than those before, and the duty to

acknowledge what we do not understand.12 Classen and Howes’ premise that outsiders can

never completely understand a culture is rather a problematic statement; it ignores the

decades of work that have been done to deconstruct the concept “insiders” and “outsiders” in

anthropology and sociology, as well as the development of methods to help researchers

understand better and be more immersive in the cultures which they are studying.13 This

statement also assumes a hard division between the “researcher” and the “culture” and

implies that there is one correct interpretation of culture. In fact, there are degrees of

association and understanding, and it is often in the tensions between the various perspectives

that create interpretation and good research questions.14 However, Classen and Howes are

correct that we do always have a duty to acknowledge what we do not know and to do better

than before; with new technologies and new methodologies for documenting, preserving and

interpreting scent we can continue to expand the sensory frontiers in scholarship.

Furthermore, what happens when we take this sensory knowledge and sensorial

cultural heritage and try to share it in a museum? Susan Dudley argues that museums are a

special environment that is on one hand more “restrictive,” but also does not change the fact

12 Constance Classen and David Howes, “The Museum as Sensescape: Western Sensibilities and Indigenous

Artifacts,” in Sensible Objects: Colonialism, Museums and Material Culture, ed. Elizabeth Edwards, Chris

Gosden, and Ruth Phillips (Oxford: Berg, 2006), 218.

13 Sharan B. Merriam et al., “Power and Positionality: Negotiating Insider/Outsider Status within and across

Cultures,” International Journal of Lifelong Education 20, no. 5 (September 1, 2001): 405–16,

https://doi.org/10.1080/02601370120490; Robert K. Merton, “Insiders and Outsiders: A Chapter in the

Sociology of Knowledge,” American Journal of Sociology 78, no. 1 (1972): 9–47,

https://doi.org/10.2307/2776569; Charles V. Willie, “On Merton’s ‘Insiders and Outsiders,’” American Journal

of Sociology 78, no. 5 (1973): 1269–72, https://doi.org/10.2307/2776636; Cliff Goddard and Anna Wierzbicka,

“Cultural Scripts: What Are They and What Are They Good For,” Intercultural Pragmatics 1, no. 2 (2004):

153–166; John C. Wakefield, “Emotional Feelings as a Form of Evidence: A Case Study of Visceral

Evidentiality in Mormon Culture,” in Interdisciplinary Studies in Pragmatics, Culture and Society, ed.

Alessandro Capone and Jacob L. Mey, Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology 4 (Springer,

2015), 899–924.

14 For a discussion on this topic, read the discussion on ResearchGate: “In Any Ethnographic Research, Who

Can Understand the Culture...,” ResearchGate, 2015,

https://www.researchgate.net/post/In_any_ethnographic_research_who_can_understand_the_culture_better.

6

that we do not just experience, but also interpret, with our whole body. She notes that “too

often we forget that we live in the world and too often we interpret that world—whether

subconsciously in the course of our individual everyday lives, or whether deliberately as part

of interpretive endeavor in museums, heritage sites, journalism, academia or wherever—not

as we should, from within it, but as if we were outside it, disembodied, looking on.”15 Rather

than continue to be cultural institutions which rely primarily on visual modes of

communication and interpretation, museums need to acknowledge the role of the body and

capitalize on the enormous potential that activating sensory modes of learning can offer.

What is the best way to build a more sensory museum environment and what are the

constraints? How should museums handle questions of authenticity when reproducing

sensory worlds?

My dissertation explores the nexus of two areas not frequently combined: heritage and

the senses. Although my research focuses largely on scent, my aim is to increase awareness

of how all the senses are important aspects of urban history, architecture, heritage, culture,

and identity. Using the city of Istanbul as a case study, my dissertation provides new sensory

data about a specific market quarter of an ancient city which is now a megacity of more than

fourteen million residents.16 It contributes to the development of new methodologies of

documenting, analyzing, and exhibiting scent in urban and historic environments. My case

study focuses on the smellscapes of the Spice Market and Eminönü, a historic marketplace

and neighborhood of Istanbul and explores various methodologies which can help us better

understand and value the sensory past.

An important component of my dissertation research was the design and curation of

the exhibition, “Scent and the City,” which opened for three months from April through June

15 Sandra H. Dudley, “Museum Materialities: Objects, Sense and Feeling,” Museum Materialities: Objects,

Engagements, Interpretations, 2010, 21.

16 “Istanbul Population,” July 28, 2017, http://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/istanbul-population/.

7

2016 at the Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED) in Istanbul, Turkey.

“Scent and the City” invited visitors to become more aware of scent and its value as heritage

and contributed to my dissertation because I was able to study the effectiveness of the

exhibition and overall sensory awareness of visitors via quantitative and qualitative research.

Chapter 3 provides an overview and assessment of the exhibition, which was a valuable case

study to explore the links between cultural heritage and sensory studies in an urban

environment.

A Note on Language

The dissertation uses the words “scent,” “smell,” and “odor” interchangeably. There are

many words that can be used to describe scent. There are very few precise boundaries on the

situational usages of these words, with “scent,” “smell,” “odor,” “aroma,” “fragrance,”

“olfactory,” and “perfume” being the most frequently used. There is almost no difference in

definition amongst the words; however, certain words are more frequently used in certain

situations. Additionally, some of the words perhaps have a slight connotation of “good” or

“bad” attached to them. Unfortunately, a full explanation of the differences is evasive, if not

impossible for modern English usage. Official academic dictionaries and resources, such as

the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), note the variety of usages but do not establish clear

distinctions. Furthermore, less academic but more common guides such as thesaurus.com are

actively confusing, listing “aroma, bouquet, flavor, perfume, scent, stench, stink…” as

synonyms of “smell” but “odor, perfume, stink, sweetness…” as antonyms.17

For the purposes of this paper, and in common usage, the differences are minute,

although not irrelevant. Some people will only use “fragrance” for pleasant-smelling things,

“odor” for bad-smelling things, “aroma” for cooking smells, but these are neither standard

nor strictly enforced. Furthermore, their use in literature and popular culture is not only based

17 “Smell Synonyms, Smell Antonyms | Thesaurus.Com,” accessed September 4, 2017,

http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/smell.

8

on context and definition, but also on factors such as rhyme and flow.18 Religious literature

becomes even more complex, as holy smells, even those normally considered bad, are

assumed to also smell “good,” such as when saints performed pious acts or were martyred.19

Ultimately, any insight based on the choice of the words above must be understood carefully,

contextually, and individually. Below are the definitions of the terms with which I am

working in this dissertation, taken from the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).20

Aroma: “[1] Spice; usually in pl. spices. [2a] The distinctive fragrance exhaled from a spice,

plant, etc.; gen. an agreeable odour, a sweet smell.” Aroma is used in cooking and science;

literary uses are mostly favorable, but also use the word to juxtapose particularly noxious

smells.21 Variations of “aroma” appear in both Latin and Greek, although it evolved into to

English via Old French. The OED notes that it usually refers to “agreeable” fragrances and

was often used as a synonym of, and in conjunction with, “spices.”

18 A good example from pop culture is the “Aroma of Tacoma” (Timothy Egan, “Tacoma Journal; On Good

Days, the Smell Can Hardly Be Noticed,” The New York Times, April 6, 1988,

http://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/06/us/tacoma-journal-on-good-days-the-smell-can-hardly-be-noticed.html.).

Although “aroma” typically refers to something pleasant it is used to describe the “putrid and unpleasant” odor

of Tacoma, Washington because it rhymes.

19 Many records indicate that saints’ bodies became “sweet” smelling after death (Suzanne Evans, “The Scent of

a Martyr,” Numen 49, no. 2 (2002): 205. A body smelling sweet reflected their physical presence on earth while

making it clear their soul was in paradise. God was divine, and therefore smelled “good,” while mortals stank.

Although saints remained mortals, and their dead bodies physically present on earth, the sweet smell indicated

that they had channeled the divine in their lives, and were now residing in Heaven (Mary Thurlkill, “Odors of

Sanctity : Distinctions of the Holy in Early Christianity and Islam,” Comperative Islamic Studies 2, no. 2007

(2007): 134, https://doi.org/10.1558/cis.v3i2.133. While all logic dictates that the decaying bodies did not smell

sweet, it is useful again to remember that we culturally construct our opinions on smell. To those who chose to

believe, St. Lawrence burning to death was a “nectar sweet” “soothing” “delightful” smell, while it was

“noxious” to pagans (Susan Ashbrook Harvey, “On Holy Stench: When the Odor of Sanctity Sickens,” Studia

Patristica 35 (2001): 93.

20 “Home : Oxford English Dictionary,” accessed August 17, 2017, http://www.oed.com/.

21 In Patrick Süskind’s Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (1991, pg. 3), he writes of the “the pungently sweet

aroma of chamber pots.” Walt Whitman, in “Song of Myself” (2001 [1855], stanza 24) writes: "The scent of

these arm-pits is aroma finer than prayer..." and Stephen King in It (2016 [1986], pg. 148) wrote: “…I seemed to

smell the bitter ozone aroma of lightings-to-come." “Aroma” is also often also used in religious contexts,

especially when referring to saints and death. For more information, see footnote 16.

9

Scent: “[1a] Perception by the senses generally; feeling, sensibility. [1b] The faculty or sense

of smell; Chiefly with reference to that of animals (esp. dogs) which detect and track their

quarry or recognize objects by this sense.” Scent comes to English from the French sente not

meaning odor, but rather a “perception of the senses generally,” sense. However, both Anglo-

Norman and middle French had the word sente which did refer to an odor, particularly of an

animal. There does not appear to be any sort of judgment attached to scent.

Smell: “[noun] The sense of which the nose is the organ; the faculty of smelling. …[verb] To

have perception of (an object, odour, etc.) by means of the olfactory sense. As both a noun

and a verb, derives from Old English, although our first attested use in writing appears in

Early Middle English, around 1175 CE. Just as with scent, smell seems to be free of either

positive or negative connotation. The noun and verb of smell are the most commonly used

olfactory words in modern English; they appear between 10 and 100 times per million words.

Odor: “[1a] Senses relating to the sense of smell. [1b] The property of a substance that is

perceptible by the sense of smell; (in early use) spec. a sweet or pleasing scent; (now, freq.)

an unpleasant smell.” Odor is attested in Anglo-Norman, Latin, and French. Curiously, as

noted by the OED, it has experienced a change in connotation. While originally it was used

for sweet or pleasing scents, it gradually has come to be used in predominantly (but not

exclusively) negative connotations.

Olfactory: “[noun] A thing to be smelled. [adj] Of or relating to the sense of smell or the

action of smelling.” Olfactory and its variations (including very rare words such as olfacient

and olent) come from Latin via French. More than likely odor and olfactory are variations of

the same Latin root, yet odor became much more commonly used. Furthermore, olfactory

10

does not possess any inherent judgment of good or bad. Although its usage is much lower

than other related words, it does appear with more frequency in scientific contexts and is used

to name the physiological systems and organs related to smell.

Fragrance: “[noun] Sweetness of smell; sweet or pleasing scent.” In its noun, adjective, and

verb forms, fragrance almost always refers to pleasing scents. It derives from both Old

French and late Latin.

Perfume: “[noun 1a] The (esp. pleasant-smelling) vapour or fumes given off by the burning

of a substance; such fumes inhaled as a medical treatment or used to fumigate a house, room,

etc. [noun 1b] The fragrance or odour emitted by any (usually pleasant-smelling) substance or

thing; a fragrance. [verb 1a] To fill or impregnate with the smoke or vapour of a burning

substance for the purpose of disinfecting, treating, etc.; to fumigate. [verb 1b] To fill or

impregnate with the smoke or vapour of incense or another substance emitting a pleasant

odour. In later use passing into sense.”

Despite everything written above, there are some specific olfactory-based words. The

majority— including malodor, stench, reek, stink, and funk—are used only in negative

contexts. Some others are used in specific culinary and scientific situations, such as

“bouquet” being used to describe the aroma of wine.

11

Chapter 1: Literature Review

Introduction

For cultural heritage research, it is necessary to consult heritage literature, but also examine

sources from history, anthropology, urban studies, architecture studies, and museology. If the

case study of the research includes a sensory-based project, knowledge of the fields of

phenomenology, chemistry, neurosciences, among the sciences could also be critical.

Furthermore, the place where the case study is conducted and the cultural history and context

of that society must be well-documented; without this knowledge, it is difficult to understand

the cultural values that are linked to the senses in a particular geography, and what diverse

role senses can have also cultural heritage.

This chapter explores the sensorial turn in anthropology and history, looking at the

significant literature upon which most studies are based, while also providing a background

of relevant literature from cultural heritage. The existing body of smell-based research

projects and their sensory and methodological implications are also considered. This chapter

also includes an overview of the relevant neuroscience, psychology, and biology studies

which have informed our understanding of why the sensory experience is what it is, and how

the senses and cultural experience inform each other. This science review provides a

summary of what studies have discovered and how those discoveries have helped researchers

in the social sciences and humanities better understand olfaction. Additionally, this chapter

assesses the various methodologies that were used in this research project and provides a

brief overview and sensory-related history of Istanbul and the neighborhood of Eminönü.

Both Chapter 2, The History and Evolution of Smell, and Chapter 3, Aromatic

Exhibitions, contain their own literature reviews with studies relevant to the chapter subjects.

Chapter 2 covers the evolution of thought about smell, its relation to the other senses, and

how smell functions with regards to culture, including language, religion, travel, and tourism.

Woven into this chapter are diverse examples of the role scent plays in Turkish, Ottoman,

12

Islamic, and Byzantine historical contexts. Chapter 3 considers the potential for integrating to

a greater degree the senses in a museum context and evaluates the exhibition and case study

for this dissertation project, “Scent and the City.”

Sensory Studies

In 1990, Diane Ackerman published A Natural History of the Senses.22 This book, written for

the general public, helped introduce the importance of sensory awareness. Fourteen years

later, Robert Jute published A History of the Senses: From Antiquity to Cyberspace,23 which

continues Ackerman’s path of popularizing the sensory experience. Around this same time,

academia experienced a similar sensory-turn—a “sensorial revolution” according to Howes—

especially in the fields of history and anthropology.24 This sensory turn was predicated on the

realization of the hegemony of vision in academic research. According to Hamilton, these

pioneering scholars argued: “the unthinking dominance of the visual in accounts of the social

limits our imagination and ignores the equally crucial role that other senses play in our

experience and understanding of the world.”25 However, although the rise of the anthropology

of the senses was certainly a response to the greater emphasis placed on visual and text-based

research, it was also a “positive attempt” to understand the “basic sensual and existential

dimensions of the human condition.”26

Sensory Anthropology

Before the advent of “sensory anthropology,” anthropologists did occasionally consider the

senses. The noted anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss writes that the senses “are operators,

which make it possible to convey the isomorphic character of all binary systems of contrasts

22 Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses (New York: Vintage, 1991).

23 Robert Jütte, A History of the Senses: From Antiquity to Cyberspace (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2004).

24 David Howes, “Architecture of the Senses,” in Sense of the City Exhibition Catalogue, Canadian Centre for

Architecture (Montreal, 2005), http://www.david-howes.com/DH-research-sampler-arch-senses.htm.

25 Paula Hamilton, “Oral History and the Senses,” in The Oral History Reader, ed. Robert Perks and Alistair

Thomson, 3rd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2016), 105.

26 Classen and Howes, “The Museum as Sensescape: Western Sensibilities and Indigenous Artifacts,” 199.

13

connected with the senses, and therefore to express, as a totality, a set of equivalences

connecting life and death, vegetable foods and cannibalism, putrefaction and imputrescibility,

softness and hardness, silence and noise.”27 Levi-Strauss views the senses as messengers, an

idea still at the core of how we understand the senses today. His notions of the binary also

continue to permeate our discussions, with food anthropologist Tim Sutton remarking that in

early anthropology, the senses and their properties (such as temperature and flavor quality)

were often analyzed as “binary oppositions that code for other important structural

oppositions,” so that the structured polarities and binaries associated with the senses can

ultimately reflect larger phenomenon, such as the social system and notions of identity.28

Initially, sensory anthropology was less a reaction to the primacy of the visual and

much more a reaction to the primacy of words and text within anthropology. Interviews,

writing, and in the early stages of anthropology, empirical data, have always been the basis of

thought for anthropologists and ethnographers. In the 1990’s, major theoreticians such as

David Howes and Constance Classen began to focus exclusively on notions of the sensory

outside of its usefulness for history. In 1991 The Varieties of Sensory Experience: A

Sourcebook in the Anthropology of the Senses was published by David Howes, and it

advocates for a sensory approach.29 Howes proposed a comparison of sensory values in

various societies. Published two years later, Constance Classen’s Worlds of Sense: Exploring

the Senses in History and Across Cultures calls for a similar exploration of the global

importance of the senses.30 Howes renews his call for a sensory approach with two volumes:

Sensual Relations: Engaging the Senses in Culture and Social Theory and Empire of the

27 Claude Lévi-Strauss, Mythologiques: The Raw and the Cooked (University of Chicago Press, 1983), 153 as

cited in David E. Sutton, “Food and the Senses,” Annual Review of Anthropology 39 (2010): 210.

28 Sutton, “Food and the Senses,” 210–11.

29 David Howes, The Varieties of Sensory Experience: A Sourcebook in the Anthropology of the Senses

(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991).

30 Constance Classen, Worlds of Sense: Exploring the Senses in History and Across Cultures (Routledge, 1993).

14

Senses.31 Howes and Classen effectively argue that different societies have different sensory

hierarchies and methods of perceiving the world and that anthropologists should “be more

sensible” and “inclined to experiment with our bodies and senses, instead of simply toying

with our writing styles.”32 However, Howes’ and Classen’s’ multiculturalist stance, which

recognizes all understandings of the body and the senses as valid, can clash with wellestablished

scientific knowledge about how the body, the senses, and the brain work. Tim

Ingold notes that “the environment that people inhabit is not sliced up along the lines of the

sensory pathways by which they access it. It is the same world, whatever paths they take.”33

Furthermore, some anthropologists argue that Classen’s and Howes’ preoccupation with

pulling away from the visual and the textual both in research and dissemination fails to

acknowledge of the significance of writing and the textual ways in which research is

presented to other scholars and the public.34

Other anthropologists, such as Ingold, argue that Howes’ approach remains too

categorized, and this categorization ultimately impacts negatively our understanding of

culture.35 Ingold and Pink both call for a more embodied sensory anthropology.36 While

Howes wants anthropology to focus on the senses as they pertained to “whole societies,”

these other anthropologists want to focus on a more individual embodied experience, both for

researchers and for people within the societies they were studying.37 Stoller’s 1989 work The

Taste of Ethnographic Things predates the works by Howes and Classen but also focuses on a

31 David Howes, Sensual Relations: Engaging the Senses in Culture and Social Theory (University of Michigan

Press, 2010); David Howes, ed., Empire of the Senses (Berg Publishers Oxford, UK, 2005).

32Howes, Sensual Relations, 28.

33 Tim Ingold, “Worlds of Sense and Sensing the World: A Response to Sarah Pink and David Howes,” Social

Anthropology 19, no. 3 (2011): 316, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8676.2011.00163.x.

34 Brian Rusted, “Writing the Red Trench: Performance, Visual Culture, and Emplaced Writing,” in

Performance Studies in Canada, ed. Laura Levin and Marlis Schweitzer (McGill-Queen’s Press - MQUP,

2017), 343.

35 Tim Ingold, “Reply to David Howes,” Social Anthropology 19, no. 3 (2011): 323–327.

36 Sarah Pink, Doing Sensory Ethnography (Los Angeles; London: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2009); Sarah Pink

and David Howes, “The Future of Sensory Anthropology/the Anthropology of the Senses,” Social Anthropology

18, no. 3 (2010): 331–40.

37 Howes, The Varieties of Sensory Experience: A Sourcebook in the Anthropology of the Senses; Pink, Doing

Sensory Ethnography, 13.

15

more individual approach to the senses in anthropology.38 Both Howes’ argument and

Ingold’s argument, however, are cyclical and dependent on the other’s methodology. Any

study of the individual sensory experience still requires extensive study of the societal

sensory values as a whole, while any whole society-based study of the senses is ultimately

built on multiple, continuous individual sensory experiences and values.

In the journal Social Anthropology, Howes, Pink, and Ingold debate future of sensory

anthropology. One of the major points of contention was this question of focusing on

individual experience or whole societies.39 They further debate how much should science and

empiricism inform a sensory approach. Howes argues that everything is a cultural construct

and that focusing on Western empiricism and science ignores indigenous ways of

understanding, but Pink asserts that science can inform sensory anthropology.40 Sarah Pink

further argues for the use of walking as a medium of exploration and “slow ethnography” that

allows researchers

to notice sensory details which are “constitutive of place.”41 Howes concedes the value in

walking but ultimately finds it too “pedestrian” to be the basis of sensory anthropology,

advocating instead for research through more “vibrant, interactive, and provocative models”

such as clubbing, dancing, and fighting.42

Ingold views Howes’ approach, in which everything is product of culture, including

indigenous views and western science, as both acultural and ahistorical, noting “Indeed, it is

hard to imagine any paradigm that could be less cultural, and less historical, than one which

assumes that everyone else’s paradigm, whether indigenous person or scientist, is a product

38 Paul Stoller, The Taste of Ethnographic Things: The Senses in Anthropology (University of Pennsylvania

Press, 1989).

39 Pink and Howes, “The Future of Sensory Anthropology/the Anthropology of the Senses”; Tim Ingold and

David Howes, “Worlds of Sense and Sensing the World,” Social Anthropology 19, no. 3 (2011): 313–31.

40 Pink and Howes, “The Future of Sensory Anthropology/the Anthropology of the Senses,” 335–37.

41 Sarah Pink, “An Urban Tour: The Sensory Sociality of Ethnographic Place-Making,” Ethnography 9, no. 2

(2008): 181, https://doi.org/10.2307/24116022.

42 Pink and Howes, “The Future of Sensory Anthropology/the Anthropology of the Senses,” 336.

16

of cultural history.”43 Furthermore, Ingold argues that by objectifying the senses they no

longer become part of the body experiencing the world and are rather merely “instruments of

playback” which allow for review and interpretation, but are removed from the real-world

context.44 This debate highlights a question that appears in both anthropology and history:

should we be doing an anthropology of the senses or sensory anthropology?

The concept of embodiment, Classen’s sensory models, and other sensory-based

alternatives for understanding have allowed anthropologists to use their own bodies as

another layer of experiencing and analyzing a culture. It is important to note that sensory

anthropology does not call for anthropologists to close their eyes and ignore the visual, but

rather to open all the other senses. Other scholars have taken up this mantle and pushed the

boundaries of how we can explore the senses anthropologically and culturally. This has led to

a boom in publications on the senses, such as Carolyn Korsmeyer’s The Taste Culture

Reader, Jim Drobnick’s Smell Culture Reader, and Classen’s 2012 The Deepest Sense: A

Cultural History of Touch. Many of the publications are part of larger series focused on the

senses, most notably Bloomsbury Publishing’s Sensory Formations Series.45

The other foundational text for sensory anthropology is C. Nadia Seremetakis’s edited

volume The Senses Still: Perception and Memory as Material Culture in Modernity.46

Seremetakis explores the relationship between the senses, memory, and materiality, which,

Sutton argues, was meant to be “suggestive and provocative.”47 Unlike Classen and Howes,

who offer endless ethnographic and historical data, Seremetakis is much more theoretical and

focuses not only on exploring the concept of embodied memory but understanding how

43 Ingold and Howes, “Worlds of Sense and Sensing the World,” 315.

44 Ingold and Howes, 315–16.

45 This series includes The Auditory Culture Reader, Empire of the Senses: The Sensual Culture Reader, The

Taste Culture Reader: Experiencing Food and Drink, The Book of Touch, The Smell Culture Reader, Visual

Sense: A Cultural Reader, and The Sixth Sense Reader.

46 C. Nadia Seremetakis, The Senses Still: Perception and Memory as Material Culture in Modernity (Oxford:

Westview Press, 1994).

47 Sutton, “Food and the Senses,” 212.

17

memory and the past are produced both within the body and outside in culture. On cultural

objects she writes, “the item invested with surplus memory and meanings becomes a separate

and distinct (monadic) memory-form in-it-self [and] it carries within it the sensorial off-print

of its human use.”48 This notion of social memory carried through embodiment and sensory

relationships with objects is echoed by other scholars, including Chronis and Crosby, the

latter of whom writes that social memory is:

At one and the same time a collective weaving of history and myth, construction,

change, re-imagining, and reweaving…[it] is not easily evoked in written or spoken

word when its actual state of being is ongoing, performative, and shifting—existing

inside a public sphere of interactions and recollections always brought into agency

and immediacy by both simple as well as complex embodied ritual, layering lived

experience.49

However, as Chronis notes, Seremetakis falls into the trap of considering culture and objects

as frozen in time, a notion rather prevalent in anthropology and cultural heritage that was

thoroughly problematized and debunked in Michael Brown’s 2004 Who Owns Native

Culture.50 Furthermore, as anthropology and heritage studies have looked more to the

framework of performance to conceptualize how heritage is understood and interpreted

within local and museum spaces, this static notion of culture is disappearing. Of particular

interest is Defne Karaosmanoğlu’s interpretation of the Ottoman gustatory heritage in

Istanbul restaurants, where she sees the restaurant space not as a space waiting to be visited,

but as a space which is produced, tasted and performed by workers and visitors.51 It focuses

48 Seremetakis, The Senses Still: Perception and Memory as Material Culture in Modernity, 10.

49 Athinodoros Chronis, “Heritage of the Senses: Collective Remembering as an Embodied Praxis,” Tourist

Studies 6, no. 3 (December 1, 2006): 267–96, https://doi.org/10.1177/1468797607076674; Jill Flanders Crosby,

“They Brought the Essence of Africa—Social Memory, Sensational Heritage, and Embodied Practices in Perico

and Agramonte, Cuba,” Congress on Research in Dance 2012 (April 2012): 67,

https://doi.org/10.1017/cor.2012.9.

50 Chronis, “Heritage of the Senses,” 291; Michael F. Brown, Who Owns Native Culture? (Cambridge: Harvard

University Press, 2004).

51 Defne Karaosmanoğlu, “Eating the Past: Multiple Spaces, Multiple Times — Performing `Ottomanness’ in

Istanbul,” International Journal of Cultural Studies 12, no. 4 (July 1, 2009): 341,

doi:10.1177/1367877909104242.

18

on practices, performances, connections, and mobilities that are intertwined with everyday

lives.

Embodiment and Phenomenology

The concepts of embodiment and phenomenology are, in many ways, indivisible from sensory

anthropology and sociology. Drobnick, writing on smell, professes that once the smells are

inhaled they “become intimately bound with the body; they permeate the atmosphere and are

inescapable.”52 Embodiment is utilized in a number of disciplines, including philosophy, the

cognitive sciences (including linguistics and psychology), and the social sciences.

Embodiment has no one definition across these disciplines; it’s dictionary definition, “the act

of embodying (to put into a body; To impart a material, corporeal, or sensual character to),”

provides only a vague basis of how it could be a methodology or paradigm within academia.53

Embodiment acknowledges that the body is malleable, that the body is both an object and

subject of culture, a consumer and producer of sensory data, and can change in response to

experiences, which can quite literally “get under our skin.”54 We not only change “scapes” as

we move throughout the environment, we create our own sensory landscape.55 Anthropologist

Angela Martin’s definition construes embodiment as the “universal, dynamic process that

blends experience, context, and time together and embeds them in human biology.”56 Sarah

Kenderdine, writing on embodiment in the digital world, defines it as “multisensory” and

“results from effects of visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and gustatory cues. Embodiment is

entanglement through, and with, context and environment.”57

52 Jim Drobnick, ed., The Smell Culture Reader (New York: Berg, 2006), 5.

53 “Home : Oxford English Dictionary.”

54 The phrase “get under our skin” is a great example an embodied metaphor, as conceptualized within

psychology. See the sensory science literature review in for more information.

55 Peg Rawes, “Sonic Envelopes,” The Senses and Society 3, no. 1 (2008): 65.

56 Angela Martin, “Embodiment and Healing,” 2016, embodimentandhealing.com.

57 Sarah Kenderdine, “Embodiment, Entanglement, and Immersion in Digital Cultural Heritage,” in A New

Companion to Digital Humanities, ed. Susan Schreibman, Ray Siemens, and John Unsworth (Chichester: Wiley,

2016), 29.

19

Phenomenology is the study of structures of consciousness and direct lived

experiences. The father of phenomenology, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, identifies the “lived

body” as the “subject of perception”—the body itself structures and enables our sensory

experiences.58 Within sociology, there is now, according to Waskul and Vannini, “a

bewildering array of sociologies of the body,” although, as Hockey and Allen-Collinson point

out, there is not a systematic empirical base for these embodied sociologies, a charge rather at

odds with the development of sensory anthropology, which purposely deviated from text and

empirical-based research.59 They go on to say that phenomenology is “a complex,

differentiated, multi-stranded and indeed contested theoretical and methodological

perspective,” but regardless of how it is defined or applied, can be used to described the

embodied experiences of “individual but socially-located, socially-related and interacting

bodies.”60 Ultimately, phenomenology views the body as the medium through which we

know and create the world; we do not know through the third-person, but rather through

intimate first-person experiences related through the body.61 Due to this prioritization of the

body, phenomenology is frequently referenced in sensory works and the research of current

phenomenologists to create a universal vocabulary for describing experiences objectively

would greatly aid sensory scientists.62

58 Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception (Routledge, 2013).

59 Dennis Waskul and Phillip Vannini, “Introduction,” in Body/Embodiment: Symbolic Interaction and the

Sociology of the Body, ed. Dennis Waskul and Phillip Vannini (Routledge, 2016), 2; John Hockey and

Jacquelyn Allen-Collinson, “The Sensorium at Work: The Sensory Phenomenology of the Working Body,” The

Sociological Review 57, no. 2 (2009): 217–239. Stoller, one of the anthropologists referenced above, noted that

“viewing the body as a text eliminates its sensory capacities, its odours, textures, joys and anguish” (Paul

Stoller, Sensuous Scholarship (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997), xiv).

60 Hockey and Allen-Collinson, “The Sensorium at Work,” 221.

61 Drew Leder, “A Tale of Two Bodies: The Cartesian Corpse and the Lived Body,” in The Body in Medical

Thought and Practice, ed. Drew Leder (Springer Science & Business Media, 2013), 17–36; Wilhelmus Luijpen,

Phenomenology and Humanism: A Primer in Existential Phenomenology (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University

Press, 1966).

62 Richard Kenneth Atkins, “Toward an Objective Phenomenological Vocabulary: How Seeing a Scarlet Red Is

like Hearing a Trumpet’s Blare,” Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 12, no. 4 (December 1, 2013):

837–58, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-012-9288-5.

20

Sensory History

Historians typically approach sensory studies in one of two ways. Some scholars take a

historical approach to the senses (a history of the senses) and explore the history of a

particular sense throughout time and/or place. Sensory history, on the other hand, “tends

towards the ecumenical,” and gives researchers a tool to better understand and explain the

past, a “way to become more attuned to the past” and discover “subliminal histories.”63 While

sensory history is a relatively recent phenomenon, historians have, for a long time, included

aspects of sensory experiences within their narratives. However, as Mark Smith asserts, such

casual references to the senses do not reshape the fundamental processes involved in

perception but amount to an “unwitting surrender to the power structures of the past and

comes perilously near to repeating them.”64 A more critical approach to sensory history is

needed to unravel these casual statements and understand the societal context and the

historical implications behind them. In the past two decades, many sensory histories have

been published, yet the seminal work within this category remains Alain Corbin’s 1986 The

Foul and the Fragrant: Odor and the French Social Imagination.65 The other classic text,

which bridges both sensory history and sensory anthropology, is Aroma: The Cultural

History of Smell, by Classen, Howes, and Synnott.66 Aroma examines smell through

historical, anthropological, and sociological approaches. It explicates the general history of

the Western relationship to smell, the “osmologies,” (classificatory systems based on smell

and their cultural and spiritual values) of non-European cultures, how smells can be

connected to the spiritual world, and how scents are physically employed by people. In the

final section of the book, Synnott argues that the modern Western world still does have

63 Mark M. Smith, “Producing Sense, Consuming Sense, Making Sense: Perils and Prospects for Sensory

History,” Journal of Social History 40, no. 4 (2007): 841–58.

64 Smith.

65 A Corbin, The Foul and the Fragrant: Odor and the French Social Imagination (Cambridge: Harvard

University Press, 1988).

66 Constance Classen, David Howes, and Anthony Synnott, Aroma: The Cultural History of Smell (London:

Routledge, 1994).

21

cultural meanings attached to smell, although he bases his claims largely on perfumed

products, such as deodorant. However, he offers a useful frame for exploring the olfactory

world as a function of power, hegemony, patriarchy, and class that can oppress and affect

people’s actions and perceptions of others. Although this final section is an attempt to reunite

the West (section 1) and non-European (section 2), the stark and literally physical division

between the two does seem to create a sense of the “other,” which subsequently became an

important discussion in anthropology.67

More recent scholarship, however, has attempted to re-interpret important political

moments in history through changing sensory elements, with Hoffer navigating early colonial

America through the senses and Smith and White and White exploring the sensory world of

slaves and the American Civil War.68 Others examine the role of sensory objects and the

senses in past religious contexts, including Harvey Ashbrook and Caseau.69 Jenner writes a

sweeping, yet incredibly detailed overview of the history of smell within academia.70 Looking

at both trajectories in popular culture, society, and academic research, he traces how smell

and its role have changed in society. He covers not only current research regarding smell but

looks to scientific, medical, and literary texts from previous centuries to create a sense of how

past cultures thought and interacted with scent. Finally, Reinarz’s recently published Past

Scents: Historical Perspectives on Smell, constitutes perhaps the most sweeping overview of

67 Sundar Sarukkai, “The ‘Other’ in Anthropology and Philosophy,” Economic and Political Weekly 32, no. 24

(1997): 1406–9, https://doi.org/10.2307/4405512; Marc Augé, A Sense for the Other: The Timeliness and

Relevance of Anthropology (Stanford University Press, 1998).

68 Peter Charles Hoffer, Sensory Worlds in Early America (JHU Press, 2005); Smith, “Producing Sense,

Consuming Sense, Making Sense: Perils and Prospects for Sensory History”; Mark M. Smith, “Making Sense of

Social History,” Journal of Social History 37, no. 1 (2003): 165–86; Mark M. Smith, Sensory History (New

York: Berg, 2007); Shane White and Graham J. White, The Sounds of Slavery: Discovering African American

History Through Songs, Sermons, and Speech (Beacon Press, 2005).

69 Susan Ashbrook Harvey, “Olfactory Knowing; Signs of Smell in the Vitae of Simeon Stylites,” ed. G.J.

Reinink and A.C. Klugkist (Leuven, 1999), 23–34; Harvey, “On Holy Stench: When the Odor of Sanctity

Sickens”; Béatrice Caseau, “Christian Bodies: The Senses and Early Byzantine Christianity,” in Desire and

Denial in Byzantium: Papers from the Thirty-First Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Brighton, March

1997, ed. Liz James, 6 (Aldershot: Ashgate Variorum, 1999), 101–110.

70 Mark S. R. Jenner, “Follow Your Nose? Smell, Smelling, and Their Histories.,” The American Historical

Review 116, no. 2 (January 2011): 335–51.

22

our knowledge about smell since Classen, Synnott, and Howe’s classic Aroma: The Cultural

History of Smell.71 Although his background is in nineteenth-century medical history, he

presents a historiography of smell from ancient to modern times. His writing on smell in

ancient times is perhaps the weakest, especially as he works to make connections across

centuries. However, this weakness is rectified by several incredibly strong chapters where he

synthesizes immense amounts of information to present concise and intriguing narratives of

smell’s role in gender, urban transformation, and economic change. Although a large

undertaking, he efficiently demonstrates how humans have, and do, rely upon olfactory

knowledge to engage with and understand their environment. In this attempt, he clearly

builds on earlier scholarship and goes to great lengths to show, historically, just how strongly

senses help order and translate the environment. Furthermore, he tries to look beyond Europe,

as he calls for scholars to incorporate the East and Global South in their sensory work.72 In his

review of Reinarz’s work, Koole reminds us that sensory scholars need to be constantly

vigilant about using the senses as “tools” for the analysis of cultural processes rather than

simply putting forth the senses as illustrative examples.73

One of the few examples of a non-European study on smell, James McHugh’s

Sandalwood and Carrion: Smell in Indian Religion and Culture, examines the olfactory

culture of the Indian sub-continent, exploring questions about the range of the senses and

relationship between culture and perception.74 In many ways, Sandalwood and Carrion sit

perfectly between sensory anthropology and sensory history; McHugh uses the Mahābhārata,

one of the major Sanskrit epics of India, for much of his source material while also

71 Jonathan Reinarz, Past Scents: Historical Perspectives on Smell (University of Illinois Press, 2014); Classen,

Howes, and Synnott, Aroma: The Cultural History of Smell.

72 Reinarz, Past Scents, 217.

73 Simeon Koole, “Past Scents: Historical Perspectives on Smell,” Social History 40, no. 3 (July 3, 2015): 385–

87, https://doi.org/10.1080/03071022.2015.1044209.

74 James McHugh, Sandalwood and Carrion: Smell in Indian Religion and Culture (New York: Oxford

University Press, 2012).

23

incorporating historical and ethnographic knowledge. Knutson comments that his book

should be seen as “a model for a new kind of micro-history.”75 Furthermore, McHugh,

working off of art historian Michael Baxandall’s notion of the “period-eye,” develops the

notion of the “period-nose,” in which olfaction is understood as a way of sensing inherently

informed by shared cultural values and habits.76 His concept of the “period-nose” reinforces

the notion introduced by sensory anthropology, namely, that we must consider the senses

within their own cultural contexts. How a “period-nose” could be cultivated, however,

remains a question.

In 2014, the six-volume A Cultural History of the Senses series was published by

Bloomsbury. These volumes cover six time periods: Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the

Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Age of Empire, and the Modern Era. They investigate all

the senses through broad themes and contexts, including culture, medicine, urban life,

religion, philosophy and science, literature, and art. This set is, by far, the most

comprehensive and ambitious work on the senses to date and is certainly required reading for

all future sensory scholars. These collected works highlight some of the best work done in the

field (such as Alain Corbin’s work on urban smells) but also demonstrate the

interconnectedness and breadth necessary to comprehend the sensory hierarchies and

75 Jesse Ross Knutson, “Book Review: James McHugh, Sandalwood and Carrion: Smell in Indian Religion and

Culture,” The Indian Economic & Social History Review 52, no. 3 (July 1, 2015): 395,

doi:10.1177/0019464615590533.

76 McHugh, Sandalwood and Carrion, 17. “Period eye” has two major components: the cultural conditions

under which art is created, viewed, and understood, and the way and the speed with which the brain processes

the visual information. By cultural conditions, Baxandall includes all the social acts, habits, traditions and

cultural practices that are expressed in a visual form. These can range from skills such as Venetian merchants

being able to assess the volume of a barrel, religious leaders evoking images of holy stories and holy scenes, and

even mannerisms that gain connotations of politeness and vice versa. These are all outside of “art” yet,

Baxandall argues that they are critical to understanding how artists think about and produce their art, and, more

importantly, how the audience then views it. This has immediate implications for museum studies, and raises a

host of questions about how the works are being presented and if the museums are, or even can, provide viewers

with the tools to analyze the artworks in the same context in which they were viewed centuries ago. The

scientific aspects of the “period eye” are also very relevant to museums studies (Helen Rees Leahy,

“Incorporating the Period Eye,” The Senses and Society 9, no. 3 (November 1, 2014): 284–95,

https://doi.org/10.2752/174589314X14023847039836.), and has close correspondents in perception studies

(Pavle Ninkovic, “In Search of the Period Eye: Contributions from Neuroscience” (Birbeck, University of

London, 2010).).

24

significance(s) of humans throughout time. All five senses are not covered equally

throughout the volumes, but humans have never treated all five senses equally, with certain

periods showing preference, both in thought and study, to specific senses. The greater

problem with these volumes is the relative focus on Europe and the Western World, both in

case studies and in theoretical approaches. Classen, the editor of Volume 5, Age of Empire,

and the overall series editor, and Howes, the editor of Volume 6, Modern Age, are both well

aware of the potential for sensory explorations outside of Europe, having published

extensively on the topic. Why, then, are areas such as Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and

South America not well-represented in these volumes? This question is not only relevant to A

Cultural History of the Senses; most edited volumes on sensory studies have the same

problem as do most individually published articles and papers focusing on Europe and

America. When other regions are presented, they are frequently anthropological, exotic casestudies

of non-industrial societies used to “prove” that other ways of thinking about smell

exist and as a foil to western ocular-centrism. Within olfactory studies, the number of fullscale

inquiries into the olfactory heritage, history, or language of industrial non-Western is so

few that they could probably be counted on two hands.

One of the major problems with studying smells, and using smells to look at history,

is that it is rather hard to access the original smells or create an olfactory-authentic

smellscape. In much the way that the color “blue” can actually mean a whole range of colors,

identifying the specific chemical mixture that results in smells is problematic. We can come

very close to smelling similar “pure” aromas, such as burning coal, but identifying the exact

composition of scented oils and incense mixtures is harder.77 We have to rely on written

descriptions and the noses of the writers themselves.

77 Even in the case of burning coal, there are undoubtedly variations in scent due to the environment in which it

was burned and slight differences in the chemical composition of the coal itself.

25

Urban Studies

The ideas of sensory anthropology and embodiment have also worked their way into the

research on modern urbanism, architecture, and environmental studies. The relationship

between architecture, city planning, and the senses has been explored by scholars such as

sociologist Richard Sennett, who bemoans modern architects and urban planners as being too

concerned with visual aspects of the environment as he writes about “the sensory

deprivation…the dullness, the monotony, and the tactile sterility which afflicts the urban

environment.”78 It has only been in the past few years that books specifically related to smell,

architecture, and urban planning have been published.79 However, as more sensory scholars

use urban environments as case-studies, there is a growing body of theory on the senses

across urban environments.

Scholars have sought not only to understand what role the senses play in

understanding the urban environment but also specifically how senses reflect and mediate

daily life it. Echoing Levi-Strauss’ notion of the senses as messengers which can highlight

the polarity and binary nature of urban life, Fran Tonkiss notes that the senses, and sound in

particular, “capture a larger urban tension between collective and subjective life.”80 Mirko

Zardini argues that in the new sensory revolution, “the senses constitute not so much a new

field of study as a fundamental shift in the mode and media we employ to observe and define

our own fields of study.”81 Howes, in his edited volume Empire of the Senses, offers the

78 Richard Sennett, Flesh and Stone: The Body and the City in Western Civilization (New York: WW Norton &

Company, 1994), 15.

79 Juhani Pallasmaa, The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses (Wiley, 2005); Anna Barbara and

Anthony Perliss, Invisible Architecture: Experiencing Places through the Sense of Smell (Milan: Skira-Berenice,

2006); Kelvin E. Y. Low, “The Sensuous City: Sensory Methodologies in Urban Ethnographic Research,”

Ethnography 16, no. 3 (September 1, 2015): 295–312, https://doi.org/10.1177/1466138114552938; Victoria

Henshaw, Urban Smellscapes: Understanding and Designing City Smell Environments (Routledge, 2013);

Barbara Erwine, Creating Sensory Spaces: The Architecture of the Invisible (Taylor & Francis, 2016).

80 Fran Tonkiss, “Aural Postcards: Sound, Memory and the City,” in The Auditory Culture Reader, ed. Michael

Bull and Les Back, 2nd ed. (Bloomsbury, 2003), 303.

81 Mirko Zardini, ed., Sense of the City: An Alternate Approach to Urbanism (Montréal, QC: Lars Müller

Publishers, 2005), 22.

26

paradigm of emplacement to define the intertwined and sensuous body-mind-environment

relationship.82 As opposed to its opposite, displacement, emplacement highlights the

connections between the physical and the social. Adams et al. suggest using these

frameworks of both “em” and “dis” placement and that the related tensions provide a way to

interpret residents’ experiences in their own city.83 They also contend that we experience the

city and its sensorial elements differently—contrasting a more direct and immediate

experience on the street level with that of an “elevated voyeur” several stories up who may

not understand the origin of passing sounds and smells.84 At the same time, height can give a

more “intimate familiarity” with the surroundings, one which privileges this bird-eyes’-view

but also allows for the ability to go down and encounter the street and city in person.85

Pallasmaa defines this complex relationship between body and city as a “confrontation,” yet

noting that “I experience myself in the city, and the city exists through my embodied

experience. The city and my body supplement and define each other. I dwell in the city and

the city dwells in me.”86 However, acknowledgment of the existence of a sensory urban

environment is not the same as understanding the phenomena that dictate how these complex

sensory hierarchies are perceived, or what might be influencing or masking our own

experiences. Michael Bull highlights that our spatial understanding of sound is “buried”

under “largely visually inspired epistemology of experience that informs much contemporary

social science investigation… our urban landscapes don’t move easily.”87

The most notable contribution to more sensory-based studies of contemporary urban

environments is Victoria Henshaw’s 2014 book Urban Smellscapes: Understanding and

82 Howes, Empire of the Senses.

83 M. D. Adams et al., “The 24-Hour City: Residents’ Sensorial Experiences,” The Senses and Society 2, no. 2

(July 1, 2007): 206.

84 Adams et al., 208.

85 Adams et al., 208.

86 Pallasmaa, The Eyes of the Skin, 4.

87 Michael Bull, “Thinking about Sound, Proximity, and Distance in Western Experience: The Case of

Odysseus’s Walkman,” in Hearing Cultures: Essays on Sound, Listening and Modernity, ed. Veit Erlmann

(Bloomsbury, 2004), 173.

27

Designing City Smell Environments.88 Henshaw, writing for both scholars and urban planners,

argues that the relationship between the urban environment and smells are changing. With

this subtle argument based on change, Henshaw is refuting earlier scholars such as Sennett

and Corbin, who view the modern-day as deodorized. Instead, she offers a “new sensory

approach to urbanism” that recognizes the supremacy of the visual in the past but encourages

a more deliberate utilization of smell in future planning.89 Henshaw deftly covers the

relationship the body and sensing in urban contexts and further delves into how governmental

action (such as the designation of smoking zones) have changed the urban environment.

However, although Henshaw acknowledges that cities are sites of “olfactory conflict,” she

does not offer a way to reconcile what will surely be various competing preferences for how

places should or should not smell.90 Furthermore, Henshaw recognizes that we must consider

the impact of all sensory experiences, not just smell, in design, but fails to engage with the

complex power dynamics that could also affect future decisions.91

The available sensory and olfactory research on historical Istanbul is scarce in

comparison to that of Europe. Aroma devotes a whole chapter to this topic, and site-specific

olfactory research has been done on cities and countries including Poland, Paris, and

Moscow.92 London has also been the focal point for numerous studies, especially those by

Reinarz and Dobson.93 Nineteenth-century New York has been a focus for Melanie Kiechle,

who argues that we need to think of historic spaces “not only in terms of the rooms and

88 Henshaw, Urban Smellscapes.

89 Henshaw, 22.

90 Henshaw, 12.

91 Although we have endless research which studies the complex power dynamics related to sensory awareness

in the past, there is little available on the modern day.

92 Martyna Sliwa and Kathleen Riach, “Making Scents of Transition: Smellscapes and the Everyday in ‘Old’

and ‘New’ Urban Poland,” Urban Studies 49, no. 1 (January 2012): 23–41,

https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098011399596; Corbin, The Foul and the Fragrant: Odor and the French Social

Imagination; D S Barnes, The Great Stink of Paris and the Nineteenth-Century Struggle against Filth and

Germs (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006); Alexander M Martin, “Sewage and the City : Filth ,

Smell, and Representations of Urban Life in Moscow, 1770-1880,” Russian Review 67, no. 2 (2008): 243–74.

93 Reinarz, Past Scents; Mary J. Dobson, Contours of Death and Disease in Early Modern England (Cambridge

University Press, 2003).

28

building being preserved but also of historic environments that included plants, animals, air

currents, and daily practices such as fishing, tanning leather, or lighting a fire.”94 Fahmy’s

intriguing study of the nineteenth-century urbanization of (half) of Cairo attempts to

understand how its citizens navigated this rapid transformation. By “sniffing from below,”

Fahmy provides rare insight into the olfactory landscape of a non-European, post-Ottoman

city rapidly “westernizing” under French occupation.95 Nicolas Kenny’s The Feel of the City:

Experience of Urban Transformation examines the process of modernity in the cities of

Brussels and Montreal.96 He takes a phenomenological approach to this modernizing history,

stating that he aims to “build on understandings of the modern urban experience that tend

either to understate the body’s vitality or discorporate it from the material environment in

which its workings and significance were rooted.”97 However, the basis of his research

material comes from educated, bourgeois accounts of the cities, which does not necessarily

encompass the working-class or exemplify the sensory “history from below” for which

Fahmy, Smith, and others advocate. Mark Smith explains in his introduction to his book

Sensing the Past: Seeing, Hearing. Smelling, Tasting and Touching in History that studying

history through the senses offers the opportunity access history beyond that written by the

elite and it gives priority to all peoples’ experiences, writing:

The senses are historical; that they are not universal but, rather, a product of place,

and especially time, so that how people perceived and understood smell, sound,

touch, taste and sight, changed historically…. [it] takes the history of the everyday,

the average, and the banal, as seriously as it takes the history of elites, the intellect,

and the exceptional, in an effort to understand the full range of meanings people

attributed to the sense in the past.98

94 Melanie Kiechle, “Preserving the Unpleasant: Sources, Methods, and Conjectures for Odors at Historic Sites,”

Future Anterior 13, no. 2 (2016): 25.

95 Khaled Fahmy, “An Olfactory Tale of Two Cities: Cairo in the Nineteenth Century,” in Historians in Cairo:

Essays in Honor of George Scanlon, ed. Jill Edwards (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2002), 165.

96 Nicolas Kenny, The Feel of the City: Experiences of Urban Transformation (University of Toronto Press,

2014).

97 Kenny, 11.

98 Mark Michael Smith, Sensing the Past: Seeing, Hearing, Smelling, Tasting, and Touching in History

(University of California Press, 2007), 3.

29

Cultural Heritage

Laurajane Smith wrote in The Uses of Heritage in 2006 that “there is, really, no such thing as

heritage.”99 In this statement, she is building on arguments proffered by scholars such as

Robert Hewison and David Lowenthal.100 Hewison develops the framework of the “heritage

industry” to describe the process of commodifying the past for present consumption. He

bemoans what he sees as a lack of depth in the history that is displayed as heritage and a lack

of authenticity. Although certain aspects of his argument, especially his attachment to the

idea of “authenticity,” are no longer considered viable, he views heritage as a super-imposed

structure that caters towards nostalgia and an ideal past, and his approach still serves as a

common platform for both the exploration and criticism of heritage. In The Heritage Crusade

and the Spoils of History, David Lowenthal also explores this strain of repacking the past for

a purpose in the present.101 Lowenthal differentiates between heritage as a celebration of the

past and history, a record of the past. In doing so, he argues that this “celebration” is simply

us using the past to make us feel better about the present. However, as we seek out the past

through heritage, we actually change the past and substitute our own idealized versions,

resulting in what he calls “bogus history.”102

In the early 1990s, Urry responded to the notion of a super-imposed heritage by

evoking economic arguments.103 Heritage, he says, is created by its consumers. If there are

consumers, then by default there are also suppliers; the gap between these two groups—

heritage practitioners and the audience—he terms the “tourist gaze.” He stills sees the

development of heritage as a process, one intrinsically linked to colonialist and post-

99 Laurajane Smith, Uses of Heritage (London; New York: Routledge, 2006), 11.

100 David Lowenthal, The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History (Cambridge University Press, 1998);

Robert Hewison, The Heritage Industry: Britain in a Climate of Decline (Methuen London, 1987).

101 Lowenthal, The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History.

102 Lowenthal, 103.

103 John Urry, The Tourist Gaze Leisure and Travel in Contemporary Societies (London; Newbury Park: Sage

Publications, 1990).

30

Enlightenment western European ideals regarding leisure. However, Urry was one of the first

heritage practitioners to call for an embodied heritage, as he recognized that memories are

embodied and involve “an array of senses.”104 He also acknowledges that “artifacts are sensed

through our bodies,” echoing sensorial material heritage claims made by other scholars.105

Chronis posits that “according to this perspective, the embodiment of a collective past has

been theorized as a ‘somatic experience,’ that refers to the way in which the body informs the

logic of thinking about history.”106

Peter Howard, in Heritage: Management, Interpretation, Identity107 views heritage as

something not static. He also criticizes older ideas of heritage, which view it as a cube that is

cut in three parts- by the stakeholder, the market, and the level of identity (is the site

important locally, regionally, nationally, etc.). In reality, he claims, all sides are open to

change. However, echoing Urry, he believes that many of those changes come from being

thrust into the heritage market. Michael Brown’s concept of the “Iron Cage” illustrates this

idea.108 As Brown explicates, by placing regulations on heritage, power stays in the hands of

those doing the regulating. Culture, then, is forced into this power-based narrative and can

never escape. Winter provides an excellent example of this argument, illustrating how,

through a series of processes starting with the French “rediscovery” of Angkor Wat, its

heritage has solidified into a single narrative and history based on this original colonial

ideology.109 Strongly connected to the concept of “freezing” is the general unwillingness by

institutions and heritage workers to explore new interpretations and facets of heritage that

could be part of new narratives and understandings. However, even when the narrative is

104 John Urry, Consuming Places (Taylor & Francis, 1995), 27.

105 John Urry, “How Societies Remember the Past,” in Theorizing Museums: Representing Identity and

Diversity in a Changing World, ed. Sharon Macdonald and Gordon Fyfe (Cambridge: Blackwell, 1996), 50.

106 Chronis, “Heritage of the Senses,” 269.

107 Peter Howard, Heritage: Management, Interpretation, Identity (New York: Continuum, 2003).

108 Brown, Who Owns Native Culture?

109 Tim Winter, Post-Conflict Heritage, Postcolonial Tourism: Tourism, Politics and Development at Angkor,

vol. 21 (Routledge, 2007).

31

opened to include living heritage, it can once again become “frozen,” as it often continues to

comply with tourists’ ideals of the “native” culture. In fact, by attaching too much importance

to intangible heritage such as ritual, stories, and music can impede modernization to the same

extent that the preservation of architectural remains can. Ultimately, both “living” and “dead”

heritage run the same risk of becoming contrived and reproducing inaccurate systems of

power, heritage, and symbolism. These inaccurate reproductions then detrimentally affect

efforts of national identity contrived through heritage. As sensory anthropologists and

historians rarely interact with heritage professionals on these issues, it is not surprising that

those works are sometimes criticized for viewing the senses as “frozen.” Critical heritage

studies now consider the construction of heritage as “a cultural and a social process and

encourages researchers to move away from the traditional museological paradigm that treats

heritage as something that can be objectified and managed.”110

Intangible Heritage

Although the field of heritage studies has focused on the material world and recognized the

significance of the immaterial and intangible culture, it is only in the past few decades that

this concept of intangible heritage has been canonized by UNESCO and has entered the

academic world and the Authorized Heritage Discourse (AHD).111

This initiation of the idea of intangible heritage and of people and processes as

holders of heritage and memory offers new research paths. Researchers are realizing that

110 Alevtina Naumova, “‘Touching’ the Past: Investigating Lived Experiences of Heritage in Living History

Museums.,” International Journal of the Inclusive Museum 7 (2015): 7,

http://www.academia.edu/download/37753546/touching_the_past.pdf.

111 For more discussion of the AHD, see Smith, Uses of Heritage. The division that exists between tangible and

intangible heritage is, in many ways, constructed. This bifurcation developed out of early attitudes towards

heritage, which acknowledged an inherent quality, which, as Rodney Harrison (2010) asserts, led “to a focus on

the physical fabric of heritage. If value is inherent, it follows that ‘heritage’ must be contained within the

physical fabric of a building or object, or in the material things associated with heritage practices.” Merely a few

weeks after the passage of the Intangible Heritage Convention, UNESCO’s Assistant Director General for

Culture, Mounir Bouchenaki, gave a speech at the annual ICOMOS conference (International Council on

Monuments and Sites) entitled “The interdependency of tangible and the intangible cultural heritage.” He

posited that cultural heritage is a relationship with society and values, and within that is another symbiotic

relationship between the tangible and intangible. Intangible heritage is the larger framework within which

tangible heritage is formed, but they are ultimately two sides of the same coin.

32

heritage is not just artifacts and nature, but the entire world. Life is not, and has not been,

experienced in a sensory vacuum, and the sensory embodied experience is an important

narrative as a marker of place. Although there is very little research directly combining smell

and heritage, the body of literature related to embodiment and intangible heritage is certainly

growing. A number of articles, books, and edited volumes use embodiment as a paradigm to

help access new ways of exploring and thinking about heritage.112

Many academics working within the intangible heritage sphere have issues with

UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Heritage (IHC) and by extension

the World Heritage Convention and List. One of the largest points of criticism is the

perception of a Western / non-Western dichotomy within the lists. Barbara Kirshenblatt-

Gimblett argues that the IHC is the place where non-Western “culture” is regulated, keeping

the West in possession of the “real” heritage (and power).113 The ideas behind “listing” these

works perpetuate the dominant power structure and contribute to the “freezing” of intangible

heritage in the official canon.

Harrison also grapples with this question, emphasizing the tension between a “topdown”

classification system of governments and organizations versus the “bottom-up” forms

of (typically) unofficial heritage.114 He believes that UNESCO and governments are

canonizing world heritage through listing, although without any transparency regarding

actors and values. His arguments evoke those of Hafstein, Silva and Santos, and Vaivade, but

he takes this line of thinking even farther, examining the semantic discourse produced by

112 S. Everett, “Beyond the Visual Gaze?: The Pursuit of an Embodied Experience through Food Tourism,”

Tourist Studies 8, no. 3 (December 2008): 337–58, https://doi.org/10.1177/1468797608100594; D F Ruggles

and H Silverman, eds., Intangible Heritage Embodied (New York: Springer, 2009); Lourdes Arizpe and Cristina

Amescua, eds., Anthropological Perspectives on Intangible Cultural Heritage, SpringerBriefs in Environment,

Security, Developement and Peace 6 (New York: Springer, 2013).

113 Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, “Intangible Heritage as Metacultural Production,” Museum International 56,

no. 1–2 (2004): 52–65.

114 Rodney Harrison, Understanding the Politics of Heritage (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2010).

33

UNESCO and other legislation concerning heritage.115 As a result, even when heritage

belongs to the entire world (as elements on the UNESCO lists do), the cultural discourse used

continues to create divisions and represent layers of power. Tim Winter addresses this idea of

language, arguing that more power-neutral scientific language should be universal in the

heritage world.116 However, others advocate for allowing a poly-vocality in heritage

language.117 Regardless, there is a strong need for marginalized groups to learn the

“language” of heritage discourse in order to protect and represent themselves. Laurajane

Smith writes extensively about these problems and the preconceived notions and judgments

which exist in this authorized dialogue, which she calls Authorized Heritage Discourse

(AHD).118 These authorized discourses impose Western/European ideals of beauty, heritage,

preservation, and as it has been argued by Urry, a Western prioritization on the visual.119

There is currently only one entry on UNESCO’s intangible heritage list that

acknowledges scent as a significant part of the application. The Fiesta of the Patios in

Cordova is one of the few examples on the UNESCO Intangible Heritage List that directly

includes the sensory experience as part of the application. The description of the 12-day

festival is explained as such:

[the festival] is guided by secular traditions, knowledge and skills, which take form in

the luxuriant, floral, chromatic, acoustic, aromatic and compositional creativity of

each patio—an expression of the symbolism and traditions of Cordovan community,

and especially the residents who dwell in these patio houses.120

115 Vladimar Hafstein, “Intangible Heritage as a List,” in Intangible Heritage, ed. Laurajane Smith and Natsuko

Akagawa (New York: Routledge, 2009), 93–111; Luís Silva and Paula Mota Santos, “Ethnographies of Heritage

and Power,” International Journal of Heritage Studies 18, no. 5 (2012): 437–43,

https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2011.633541; Anita Vaivade, “Person and Property: Conceptualising

Intangible Cultural Heritage in Law,” Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics 4, no. 1 (2010): 25–36.

116 Winter, Post-Conflict Heritage, Postcolonial Tourism: Tourism, Politics and Development at Angkor.

117 Sonya Atalay, “Indigenous Archaeology as Decolonizing Practice,” The American Indian Quarterly 30, no. 3

(2006): 280–310, https://doi.org/10.1353/aiq.2006.0015.

118 Smith, Uses of Heritage.

119 Urry, “The Tourist Gaze ‘Revisited,’” 199.

120 “Fiesta of the Patios in Cordova,” UNESCO, accessed August 17, 2017, https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/fiestaof-

the-patios-in-cordova-00846.

34

However, the city of Grasse, France applied in 2017 to have the intangible heritage of the

region’s perfume-making added; the nomination will be decided in 2018. In the meantime,

the possibility of a high-speed train through the region could negatively affect some of the

world’s most beloved perfumes and the intangible heritage associated with these.121

There are very few studies specifically devoted to the heritage of the senses.

Anthropologist Brigit Meyer coined the term “sensational heritage” to comprehend sensuous

forms and their performance—a heritage that exists beyond facts and texts which embodies

the actions of people and acknowledges the senses.122 One of the few studies to look into the

nexus of heritage and scent is Rosemary Boswell’s explorations of the intangible heritage of

the ancient city of Zanzibar.123 She examines how smellscapes there have changed as it has

become a World Heritage Site, and she looks at fragrance as an expression of identity and a

source of importance for the locals. Boswell connects the history of scent on the island to

larger theories surrounding the sensory experience. Significantly, she argues that scent is

neither tangible nor intangible, which problematizes our interactions with it as researchers.124

Additionally, she explores how we can work with a living heritage without freezing it in time.

Her research methodology included formal interviews, casual conversation, and historical and

ethnographic research. Another study, by Deborah Jackson, is especially worth noting as it

concerns smell.125 Jackson demonstrates how the scents of the globalized and industrialized

world have resulted in members of Canada’s First Nations feeling isolated and disconnected

from their past, and by extension, their heritage. A recent study by Bembibre and Strlič

121 Agence France-Presse, “Chanel Threatens to Close Perfumery over High-Speed Rail Plans,” The Guardian,

December 1, 2016, sec. Fashion, http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2016/dec/01/chanel-no5-threatens-closegrasse-

perfumery-high-speed-rail-plans.

122 Crosby, “They Brought the Essence of Africa—Social Memory, Sensational Heritage, and Embodied

Practices in Perico and Agramonte, Cuba,” 64.

123 Rosabelle Boswell, “Scents of Identity: Fragrance as Heritage in Zanzibar,” Journal of Contemporary

African Studies 26, no. 3 (July 2008): 295–311, https://doi.org/10.1080/02589000802332507.

124 Boswell, 299.

125 Deborah Davis Jackson, “Scents of Place: The Dysplacement of a First Nations Community in Canada,”

American Anthropologist 113, no. 4 (December 1, 2011): 606–18.

35

looked at the heritage of smell not just through culture, but also through science.126 By using

solid micro-phase extraction (SPME) head-space technology, they sampled the volatile

organic compounds (VOCs) associated with the smell of old books at St. Paul’s Cathedral

Dean and Chapter Library.127 They sampled books and the library atmosphere as a way to

control and contextualize the findings of the smells of books. They present to readers the

curated list of the found chemical compounds, which had been narrowed from the full list to

those which were present over a certain level, those which could be detected by the human

nose, and those that had already been shown to be present in historic paper.128 They then

asked visitors to describe the (unlabeled) smell to arrive at an objective description of the

smell of old books (the most common descriptors included chocolate, coffee, old, wood, and

burning).129 They ultimately produced an odor wheel for historic book smells, which they

offer as a method of archiving as well as a diagnostic tool for future conservators.130

Psychology and Neurobiology

In making the claim that smell and the sensory experience is an important part of heritage and

history, it becomes necessary to delve into the reasons why it is such a powerful component

of our memories, emotions, and experiences. Many years of anthropological research support

the notion that smell is quite important in defining and evoking individual and communal

126 Cecilia Bembibre and Matija Strlič, “Smell of Heritage: A Framework for the Identification, Analysis and

Archival of Historic Odours,” Heritage Science 5 (April 7, 2017): 2, https://doi.org/10.1186/s40494-016-0114-

1.

127 As the authors note, this technology is a bit limited for this purpose. SPME will not necessarily pick up all

the chemical compounds that comprise the smells we perceive and the resulting list of chemical compounds

need to be contextualized in some way, which the authors did with the aroma descriptors available at the

Flavornet and Perfume and Flavorist databases.

128 Bembibre and Strlič, “Smell of Heritage,” 5.

129 Bembibre and Strlič, 6.

130 Bembibre and Strlič, 7.

36

memories.131 The answer to why it is so important, however, lies in the fields of psychology

and neurobiology.132

Emotions are an important aspect of rituals, memories, and identity, and therefore

smell is frequently thought about, discussed, and even manipulated. Studies show that all five

senses (sight, touch, taste, smell, and sound), when triggered, allow people to recall shortterm

and long-term memories. Additionally, these tests show that odor-evoked memories

engender a much higher emotional intensity.133 A 1998 study by Herz concludes that odorevoked

memories result in a much higher emotional intensity, although accuracy was

relatively the same across all stimuli.134 A 2004 study, also by Herz, approaches the

connection between smell, memory, and emotion from the field of neurobiology, and used

functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study what happens to the brain when

memory-associated odors are presented.135 The fMRI scans show odors produce a greater

activation in the amygdala and hippocampal regions. Even more significantly, the memoryassociated

odors produce greater activity in those regions than neutral odors. While these

studies highlight the significance of smell for memory and emotion, they do not specifically

look at the process of how smells or other sensory stimuli become associated with memories

131 Stoller, The Taste of Ethnographic Things; Howes, The Varieties of Sensory Experience: A Sourcebook in the

Anthropology of the Senses; Seremetakis, The Senses Still: Perception and Memory as Material Culture in

Modernity; Michael Herzfeld, Anthropology: Theoretical Practice in Culture and Society (Wiley, 2001);

Kathryn Linn Geurts, Culture and the Senses: Bodily Ways of Knowing in an African Community (University of

California Press, 2002); Drobnick, The Smell Culture Reader.

132 Jay A. Gottfried et al., “Remembrance of Odors Past,” Neuron 42, no. 4 (May 27, 2004): 687–95,

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0896-6273(04)00270-3; Yaara Yeshurun et al., “The Privileged Brain Representation

of First Olfactory Associations,” Current Biology 19, no. 21 (November 17, 2009): 1869–74,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2009.09.066; Artin Arshamian et al., “The Functional Neuroanatomy of Odor

Evoked Autobiographical Memories Cued by Odors and Words,” Neuropsychologia 51, no. 1 (January 1, 2013):

123–31, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.10.023; Mikiko Kadohisa, “Effects of Odor on

Emotion, with Implications,” Front Syst Neurosci 7, no. 66 (n.d.); Anne-Lise Saive, Jean-Pierre Royet, and Jane

Plailly, “A Review on the Neural Bases of Episodic Odor Memory: From Laboratory-Based to Autobiographical

Approaches,” Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 8 (2014), https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00240.

133 Rachel S. Herz, “Are Odors the Best Cues to Memory? A Cross-Modal Comparison of Associative Memory

Stimulia,” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 855, no. 1 (1998): 670–674; Rachel S Herz et al.,

“Neuroimaging Evidence for the Emotional Potency of Odor-Evoked Memory,” Neuropsychologia 42, no. 3

(January 2004): 371–78, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2003.08.009; Tony W. Buchanan,

“Retrieval of Emotional Memories.,” Psychological Bulletin 133, no. 5 (2007): 761.

134 Herz, “Are Odors the Best Cues to Memory?”

135 Herz et al., “Neuroimaging Evidence for the Emotional Potency of Odor-Evoked Memory.”

37

and emotions. This question has been approached from a variety of angles, with studies

looking at odor associative learning, but also through the lens of embodiment.136 These

experiments also illustrate that because olfactory understanding is processed through other

parts of the brain (namely, the limbic system), it also activates the amygdala and

hippocampus, which processes long-term declarative memories. In other words, in long-term

memory, the odor is preserved as an emotional memory, and not as an “olfactory artifact.”137

Studies like these have received some criticism, namely that short-term memory

studies cannot accurately reflect long-term memories, as the latter are processed and saved in

different ways. Additionally, the results of long-term memories studies are often questionable

because it can be difficult to determine the accuracy of the personal memories. A study on the

Jorvik Viking Cultural Center attempted to rectify these issues.138 The researchers designed an

experiment where museum visitors were divided into three groups and tested on information

presented in the exhibition under specific odor conditions and then re-tested using different

odor conditions. In order to test long-term memory, experiments were conducted several

years after the visitors experienced the museum exhibition. The results show that visitors who

were re-exposed to the odors that were actually present within the exhibition scored higher on

the tests than visitors who were exposed to random odors or no odors.

While the studies described above highlight the significance of smell for memory and

emotion, they do not specifically look at the process of how smells or other sensory stimuli

become associated with memories and emotions. This question has been approached from a

variety of angles, with studies looking at odor associative learning. In odor associative

136 Rachel S. Herz, “Odor-Associative Learning and Emotion: Effects on Perception and Behavior,” Chemical

Senses 30, no. suppl 1 (January 1, 2005): i250–51, https://doi.org/10.1093/chemse/bjh209; Gün R. Semin and

Margarida V. Garrido, “A Systemic Approach to Impression Formation: From Verbal to Multimodal

Processes,” Social Thinking and Interpersonal Behavior, 2012, 81–100.

137 Rachel Herz, “Odor-Evoked Memory,” in The Oxford Handbook of Social Neuroscience, ed. Jean Decety

and John T. Cacioppo (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 269.

138 John P. Aggleton and Louise Waskett, “The Ability of Odours to Serve as State-Dependent Cues for Real-

World Memories: Can Viking Smells Aid the Recall of Viking Experiences?,” British Journal of Psychology 90

(1999): 1–7.

38

learning, emotion becomes “paired with an odor,” and it is the emotion that infuses meaning

into the odor, and from that point on, the odor will recall the emotion.139

Ideas about embodiment in psychology complement the idea of embodiment in the

humanities discussed earlier in this chapter. Psychological studies have resulted in a better

understanding of the relationship between what our bodies experience, how our minds

process experience, and how our languages express these experiences.140 In psychology,

embodiment is based on the “assumption that thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are grounded

in bodily interaction with the environment.”141 By extension, mental processes mirror bodily

and embodied awareness. For example, psychological research on embodiment examines

metaphors and how they relate to the body. Phrases like “I’m feeling down,” “washing away

[one’s] sins,” “giving the cold shoulder,” and many others are based on a physical

consciousness and represent interactions bodies have and feel with the world. Turkish has

similar examples in the phrases “soğuk davranmak [to act coldly towards someone]” “sicak

kanlı [literally translates to warm-blooded, but can mean someone with a warm disposition]”

“soğuk kanlı [literally translates to cold-blooded, but is used to describe a calm and capable

person]” and “dibe vurmak [to bottom out/hit rock bottom].” Studies have shown that these

metaphors do correlate to physical manifestations—being in an unfriendly social setting does

feel physically colder and people do feel less guilty about their actions once they have

washed their hands.142

139 Herz, “Odor-Associative Learning and Emotion.”

140 Thomas W. Schubert and Gün R. Semin, “Embodiment as a Unifying Perspective for Psychology,”

European Journal of Social Psychology 39, no. 7 (December 1, 2009): 1135–41,

https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.670; Francesco Foroni and Gün R Semin, “Language That Puts You in Touch With

Your Bodily Feelings: The Multimodal Responsiveness of Affective Expressions.,” Psychological Science 20,

no. 8 (August 2009): 974–80, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02400.x; Dennis D. Waskul and Phillip

Vannini, “Smell , Odor , and Somatic Work : Sense-Making and Sensory Management,” Social Psychology

Quarterly 71, no. 1 (2008): 53–71; R S Herz and J von Clef, “The Influence of Verbal Labeling on the

Perception of Odors: Evidence for Olfactory Illusions?,” PERCEPTION-LONDON- 30, no. 3 (2001): 381–92;

Brian P. Meier et al., “Embodiment in Social Psychology,” Topics in Cognitive Science 4, no. 4 (October 1,

2012): 705–16, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1756-8765.2012.01212.x.

141 Meier et al., “Embodiment in Social Psychology.”

142 Meier et al.

39

Semin and Garrido look at how interpersonal relationships are formed, and what plays

a role in helping us form our impressions.143 They introduce readers to the idea of “socially

situated cognition,” which recognizes that abstract concepts such as “time, affection, power,

and valence” are embodied.144 Even although we do not connect to these specifically through

our senses, we express them through metaphors of the body. They argue that when forming

impressions and relationships, not only does temperature play an important role, but so does

physical distance and olfaction. This study has been reinforced by some recent research from

the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. Researchers there found that some

people unconsciously bring their hands to their nose after a handshake, smelling and

evaluating the distinct chemicals left by the other person’s hand.145

Semin and Foroni’s conclusion about the lack of inherently positive or negative

connotations with smell, language, and emotions helps deconstruct widely-held beliefs in the

absoluteness, unchangeable valence of odors.146 We assume that there is a general consensus

regarding what smells “good” and what smells “bad” (e.g. most flowers smell good while

skunks smell bad), which has led to the common misconception that there is a scientific or

biological basis for why bad smells smell bad, and good smells smell good. In reality, just

like in every other area of our lives, these signifiers of “good” and “bad” in association with

smell are taught and learned.147 How this process occurs, exactly, is something still being

studied. One option is that it is simply taught. As children, we hear our parents say that

something smells nice, and remember that.

143 Semin and Garrido, “A Systemic Approach to Impression Formation.”

144 Semin and Garrido, 3.

145 Idan Frumin et al., “A Social Chemosignaling Function for Human Handshaking,” ELife 4 (March 3, 2015):

e05154, https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.05154.

146 Foroni and Semin, “Language That Puts You in Touch With Your Bodily Feelings: The Multimodal

Responsiveness of Affective Expressions.”

147 Trygg Engen, Odor Sensation and Memory (Greenwood Publishing Group, 1991); Herz, “Odor-Associative

Learning and Emotion”; Saive, Royet, and Plailly, “A Review on the Neural Bases of Episodic Odor Memory”;

Regina M. Sullivan et al., Olfactory Memory Networks: From Emotional Learning to Social Behaviors

(Frontiers Media SA, 2015).

40

However, there is some evidence to support chemosensory inflexibility—i.e. that are

preferences are dictated by the body and not culture. Steiner showed that newborns do react

to certain “pleasurable” smells more positively.148 Another study, by Soussignan et al., shows

that newborns show a variety of different responses to smells such as formula milk, vanilla,

and butyric acid (Figure 1; however, the newborn reactions still differed dramatically from

adults, of whom almost 100% would consider vanilla “good” and butyric acid “bad”).149

Figure 1: Examples of facial expressions of neonates in response to odors. A, B, and C are responding to formula milk; D is

responding to vanilla; E and F to butyric acid.

Furthermore, multiple studies have shown that humans do have a genetically coded

preference for sweetness.150 A rather successful test of an artificial nose allowed the nose to

148 Jacob E. Steiner, “Human Facial Expressions in Response to Taste and Smell Stimulation,” Advances in

Child Development and Behavior 13 (1979): 257–295.

149 Robert Soussignan et al., “Facial and Autonomic Responses to Biological and Artificial Olfactory Stimuli in

Human Neonates: Re-Examining Early Hedonic Discrimination of Odors,” Physiology & Behavior 62, no. 4

(October 1997): 745–58, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0031-9384(97)00187-X.

150 Kaisu Keskitalo et al., “Sweet Taste Preferences Are Partly Genetically Determined: Identification of a Trait

Locus on Chromosome 16,” The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 86, no. 1 (2007): 55–63.

41

accurately categorize smells into “good” or “bad” categories based on some physicochemical

properties of the smells themselves.151

However, numerous studies support the development (rather than innate existence) of

sensory preferences from a young age, with Yeshurun et al. characterizing these first

associations between these early sensory experiences, objects, and events as a “privileged

brain representation” in the hippocampus.152 Despite this evidence, there are numerous studies

which support a flexible, cultural-based development of sensory preferences.153 The question,

therefore, seems to be: to what extent are our innate and earliest chemosensory preferences

built and can they later be changed?154

Events and actions can also help reinforce positive or negative meanings to smell.

This concept is easily explained with examples from childhood. As children begin to

associate vanilla with their caregivers making cookies, cookies, cakes, etc. the good

memories and happy emotions that remain begin to become associated with the smellscapes,

and during that process, vanilla changes from being an unknown or bad smell to a good one.

Language can also play a role in this—as Rachel Herz explains, words like “skunk”

inherently imply that the object associated with that word is bad-smelling. Psychological

studies further support the idea that smell preferences are culturally and experience-based.

151 Rehan M. Khan et al., “Predicting Odor Pleasantness from Odorant Structure: Pleasantness as a Reflection of

the Physical World,” Journal of Neuroscience 27, no. 37 (2007): 10015–10023; Rafi Haddad et al., “Predicting

Odor Pleasantness with an Electronic Nose,” PLoS Computational Biology 6, no. 4 (2010): e1000740.

152 Gary K. Beauchamp and Julie A. Mennella, “Early Flavor Learning and Its Impact on Later Feeding

Behavior,” Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition 48 (2009): S25–S30; Benoist Schaal, Luc

Marlier, and Robert Soussignan, “Human Foetuses Learn Odours from Their Pregnant Mother’s Diet,”

Chemical Senses 25, no. 6 (2000): 729–737; Benoist Schaal, Robert Soussignan, and Luc Marlier, “Olfactory

Cognition at the Start of Life: The Perinatal Shaping of Selective Odor Responsiveness,” Olfaction, Taste, and

Cognition, 2002, 421–440; Delaunay-El Allam et al., “Long-Lasting Memory for an Odor Acquired at the

Mother’s Breast,” Developmental Science 13, no. 6 (2010): 849–863; Johan Poncelet et al., “The Effect of Early

Experience on Odor Perception in Humans: Psychological and Physiological Correlates,” Behavioural Brain

Research 208, no. 2 (2010): 458–465; Yeshurun et al., “The Privileged Brain Representation of First Olfactory

Associations.”

153 T Engen, The Perception of Odors, vol. 709 (Academic Press New York, 1982); Julie A. Mennella, M.

Yanina Pepino, and Danielle R. Reed, “Genetic and Environmental Determinants of Bitter Perception and Sweet

Preferences,” Pediatrics 115, no. 2 (2005): e216–e222.

154 For a detailed overview of the arguments for both sides and an in-depth look at neurobiology behind these

preferences, see Coppin and Sander, “The Flexibility of Chemosensory Preferences.”

42

The US military’s attempt to find a stink bomb ultimately failed because they could not find

any smell that was “repulsive” enough to everyone across the world.155 Additionally, the same

area of the brain that interprets smells, the orbitofrontal cortex, is also the area that assigns

meaning to sensory stimuli.156 Because early childhood stimuli associations greatly impact

our future perceptions and behaviors towards others, olfaction can have a potentially large

impact. Additionally, when looking at memory studies, there is often no way to differentiate

between things a person did not remember versus things they did not notice. The accuracy of

long-term individual memories is often questionable, although the lack of accuracy would not

necessarily invalidate any progress made in understanding how smell, emotions, and

memories are linked. Finally, there is little research done on smells in the virtual

environment, although several companies and machines have already been established to try

and bridge the two.

Psychology and neurobiology provide not only a useful but incredibly necessary

understanding of the body and the senses for the humanities and social sciences. Research

into the history, impact, and importance of the senses for our memories, lifestyles, and

heritage is bolstered by a more accurate awareness of the complex biology, neurological,

emotional, and psychological processes that both help form our impressions of the senses, but

also help the senses order our experiences.

Methodologies

This section discusses the methodologies (and projects which utilized them for sensory

studies) undertaken or considered in this project to arrive at an understanding of past

smellscapes and cultural values attached to smells at the Spice Market, in Istanbul, and in

Turkish society. The methodologies are oral history and interviews, mapping, historical

research, crowd-sourcing, and creative practice. This project also utilized visitor surveys from

155 Herz, “Odor-Associative Learning and Emotion.”

156 Herz.

43

the accompanying exhibition “Scent and the City”; these are discussed in both chapters 3 and

4.

The field of sensory studies and the methodology of incorporating sensory approaches

are, as discussed above, relatively new. There are no generally accepted practices or standard

methodologies one would employ to do sensory research. Furthermore, each sense requires

different approaches, methods of recording, and forms of dissemination. We may use our

bodies as tools for experience, but for the field to develop, the senses need to be investigated

in myriad ways.

Unfortunately, we do not have the technology or the methodology to simply “capture” a

smellscape. While the perfume industry’s “headspace” technology (Figure 2) does capture

and break down the air into chemical components, it has traditionally only been used for

small objects. Headspace technology was developed by perfume company International

Flavors & Fragrance (IFF) in the 1980s. The technology consists of a small glass dome, into

which an object is placed. The object gradually releases gases which contain the molecules

Figure 2: Givaudan perfumist Roman Kaiser using headspace. Kaiser

developed the technology in the 1980s. Photo courtesy Givaudan

promotional material.

44

that comprise its smell, which is captured and then analyzed by gas chromatography.157

Furthermore, the chemical components do not correlate to smells; a specialist must interpret

the smells. While this type of interpretation is doable with one object, it is much more

difficult to do with an ambient sample such as air captured from a large space, a market, or

city street. As Bembibre and Strlič note in their article on smells and heritage, “not all

compounds that could trigger the sense of smell can be determined using this technique. For

inorganic compounds, and some organic compounds that are difficult to sample using solidphase

microextraction (SPME), other sampling and analytical techniques may be more

useful, from direct detection to various types of separation techniques.”158

Oral History

A methodology rarely invoked in sensory literature is oral history.159 Oral history is,

according to the Oral History Association, “a field of study and a method of gathering,

preserving and interpreting the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants

in past events.” A significant aspect of oral history is its roots in the “history from below”

movement of the 1960s. This idea that the views and experiences of the “common” person

are important to understanding history links oral history and sensory research.

Oral history allows researchers to access time-periods not readily covered by most

sensory research. Many scholars are interested in these senses as experienced and presented

157 N. Groom, New Perfume Handbook (Springer Science & Business Media, 1997), 152; Roman Kaiser,

“Headspace: An Interview with Roman Kaiser,” Future Anterior 13, no. 2 (May 16, 2017): 1–9.

158 Bembibre and Strlič, “Smell of Heritage,” 4; Pradyot Patnaik, Handbook of Environmental Analysis:

Chemical Pollutants in Air, Water, Soil, and Solid Wastes (CRC Press, 2002).

159 While I state the oral history is a rarely used methodology in sensory research, I want to highlight there is a

distinction between oral history, interviewing, and ethnography; the latter has certainly been used to for sensory

research. While all these methods are based on talking to a targeted group of people, they are frequently divided

by discipline and purpose. While oral history is largely a tool of historians to investigate a specific topic in the

past via the memories and stories of people, ethnographies are the purview of anthropologists. Ethnographies are

normally done on specific groups of people and the process involves “the recording and analysis of a culture or

society, usually based on participant-observation and resulting in a written account of a people, place or

institution" (Simon Coleman and Bob Simpson, “Glossary of Terms,” Discover Anthropology, accessed

September 6, 2017, https://www.discoveranthropology.org.uk/about-anthropology/glossaryofterms.html.).

Ethnographies can certainly include historical components, but their purpose is to make a larger observation and

analysis of culture. The practice of “interviewing” can be utilized by many scholars in many disciplines.

45

in the distant past, while others focus exclusively on the present.160 Few focus on the more

recent past, i.e. that of living memory. This focus on the recent past can serve as a bridge

between the sensory worlds of the more distant past and that of the present. Furthermore, by

compiling narratives from people with memories and lived experiences of times and places

no longer accessible to us, our understanding of the past and its sensory nuances becomes

richer, more accessible, and tangible. The relationship between sensory research and oral

history practice is symbiotic; while oral history can greatly enhance our sensory knowledge

of the past, a sensory perspective can also greatly aid oral historians. There is much we can

gain by being more cognizant of sensory experiences and memories. Deliberately paying

attention to the senses allows us to highlight forgotten histories and reinterpret narratives.

Furthermore, asking specifically about sensory memories can evoke dormant memories (the

Proustian effect) and produce richer details and connections between people and narratives.161

Paula Hamilton, one of the few oral historians consciously to incorporate sensory-related

questions into her oral history projects, cautions that “Since oral histories are essentially

about agency, or individuals as a central character in their life stories…How people heard or

160 Corbin, The Foul and the Fragrant: Odor and the French Social Imagination; Eleanor Betts, Senses of the

Empire: Multisensory Approaches to Roman Culture (Taylor & Francis, 2017); Nina Ergin, “The Soundscape of

Sixteenth-Century Istanbul Mosques: Architecture and Qur’an Recital,” Journal of the Society of Architectural

Historians 67, no. 2 (2008): 204–221; Nina Ergin, “The Fragrance of the Divine: Ottoman Incense Burners and

Their Context,” The Art Bulletin 96, no. 1 (March 2014): 70–97; Hoffer, Sensory Worlds in Early America;

Mark M. Smith, The Smell of Battle, the Taste of Siege: A Sensory History of the Civil War (Oxford University

Press, 2014); Henshaw, Urban Smellscapes; Kate McLean, “Emotion, Location and the Senses: A Virtual

Dérive Smell Map of Paris,” in Proceedings of the 8th International Design and Emotion Conference, London,

ed. J. Brassert et al. (London: Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, 2012); Kelvin E Y Low, Scents

and Scent-Sibilities: A Sociocultural Inquiry of Smells in Everyday Life Experiences (Newcastle upon Tyne:

Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009); Daniele Quercia et al., “Smelly Maps: The Digital Life of Urban

Smellscapes,” ArXiv:1505.06851 [Cs], May 26, 2015, http://arxiv.org/abs/1505.06851.

161 In In Search of Lost Time, Volume 1: Swann’s Way, Marcel Proust writes the following: ““But when from a

long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, taste and

smell alone, more fragile but more enduring, more unsubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, remain poised a

long time, like souls, remembering, waiting, hoping, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unflinchingly, in the

tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection” (pages 63–64). What we call

the Proust(ian) effect is based on this passage and the preceding story, in which Proust is transplanted back to

his childhood when he dips a madeleine in tea. The right combination of tastes and smells can evoke memories

we thought were long-lost. For more information on the Proust effect, see Cretien van Campen, The Proust

Effect: The Senses as Doorways to Lost Memories, trans. Julian Ross (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014),

http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199685875.001.0001/acprof-9780199685875.

46

smelled in the past is not the same as we hear or smell and today. It is critically important,

therefore to “historicize” the senses.”162

This sensory awareness should not just be limited to the project intent, questions, or

re-assessing the interview material. Martin Thomas notes that “…too many historians still

lazily mine oral histories (or preferably transcripts of them) for content alone—ignoring the

ambience of the tape, the theatrics of the interview and the particularities of the medium, all

of which affect the evidential value.”163 Oral history interviews also provide researchers the

opportunity for more embodied exploration. The senses can manifest through performative

acts, such as reproducing sounds or using hand or body movements to illustrate haptic

memories, motions, or events.

Hamilton’s own sensory-based oral history project, “Transforming the Local,”

explored the gentrification of an industrial working-class suburb of Sydney, Australia in the

1960s. She asked interviewees about the sensory experiences during that time, hoping to

“create a more intimate scale, but also a more dynamic sense of how change is experienced

over time.”164 She found that she received better responses when she told interviewees

beforehand about the sensory nature of her questions, which resulted in a “rich portrait” of

place, which narrated the same urban processes through many viewpoints. More importantly,

Hamilton argues, a sensory perspective helps challenge the unity implied in “local” and

“community”—there was no one “local” experience or meaning for the “community.”

Rather, the sensory memories highlighted the “layered histories” and “multiple meanings of

place,” while also informing “the scale of the local.”165

162 Hamilton, “Oral History and the Senses,” 108.

163 Martin Thomas, “The Rush to Record: Transmitting the Sound of Aboriginal Culture,” Journal of Australian

Studies 31, no. 90 (2007): 107.

164 Hamilton, “Oral History and the Senses,” 112.

165 Hamilton, 114; Porteous, “Smellscape,” 1985, 357; Yi-Fu Tuan, Space and Place: The Perspective of

Experience (E. Arnold, 1977).

47

Mapping

Early geographic studies mostly ignored smells; as Porteous notes, only a few mention smell

in their descriptions of place, including Tuan and Bunge and Bordessa.166 Most researchers

looking at modern smellscapes employ the method of walking to gather data.167 Sensory

walks can be done alone or with groups, once or many times, and in varying conditions of

weather and time. There are obvious limitations to this approach; most notably, the amount of

data one can collect is limited both in terms of time and the availability of participants.

Recording the smells can be done via mapping, a photograph of the sources of smell, or,

depending on the situation, via headspace technology.

Many contemporary projects map their results to some degree. These maps are often

beautifully designed objects in themselves that present the modern smellscape as ephemeral

and colorful, especially the maps of information designer Kate McLean.168 Work by Quercia,

Aiello, and Schifanella involve projects that combine sensory data, digital mapping, and the

web by crowd-sourcing sensory data from social media to design and categorize city smells.

They try to understand how city smellscapes change in time and space, what emotions are

attached to smells, and explore the synesthetic relationship between smell and color.169

166 Porteous, “Smellscape,” 1985, 357.

167 Henshaw, Urban Smellscapes; Kate McLean, “Ex-Formation as a Method for Mapping Smellscapes,”

Communication Design 3, no. 2 (July 3, 2015): 173–86, https://doi.org/10.1080/20557132.2015.1163081;

Jessica Hopkins, “Sensory Informants: A Guide to Mapping Ephemeral Data” (Northeastern University, 2016),

https://search.proquest.com/docview/1791170334/abstract/CD6D7C912F064A65PQ/1; Alejandra Vilaplana and

Toshimasa Yamanaka, “Effect of Smell in Space Perception,” International Journal of Affective Engineering

14, no. 3 (2015): 175–82, https://doi.org/10.5057/ijae.IJAE-D-15-00010; Mădălina Diaconu, “Mapping Urban

Smellscapes,” in Senses and the City: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Urban Sensescapes, ed. Mădălina

Diaconu et al. (LIT Verlag Münster, 2011), 223–38.

168 Kate McLean, “Smellmap: Amsterdam–Olfactory Art & Smell Visualisation,” in VISAP’14

Art+Interpretation (VISAP’14 Art+Interpretation, Paris, France, 2014); K. McLean, “Mapping Urban

Ephemerals: Contemporary Practices of Visualising the Invisible and the Transitory,” in Routledge Handbook of

Mapping and Cartography, ed. P. Vujakovic and A. Kent (Routledge, 2017),

http://create.canterbury.ac.uk/14373/.

169 Quercia et al., “Smelly Maps”; Daniele Quercia, “Chatty, Happy, and Smelly Maps,” in Proceedings of the

24th International Conference on World Wide Web, WWW ’15 Companion (New York, NY, USA: ACM,

2015), 741–741, https://doi.org/10.1145/2740908.2741717; Daniele Quercia, Luca Maria Aiello, and Rossano

Schifanella, “The Emotional and Chromatic Layers of Urban Smells,” Proceedings of the Tenth International

Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2016), May 21, 2016, http://arxiv.org/abs/1605.06721.

48

Maps aid spatial orientation and provide a visual source of information; they

communicate data, but not necessarily values or transient, sensory activities. Defining the

components of smellscapes, Porteous states “like visual impressions, smells may be spatially

ordered or place-related,” a definition used by most other sensory scholars.170 However, Kate

McLean, who has done extensive work on mapping smells, problematizes this definition of

smellscape and its implications for mapping; how can we map such temporary, transient

scapes?171 Law, in her description of alternate “sensory geographies” studies how migrants

from the Philippines in Hong Kong change public spaces into temporal “sensory landscapes”

as they picnic with their traditional food, something that would not show up on a map but

intensely affects the landscape.172 Tilley, in his discussion of landscapes, notes that it takes

more than putting something on a map to create a relationship or a value:

It is through making material reference to the past that identification with place

occurs through the medium of ‘traditional’ material culture and representations of

life-styles, urban and rural, that no longer exist. Modernity is erased in favour of

nostalgic reference to a lost past in an analogous way to the manner in which the

official promotion of world heritage sites requires architecturally restoring the past in

the present to project possibilities for a desirable future. Identifying with place does

not just happen. It requires work, repeated acts which establish relations between

people and places (Cresswell 2004; Massey 2005) and significantly expands

intersubjective space-time (Munn 1986) beyond the self.173

In additional to traditional mapping techniques, digital computing and social media

offer tantalizing new ways scholars can approach large-scale sensory data accumulation.

Quercia, Aiello, Schifanella, and others are pioneering the technique of crowd-sourcing urban

sensory data. They are interested in how urban smellscapes change in time and space and

how a greater sensory knowledge of cities could help urban planning. To answer these

questions, they developed a methodology of crowd-sourcing, using data from tags on geo-

170 Porteous, “Smellscape,” 1985, 359.

171 K. McLean, “Polyrhythmia of the Smellwalk: Mapping Multi-Scalar Temporalities,” n.d.,

https://create.canterbury.ac.uk/id/eprint/15636.

172 Lisa Law, “Home Cooking: Filipino Women and Geographies of the Senses in Hong Kong,” Ecumene 8, no.

3 (2001): 264–283.

173 Tilley, “Introduction,” 14.

49

referenced pictures and comments, in this case from Flickr, Twitter, and Instagram.174 They

then organized the tags into an urban smell dictionary. This dictionary was created by the

tagging data, which was structured into a dictionary by building a co-occurrence graph, and

which creates a network of words based on the frequency with which they appear together.

From this co-occurrence network, they organized the smells into a dictionary and an urban

smell taxonomy. The authors acknowledge the inherent biases of social media and attempt to

control for them by comparing the smell word data to the presence of certain air pollutants in

the same areas. They also used the descriptor tool from the Open Street Map database to

compare the areas labeled as “natural,” “vegetation,” and “surface,” with areas that generated

many nature-related smell words on social media. Based on their own experiments asking

subjects to provide subjective smell-based data, Bembibre and Strlič note that “… despite

challenges posed by the ephemerality and invisibility of smells, techniques such as the ‘noseled’

walks and crowdsourcing make the documenting of odours possible and even

accessible.”175

“Urban Cultural Heritage and Creative Practice” Workshop and Experimental Methodologies

This dissertation project stemmed from an international research collaborative entitled

“Urban Cultural Heritage and Creative Practice” (UCHCP). The inauguration workshop,

“Smellscapes of Eminönü: Documenting and Archiving the Olfactory Heritage of Istanbul”

was held in 2012, organized by Koç University in Istanbul and Brown University in

Providence, Rhode Island. The workshop brought together a total of 35 faculty and students

from six universities around the world to explore various aspects of the Spice Market’s

olfactory heritage and to document and analyze through smell the Spice Market as a place of

history and heritage. The workshop asked participants to re-think our standard visual-based

strategies for documenting this type of intangible heritage. A variety of creative

174 Quercia, Aiello, and Schifanella, “The Emotional and Chromatic Layers of Urban Smells.”

175 Bembibre and Strlič, “Smell of Heritage,” 4.

50

methodologies were tested by the participants, including blindfolded smell walks, scent-based

mapping, interviewing, and collecting of scent sources in glass jars, which resulted in

narrative short stories, dance performances, short films, an oral history archive, and maps.

Many of the participants used creative practice in some way to explore the sensory heritage

of the Spice Market (Figure 3). Part of the decision to bring together so many international

scholars, artists, and students was to foster a more creative environment. Therefore, we did

not have a preconceived plan for how to start studying smells. After an orientation,

participants brainstormed and discussed how to approach the research questions. We all spent

the first days of the workshop getting acclimated to the surroundings and “being a dog for a

day.”

Figure 3: Inside the Spice Market. Photograph by Anthony Haughey, part of the Smellscapes of Eminönü archive project.

We were advised to take this “canine-centered” exploratory approach by smell artist

and research chemist Sissel Tolaas and to try to ignore visual cues, by simply walking where

our noses led us. For example: instead of changing directions when you see something, turn

51

down a street when a new smell passes by. These first few days of smell-exploration allowed

participants really to think about how they wanted to approach methods of studying urban

smells. As we wandered around Eminönü, we tried to collect items that produced the scents

we were smelling. Using mainly glass jars (plastic containers would affect the smell), we

created a smell collection and database. Participants gathered items like teas, oils, meat,

cheese, flowers, dirty water, washcloths from the famous Turkish baths, mothballs, coffee,

cigarettes, animal food, and many other things. After the workshop finished Lucienne ThysŞenocak,

one of the project investigators at the workshop, and I decided not to keep most of

the actual scent producing objects (some included water from the Golden Horn and other

items that could be a health hazard while decaying), but we kept a record of all items

collected. Notably, once the smells were removed from their context, some seemed to

become less significant, while others evoked strong reactions and memories from the

participants.176

Another quite interesting method was scent-driven walking. One participant organized

walks through the Spice Bazaar with participants who were blindfolded, and they had to call

out the names of whatever smell they sensed (Figure 4). Another participant took a different

approach and walked around Eminönü all day in a pair of white socks. The socks were then

presented as a record of the smells of the area. Several other participants engaged in creative

practice by producing artwork, short stories, dances, and videos based on their experiences of

and questions surrounding scent in the city.

176 A particularly poignant example of this phenomenon was mothballs; even removed from their original

context, they evoked strong associations either with bathrooms (where they are placed to cover emanating

smells) but also with Turkish flags. Participants recounted how the Turkish flag, an object which signifies

national pride and honor and placed outside during holidays, is stored with care, often with mothballs to protect

from insects.

52

Figure 4: Participants trying a blindfolded scent walk. Part of the Smellscapes of Eminönü archive project.

How can these creative methods and practices be assessed and utilized along with

more traditional methods of research? The UCHCP manifesto states that it “seeks to reframe

understandings of urban cultural heritage. We propose that heritage is a creative and

relational process where places and communities are constantly remade through creative

performance, and together we rigorously critique models for connecting contemporary arts

practice and cultural heritage curation.”177 In the book Art Practice as Research: An Inquiry

in the Visual Arts, Graeme Sullivan states that investigative practice is both directed by

personal interest and creative insight, but still informed by subject knowledge, which allows

177 “About,” Urban Cultural Heritage & Creative Practice (blog), November 3, 2011,

https://urbanheritages.wordpress.com/about/.

53

the researcher to “see through” the field and arrive at more creative ways of questioning and

researching.178 The necessity of being an informed creative practitioner is emphasized by

many scholars working on this subject, including M. Csikszentmihalyi, who notes “…for

creativity to occur, a set of rules and practices must be transmitted from the domain to the

individual. The individual must then produce a novel variation in the content of the domain.

The variation then must be selected by the field for inclusion in the domain.”179

Another requirement of acceptable creative practice involves documentation.

Practitioner Based Enquiry (PBE) requires that, as part of creation and creative research

methodology, a systematic technique of keeping field notes must be created that provides an

“‘insider’s perspective to the total available stock of knowledge on creativity.”180 The United

Kingdom Arts & Humanities Research Council goes further, stating that:

Creative output can be produced, or practice undertaken, as an integral part of a

research process…The Council would expect, however, this practice to be

accompanied by some form of documentation of the research process, as well as

some form of textual analysis or explanation to support its position and to

demonstrate critical reflection…Work that results purely from the creative or

professional development of an artist, however distinguished, is unlikely to fulfil the

requirements of research.181

The creative practice and creative outputs done in association with this project

certainly fall under the scope of research as defined by the scholars above. The UCHCP

collective intentionally aimed for collaboration with academically-informed creative results,

as well as creativity-informed academic results. The workshop was extensively documented

and participants continually refined their methods and outputs through discussion, critique,

and self-reflexive dialogue. The workshop resulted in a variety of traditional academic and

178 Graeme Sullivan, Art Practice as Research: Inquiry in the Visual Arts (SAGE, 2005), 64–65.

179 Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, “Implications of a Systems Perspective for the Study of Creativity,” in Handbook

of Creativity, ed. Robert J. Sternberg (Cambridge University Press, 1999), 315.

180 P. McIntyre, “Creative Practice as Research: ‘Testing Out’ the Systems Model of Creativity through

Practitioner Based Enquiry,” in Speculation and Innovation: Applying Practice Led Research in the Creative

Industries, ed. N. Bourke, D. Mafe Haseman, and R. Vella (Queensland University of Technology, 2006), 4.

181 “Definition of Research—Arts and Humanities Research Council,” accessed August 30, 2017,

http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/funding/research/researchfundingguide/introduction/definitionofresearch/.

54

creative outputs: the publication of “Heritage and Scent: Research and Exhibition of

Istanbul’s Changing Smellscapes” in the International Journal of Heritage Studies, a fictional

scent narrative about the Spice Market from the viewpoint of a dog, a dance performance,

and a digital storytelling project about moving through Istanbul and into the Spice Market.182

The creative underpinnings of the original workshop greatly aided this dissertation project by

both modeling how creative research could be done and establishing a foundation for further

research questions based off initial findings and outputs.

A Sensorial View of Eminönü

Eminönü is and has been a vibrant neighborhood of Istanbul for centuries. Due to its location

on the Golden Horn, for hundreds of years this area has been home to markets, merchant

quarters, and customs houses. According to census data conducted by the Turkish Institute of

Statistics, Eminönü is one of two neighborhoods in Istanbul losing its residential population.

According to the Istanbul Municipality records, more than one million people resided there at

one point, yet as of 2007 had a population of 32,557.183 This depopulation is largely because

the area has become even more commercial in the past century. Furthermore, statistics show

that migrants from Mardin have a large majority in both the districts of Eminönü and

neighboring Fatih.184 We do not have detailed census data for Eminönü after 2007 because it

lost it district status and is now incorporated into the larger district of Fatih.

Research on the sensory aspects of Istanbul is scarce. Most of the literature pertaining

to this topic focuses on the modernization and sanitization campaigns that have occurred in

Eminönü over the past century and are ultimately rather indirect sources. Thanks to the work

of scholars on Greek, Roman, and Byzantine sensory studies we can make some educated

guesses as to the olfactory heritage of Istanbul during these periods, but it is hardly complete.

182 Anna Wada, “Smellscapes of Eminönü,” 2016, http://annawada.wix.com/smellscapes.

183 “Population and Demographic Structure,” accessed August 30, 2017, http://www.ibb.gov.tr/sites/ks/en-US/0-

Exploring-The-City/Location/Pages/PopulationandDemographicStructure.aspx.

184 “Population and Demographic Structure.”

55

Broader research concerning the smells of these periods can be found in Chapter 2 of this

dissertation. In “Heritage and Scent: Research and Exhibition of Istanbul’s Changing

Smellscapes,” which I co-authored with my advisor Dr. Lucienne Thys-Şenocak, we explored

in detail the existing knowledge of sensory history in and around the Spice Market. The

following paragraphs build upon the information presented in the article.185

The Spice Market has been a major economic hub and trading center of Istanbul since

it was built from 1661–1665 by the mother of Sultan Mehmed IV as an income generating

component for her large mosque complex, the Yeni Valide, or New Mother’s, Mosque

Complex.186 In addition to the market and mosque, the complex included a small palacepavilion,

a tomb, two fountains, a time-keeping center, a primary school, and other

educational institutions used for the instruction of the Koran, hadith and other teachings of

Islam. The surroundings of the Spice Market have been dramatically altered since the

seventeenth century; the actual building still stands opposite the mosque as a vaulted Lshaped

brick and masonry structure, holding two long corridors of shops. In the original

seventeenth-century vakfiye, foundation document, for the mosque complex, the Spice

Market was initially called the Valide Çarşı, or the Sultan’s Mother’s Market, after its patron,

Hadice Turhan Sultan. By the eighteenth century, it was referred to as the Egyptian Bazaar

because tax revenues from the Ottoman holdings in Egypt were allocated to the market, and

perfumes and spices from Egypt and other lands within the extensive Ottoman trading

network were sold there.187 Today it is also identified with its touristic appellation: The Spice

Market. Although the Spice Market was only built in the seventeenth century, records

185 Lauren Davis and Lucienne Thys-Şenocak, “Heritage and Scent: Research and Exhibition of Istanbul’s

Changing Smellscapes,” International Journal of Heritage Studies 23, no. 8 (September 14, 2017): 723–41,

https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2017.1317646.

186 Lucienne Thys-Şenocak, Ottoman Women Builders: The Architectural Patronage of Hadice Turhan Sultan

(Ashgate, 2006).

187 Giancarlo Casale, “The Ottoman Administration of the Spice Trade in the Sixteenth-Century Red Sea and

Persian Gulf,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 49, no. 2 (2006): 170–98,

https://doi.org/10.2307/25165138; Thys-Şenocak, Ottoman Women Builders.

56

indicate that traders who dealt in spices and other aromatic goods had been selling their wares

around that area for centuries. In the Byzantine era, we learn from the Book of the Eparch,

written during Leo VI’s reign (886–912), that spice shop locations were regulated so that

“aroma may waft upwards to the icon [of Christ] and…the Royal Palace.”188 Spice merchants

continued to prosper in this area beyond the Byzantine era. From Evliya Çelebi’s

Seyahatname we learn that in 1638 the number of spice sellers in Eminönü numbered in the

thousands; they were selling goods imported from Cairo, as well as one hundred ambergris

sellers and seventy rosewater vendors all working in the area that would become the Spice

Market a few decades later.189

The New Mosque (Yeni Cami) and its associated complexes were built on the on

foundations of the mosque commissioned by Safiye’s Sultan, the mother of Sultan Mehmed

III. Construction began in 1587 but the project ended when her son, Sultan Mehmed III, died

in 1603. By that time, only the foundations had been constructed. In July 1660 a large and

devastating fire brought royal attentions back to Eminönü and the Yeni Cami building

project, which was subsequently funded by and completed under the supervision of Turhan

Sultan.

The neighborhood was already a densely populated area and had been a commercial

center for centuries. When the new Ottoman post office was built in Eminönü in the early

twentieth century, the building reports indicated the presence of Byzantine ruins. K. R. Dark

argues that these ruins defined the natural coastline and indicate the presence of a

significantly larger Early Byzantine period harbor than was previously known.190 The harbor

would have spanned from the location of the new Ottoman post office (a few hundred meters

188 As quoted in Andrew Dalby, Tastes of Byzantium: The Cuisine of a Legendary Empire (I.B.Tauris, 2010),

40.

189 As explained in Ergin, “The Fragrance of the Divine: Ottoman Incense Burners and Their Context,” 87.

190 K. R. Dark, “The New Post Office Site in Istanbul and the North-Eastern Harbour of Byzantine

Constantinople,” International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 33, no. 2 (October 1, 2004): 315–19,

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-9270.2004.00026.x.

57

south-east of the present Spice Market) to the Byzantine buildings of the Hurmalı Han and

the Balkapanı Han, which would have also been sitting on the natural coastline. Although it

was not built until the 1600s, records specify that the general area, also home to Ottoman

customs houses, had been a commercial headquarters for centuries, spanning both the

Byzantine and Ottoman empires. Overall, there is strong evidence of millennia of commercial

activity occurring in the environs of the Spice Market, especially involving goods that would

have come via various sea routes.

The neighborhood was a largely Jewish neighborhood. Non-Muslim populations were

merchants in the area even in the Byzantine times; as early as the tenth century the Porte

Hebraica (a city gate) stood on the site. After the conquest, non-Muslims were moved into the

city to help re-populate it; records (Mehmed II’s vakfiye) show that 165 Jewish families were

moved into Eminönü.191 The non-Muslim population continued to grow and is attested by

accounts, including Evliya Çelebi and European travelers.192 These merchants helped

invigorate commerce after the Ottoman conquest. They were also helpful intermediaries with

the Venetian, Pisan, Florentine, and English traders. Sixteenth-century Ottoman accounts

refer to razing a church and a synagogue to build the mosque after the fire. Thys-Şenocak

notes that by building a mosque there, non-Muslims would have to be moved and the

construction created a more Islamic neighborhood. The building project became, she

comments, “a model of Islamic piety and royal munificence.”193 Furthermore, after burning

in the fire, many yahudhane (apartments with Jewish residences) were forbidden from being

rebuilt via imperial decrees.194 The transformation and Islamization of this neighborhood

forced the Jewish populations to move to new areas of the city, largely further up the Golden

191 Thys-Şenocak, Ottoman Women Builders, 190.

192 Thys-Şenocak, 190.

193 Thys-Şenocak, 189.

194 Marc David Baer, “The Great Fire of 1660 and the Islamization of Christian and Jewish Space in Istanbul,”

International Journal of Middle East Studies 36, no. 2 (May 2004): 169,

https://doi.org/10.1017/S002074380436201X.

58

Horn. Baer highlights the significance of placing the Yeni Valide Mosque Complex in the

particular neighborhood and proximity to the commercial quarter:

… [the] Valide Sultan Mosque held an even more commanding position, for

it served as the imperial edifice that greeted one upon arrival at the main port. The

building itself and its inscriptions conveyed several meanings to the intended

audience of Muslims and non-Muslims. Only some Muslims knew the meaning of the

inscriptions, but Christians, Jews, and Muslims all recognized that they were Quranic

texts written in Arabic. They did not need to understand Arabic to realize the radical

transformation of the neighborhood.195

The area continued to be plagued by fires; in 1668 a fire broke out in the nearby fish

market and destroyed the exterior, while another major fire occurred in 1691 within the

market. Though we may think of the market now as an insulated, separate entity, the

marketplace of the past spread thoroughly past the its walls. Vendors sold around the market;

Lucienne Thys-Şenocak notes that in the late 1700s the municipality made a concerted effort

to remove the wooden shacks and stalls that had popped up in the area, in an effort

modernize.196 There were also two large coffee-roasting ovens directly across from the

market (despite the displeasure of some clerics) and those proceeds also went to the

foundation. For centuries, dried fruits and vegetables, coffee, various medicinal products

including aphrodisiacs, spices and perfumes were sold at the Spice Market, making it one of

the richest olfactory environments of Istanbul. This market was where the buhurcıs of

Istanbul—tradesmen responsible for perfuming the harems, mosques, tombs, and divine

spaces of the empire at the behest of the sultan, his mother, and other Ottoman notables—

would come to find the appropriate scents made of musk, ambergris, rosewater, camphor,

exotic woods and resins among others.197

With a constantly-changing environment, it can be difficult to determine what exactly

was sold in the market at various points throughout the centuries. Although the current

195 Baer, 163–164.

196 Thys-Şenocak, Ottoman Women Builders, 250.

197 Ergin, “The Fragrance of the Divine: Ottoman Incense Burners and Their Context.”

59

English name of the market, the Spice Market, implies a general category of what is and has

been sold in the space, “spice” is still rather vague. How should spices be defined? Our

current understanding of what constitutes a “spice” is not necessarily applicable to earlier

periods. Freedman argues that in the late medieval period, there were three underlying

characteristics to the “spice” category: “imported, not perishable, and have a high unit value

(a small amount is valuable and so, unlike iron, timber, or wheat, spices do not require bulk

transport to make a profit).198 Therefore, substances such as musk or camphor were counted

as spices, though only rarely used to flavor food. Herbs, even dried, were not considered

spices and tended to be cultivated locally.

In the late 15th century, the Ottomans defeated the Mamluks in Egypt and gained

control of the Oriental spice trade.199 We do not know all the routes that merchants took to

travel between the Middle East and Europe, but we do know that many route combinations

were possible. In a series of testimonies submitted to the state of Venice by Ottoman mohair

traders who had been robbed, they mention crossing by land across Anatolia and the Balkans

to the port of Gabela, in present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina.200 They switched from land to

ship in this port town. Unfortunately, we do not know what route they took or why they

choose to do this stretch by land rather than sea. Still, the city of Istanbul, Boyar and Fleet

note, “was the central nexus of the empire from which all networks for commercial power

radiated outwards, connecting Ottoman merchants and traders to the capital…[its] wealth was

dependent on the sea and the arrival of ships in its harbours.”201 Tokatli also reinforces the

economic importance of Istanbul as the center of demand and trade, stating:202

198 Paul Freedman, “The Medieval Spice Trade,” in The Oxford Handbook of Food History, ed. Jeffrey M.

Pilcher (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 326.

199 Mehmet Bulut, Ottoman-Dutch Economic Relations in the Early Modern Period 1571-1699 (Uitgeverij

Verloren, 2001), 62.

200 Suraiya Faroqhi, Travel and Artisans in the Ottoman Empire: Employment and Mobility in the Early Modern

Era (I.B.Tauris, 2014), 79.

201 Ebru Boyar and Kate Fleet, A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul (Cambridge University Press, 2010), 157.

202Nebahat Tokatli and Yonca Boyaci, “The Changing Morphology of Commercial Activity in Istanbul,” Cities

16, no. 3 (June 1, 1999): 182, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0264-2751(99)00015-3.

60

“Istanbul had always been a major consumer market of the empire, the

demand originating from the civilian population of the capital and the palace making

its bazaars the final destination of trade (Faroqhi 1984). Trade linked the sites of

agricultural production with Istanbul's consumption and was the main link between

the Ottoman Empire and the capitalist world economy (Kasaba 1988, Faroqhi 1984).”

The Portuguese discovery of the Cape of Good Hope in 1486 shifted some of the

spice route from over land to by sea. However, throughout the sixteenth century, the old spice

routes continue to be significant, with Pearson noting that “more spices and paper were

coming to Europe via the Red Sea and the Mediterranean than via the Cape.”203 The

Ottomans, therefore, profited greatly from this transit trade, as did the Venetians, their

primary trading partner. In the early years of the 16th century, Venice and the Ottoman

Empire still dominated the spice trade; the long sea voyages were still rather costly for

Portugal and it was noted that their spices were inferior.204 What is less clear, however, is

how much made it to the Istanbul spice market for the domestic population. As European

trade via the sea increased, the Ottomans offered the Capitulations, agreements which granted

the other European powers some economic privileges. By the seventeenth century, the Dutch

had reached the famed Spice Islands, formed the Dutch East India Trading Company. As a

result, much of the overland trade between the Far East and Europe was diverted to the sea.

Again, the extent to which the affected the goods being sold in Istanbul is unknown. By the

first half of the seventeenth century, Ottomans were exporting numerous textiles to the

Netherlands, and, Bulut shows, the Dutch were providing the Ottomans with spices from the

lands that would eventually fall under Dutch rule.205 The customs registrars from Smyrna

(present-day Izmir) dated 1771–1772 record that 21% of the goods that came into the port

203 Michael Naylor Pearson, Merchants and Rulers in Gujarat: The Response to the Portuguese in the Sixteenth

Century (University of California Press, 1976), 79, as cited in Mehmet Bulut, Ottoman-Dutch Economic

Relations in the Early Modern Period 1571-1699 (Uitgeverij Verloren, 2001), 19.

204 David Arnold, The Age of Discovery, 1400-1600 (Psychology Press, 2002), 21.

205 Bulut, Ottoman-Dutch Economic Relations in the Early Modern Period 1571-1699, 153–68.

61

from Europe were categorized as spices and medicinal goods.206 However, these trade

dynamics were not concrete; the Dutch continued to buy certain spices from the Ottomans,

with traders being especially active along the Syrian coast.207 Faroqhi notes that the creation

of the coffee tax in the seventeenth century was meant to help compensate for lost revenues

as the spice trade shifted out of Ottoman lands.208 Despite the evidence of a declining

international spice trade, the Spice Market was constructed in the 1660s. Although there may

have been shifts in the Ottomans role in the international spice trade, the empire itself still

had a large demand for spices and especially for those aromatic goods such as musk and

ambergris which were frequently used to perfume sacred spaces.

The nineteenth-century traveler Edmondo de Amicis described his memorable visit to

the Spice Market (or Egyptian Bazaar) in 1874, as follows:

Entering this, we are immediately assailed by an odour so powerful as to fairly knock

one down: this is the Egyptian Bazaar, where are deposited all the wares of India,

Syria, Egypt, and Arabia, which later on, converted into essences, pastilles, powders

and ointments, serve to colour little hands and faces, perfume apartments and baths

and breaths and beards, reinvigorate worn-out pashas, and dull the senses of unhappy

married people, stupefy smokers, and spread dreams, oblivion, and insensibility

throughout the whole of the vast city. After going but a short distance in this bazaar

your head begins to feel dull and heavy, and you get out of it as fast as you can; but

the effect of that hot, close atmosphere and those penetrating odors clings long to

your clothing, and remains for all time in your memory as one of the most vivid and

characteristic impressions of the East.209

Two major fires in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and a series of ambitious

urban renewal projects beginning in the late nineteenth century to 2017 have radically

changed both the look and presumably the scents of this quarter of Istanbul.210 The urban

renewal plan for Eminönü proposed by Henri Prost in the early 1940s, and later versions of

206 A. Mesud Küçükkalay and Numan Elibol, “Ottoman Imports in the Eighteenth Century: Smyrna (1771–72),”

Middle Eastern Studies 42, no. 5 (September 1, 2006): 723–40, https://doi.org/10.1080/00263200600827842.

207 Bulut, Ottoman-Dutch Economic Relations in the Early Modern Period 1571-1699, 154.

208 Suraiya Faroqhi, “Coffee and Spices: Official Ottoman Reactions to the Egyptian Trade in the Later

Sixteenth Century,” Wiener Zeitschrift Für Die Kunde Des Morgenlandes 76 (1986): 87–93.

209 Edmondo de Amicis, Constantinople, trans. Stephen Parkin, Reprint edition (Alma Classics, 2013); “OUR

HISTORY | Historical Process,” Tarihi Mısır Çarşı, accessed August 30, 2017,

http://www.misircarsisi.org.tr/sayfalar.asp?LanguageID=2&cid=236&id=252.

210 Cânâ Bilsel, “'Les Transformations d’Istanbul’: Henri Prost’s Planning of Istanbul (1936-1951),” A|Z ITU

Journal of the Faculty of Architecture 8, no. 1 (2011): 100–116.

62

this plan that were implemented by successive mayors of Istanbul from the 1950s to today,

promoted the creation of “espaces libres” and the importance of clean and open spaces in and

around the market quarter.211 The modernist era agenda of Ottoman architectural historians

like Celal Arseven, was intent upon “reconceptualizing Ottoman architecture as a rational,

tectonic, and functional building tradition, distinct from other oriental and Islamic

architectures and closer in spirit to the European modernist avant-garde,” thus pulling it away

from what was perceived as the disorderly and more sensual world of Islamic architecture.212

The Spice Market became one of the primary targets of an extensive 1940s urban

cleansing and modernizing campaign undertaken by Lütfü Kırdar, mayor and governor of

Istanbul (1938–49), who proclaimed, “Istanbul is like a diamond lost among the garbage. It is

up to the Republic to clean and reveal this diamond, and to beautify it by rebuilding it

according to modern urban planning principles.”213 Promises to “cleanse” the decaying

quarters of these Ottoman cities, to standardize and revitalize them for new citizens of the

Republic, formed much of the state rhetoric of that era as it does today.214

In Istanbul as it Becomes Beautiful [Güzelleşen Istanbul], published in 1943,

Eminönü and its marketplace were presented as particularly egregious examples of sensory

offending spaces that were urgently in need of organization and sterilization.215 The editors

note that “the determined hand of demolition has opened up and cleaned Eminönü, which,

until now, was a chaotic space reminiscent of fairgrounds, irritating our vision and our senses

211 Alessandra Ricci, “Interpreting Heritage: Byzantine-Period Archaeological Areas and Parks in Istanbul,” in

MIRAS 2—Heritage in Context: Conservation and Site Management within Natural, Urban and Social

Frameworks, ed. Martin Bachmann et al. (Istanbul: Ege Yayınları, 2014), 333–82.

212 Sibel Bozdogan, “Reading Ottoman Architecture Through Modernist Lenses: Nationalist Historiography

And The ‘New Architecture’ In The Early Republic,” November 26, 2007, 201,

https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004163201.i-310.33.

213 Safa Günay, Abidin Daver, and Mazhar Resmer, eds., Güzelleşen İstanbul [Istanbul as It Becomes Beautiful]

(Istanbul: İstanbul Belediye Matbaası, 1943); İhsan Bilgin et al., eds., İstanbul 1910–2010 Kent, Yapılı Çevre ve

Mimarlık Kültürü Sergisi: City, Built Environment and Architectural Culture Exhibition. (Istanbul: Istanbul

Bilgi University Publications, 2010).

214 Zeynep Kezer, “Contesting Urban Space in Early Republican Ankara,” Journal of Architectural Education

52, no. 1 (September 1, 1998): 11–19, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1531-314X.1998.tb00251.x.

215 Günay, Daver, and Resmer, Güzelleşen İstanbul [Istanbul as It Becomes Beautiful].

63

with strange old buildings.”216 While the Spice Market recovered and quickly resumed

business after the 1940s modernization campaign, by the 1950s the large central square that

connected the mosque to the market had been divided by an asphalt road that was intended to

improve traffic circulation around this part of the city. Also at this time the fruit markets on

the shore of the Golden Horn and the famed fish market at the gate of the Spice Market were

destroyed, opening clearer viewscapes to the sea but eradicating many of the diverse scents

that had been a part of the historical identity of Eminönü for centuries.217

The changes to this area of Istanbul brought by modernizing projects have been well

studied and criticized by several urban and architectural historians. Zeynep Çelik, Sibel

Bozdoğan, Zeynep Kezer, Daniel Goffman and others working on the transformation of the

major cities of the late Ottoman era—Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir—during the nineteenth and

twentieth centuries, have highlighted the changes of various spatial aspects, architecture, and

other visual components of these cities, but none has addressed the role that scent may have

played in shaping late Ottoman/early Republican attitudes and discourses on urban

transformation.218 Studies about the quarter of Eminönü and the Spice Market have

emphasized the architectural pasts of these spaces, the past and present users of the markets,

and their changing economic roles as commercial, heritage, and touristic places, but no

research on Istanbul has addressed the multi-sensorial aspects of Istanbul’s market quarters,

in general, or the Spice Market in particular. Thys-Şenocak provided a detailed analysis of

the Eminönü quarter, its architectural setting, and politics of gender and visuality; Baykan et

216 Günay, Daver, and Resmer.

217 Henri Prost, “İstanbul,” Arkitekt 5–6 (1948): 110–12; Doğan Kuban, “Eminönü-Bizans Dönemi, Osmanlı

Dönemi, Eminönü Meydanı,” Dünden Bugüne İstanbul Ansiklopedisi 3 (1993): 158–63; Y. H. Şehsuvaroğlu,

İstanbul’dan Sesler ve Renkler (Istanbul: Türkiye Sinai Kalkınma Bankası, 1999). See also Akşam Gazetesi 10

November 1938; 23 April 1939; and 2 May 1939

218 Zeynep Çelik, The Remaking of Istanbul: Portrait of an Ottoman City in the Nineteenth Century (University

of California Press, 1986); Sibel Bozdogan, Modernism and Nation Building: Turkish Architectural Culture in

the Early Republic (University of Washington Press, 2001); Kezer, “Contesting Urban Space in Early

Republican Ankara”; Daniel Goffman, Izmir and the Levantine World, 1550–1650 (University of Washington

Press, 1990).

64

al. used assessed the collective memory of an earlier seventeenth-century market in Eminönü,

the Büyük Valide Han (Grand Mother Sultan Market) by analyzing its architectural features

along with its present-day activities, inhabitants, and economies.219 Smell was only briefly

mentioned as a component of the sense of place in the latter study.220

Regarding larger question of Ottoman sensescapes, only in the past decade has

sensorial studies been of significant interest to architectural and urban historians of the

Ottoman Empire and Turkey. Nina Ergin’s and Pınar Yelmi’s studies on Ottoman and

modern sound and scentscapes mark important turning points in the methodologies used to

study the architectural and urban history of Istanbul from a multisensorial perspective.221

Additionally, both Lucienne Thys-Şenocak and Gülru Necipoğlu have argued for the

significance of the visual/viewscapes in Ottoman architecture.222 Building on their research,

Nina Ergin has delved into the auditory and olfactory Ottoman worlds.223 She argues that the

religious and spiritual world was conscientiously fabricated and supplemented with sensorial

aspects. These elements within mosques, such incense burners, Qur’an reciters, and specific

architectural designs that create a superior acoustic environment reflect and are an

acknowledgment of the importance of the senses in the realm of religion. Additionally, Ergin

argues, auditory methods helped increase the access of (and to) royal women within the

219 Thys-Şenocak, Ottoman Women Builders, 230–57; Ayşegül Baykan et al., “Contestations over a Living

Heritage Site: The Case of Büyük Valide Han,” in Orienting Istanbul: Cultural Capital of Europe?, ed. Deniz

Göktürk, Levent Soysal, and Ipek Tureli (New York: Routledge, 2010), 71–87; Ayşegül Baykan et al., Büyük

Valide Han: Tarihi Belleğimiz İçinde (Istanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, 2015); Ayşegül Baykan et al.,

“Buyuk Valide Han: A Study of Place-Making in Istanbul,” 2017,

http://buyukvalidehan.yildiz.edu.tr/index_eng.html.

220 Baykan et al., Büyük Valide Han: Tarihi Belleğimiz İçinde.

221 Nina Ergin, “Ottoman Royal Women’s Spaces: The Acoustic Dimension,” Journal of Women’s History 26,

no. 1 (2014): 89–111, https://doi.org/10.1353/jowh.2014.0003; Ergin, “The Soundscape of Sixteenth-Century

Istanbul Mosques”; Ergin, “The Fragrance of the Divine: Ottoman Incense Burners and Their Context”; Pinar

Yelmi, “Protecting Contemporary Cultural Soundscapes as Intangible Cultural Heritage: Sounds of Istanbul,”

International Journal of Heritage Studies 22, no. 4 (April 20, 2016): 302–11,

https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2016.1138237.

222 Thys-Şenocak, Ottoman Women Builders; Gülru Necipoğlu, “Framing the Gaze in Ottoman, Safavid, and

Mughal Palaces,” Ars Orientalis 23 (January 1, 1993): 303–42.

223 Ergin, “Ottoman Royal Women’s Spaces”; Ergin, “The Soundscape of Sixteenth-Century Istanbul

Mosques”; Ergin, “The Fragrance of the Divine: Ottoman Incense Burners and Their Context.”

65

palace and the city.224 Ergin also argues for extending the concept of the “shared culture of

objects” which Oleg Grabar introduces in his discussion of the Book of Treasures and Gifts.

Ergin notes that “this notion can be profitably extended to more ephemeral phenomena, such

as a shared culture that includes both the visual and the olfactory.”225 In the Ottoman context,

a shared olfactory culture stems from both the Ottoman Empire’s location—on the trade route

of aromatic goods from the East—and due to the culture of Islam. Considering the haptic

qualities of the period, in her 2012 Master’s Thesis, “Synaesthetic Silks: The Multi-Sensory

Experientiality of Ottoman Imperial Textiles,” Ashley Dimmig convincingly argues that

Ottoman textiles were purposefully created to be part of a larger sensory experience, in which

they would not only meant to be seen and used, but also touch, smelled, and heard.226 Overall,

it seems clear that Ottomans understood the value of engaging all the senses, although, if

studies on Europe and America are any indication, there is still much to be uncovered

regarding Ottoman approaches to, and considerations of, the senses. In her 2015 Master’s

Thesis, “Ottoman Olfactory Traditions in a Palatial Space: Incense Burners in the Topkapı

Palace,” Beyza Uzun explores the olfactory realms of the elite palace space through an

analysis of incense burners, their associated uses, and symbolic meanings.227 Uzun builds on

Ergin’s works on incense burners, while also exploring the various domestic, religious, and

ritual aspects of both incense burners and other aromatic goods in Ottoman Istanbul.

224 Ergin, “Ottoman Royal Women’s Spaces.”

225 Ergin, “The Fragrance of the Divine: Ottoman Incense Burners and Their Context,” 71.

226 Ashley Dimmig, “Synaesthetic Silks: The Multi-Sensory Experientiality of Ottoman Imperial Textiles” (MA

Thesis, Koç University, 2012).

227 Beyza Uzun, “Ottoman Olfactory Traditions in a Palatial Space: Incense Burners in the Topkapı Palace”

(Koç University, 2015).

66

Chapter 2: The History and Evolution of Smell

Although studies through olfaction and the senses are part of a relatively new approach in

academia, the sensory world has always been part of the human experience. The first part of

this chapter covers our existing knowledge about how smell works, special olfactory

conditions, and then pulls together thoughts and research on smell, language, and philosophy.

The second part of this chapter explores the cultural and societal connotations that often

surround our perceptions of smell and the ways that these perceptions are materialized in

language and society. At the end of the second part, I consider the new wave of smell-based

community projects, pioneering experiments in sensory research, and forays into the digital

world of smell.

The intent of this chapter is to provide an overview and examples of the myriad of

ways the olfactory world permeates our lives, our language, our thoughts, and our actions.

Dynamics between scent and religion, scent and gender, scent and ideas of cleanliness,

among many others, have been developing throughout societies and cultures for millennia

and still impact how we interact and perceive smells today. This chapter cannot be a

comprehensive overview of how every society perceived smell and their individual cultural

dynamics in relation to smell. Rather, this chapter surveys the evolutions in thought about

smell which ultimately led to an academic prioritization on the visual and examines some of

the major cultural phenomena which are often impacted by smell. The cultural phenomena I

have chosen to highlight here, specifically gender, religion, language, and notions of

cleanliness in body and place, are especially relevant to present-day sensory research; all are

reoccurring themes in the oral history narratives and exhibition survey data. The examples

within the text are focused on cultures, civilizations, and religions that have strongly

influenced both the lands we now call Turkey and the civilizations that have inhabited them,

including the Greek and Roman Empires, the Byzantine Empire, and the Ottoman Empire.

67

This chapter also includes an examination of writing about scent in the Ottoman Empire and

Turkey from both western explorers and locals, with the aim of better understanding the

variety of voices, perspectives, and background assumptions of those who write about scent.

Part 1: The Science and Physiology of Smell

Basic physiology of how we smell

A nose consists of two nasal passages, separated by a septum. Each of these passages opens

into a nostril, also called the naris. Along the sides and cutting through the nasal passages are

pieces of cartilage called nasal turbinate’s (or concha), which have a layer of with a highly

vascularized epithelium. This layer helps to warm, humidify, and cleanse the air.228 The

creation of a balanced humid environment within the nose is particularly relevant; the proper

humidity level is essential to keep the olfactory receptors healthy.229

The System

Our understanding of the olfactory system is surprisingly recent. Buck and Axel won a Nobel

Prize in 2004 for their research, largely conducted in the 1990s.230 They discovered that there

is a large group of genes that correspond to olfactory receptor types and that each receptor is

specialized to only recognize a small number of odors. As odors are inhaled, information is

passed to these receptors, and then on to the olfactory bulb, part of the limbic system. The

limbic system then passes this information on to the rest of the brain to help solidify a pattern

228 R. E. Frye, “Nasal Patency and the Aerodynamics of Nasal Airflow: Measurement by Rhinomanometry and

Acoustic Rhinometry, and the Influence of Pharmacological Agents,” in Handbook of Olfaction and Gustation,

ed. Richard L. Doty, 2nd ed. (New York: Marcel Dekker, 2003), 439–60.

229 Richard L. Doty and Vidyulata Kamath, “The Influences of Age on Olfaction: A Review,” in Applied

Olfactory Cognition, ed. Gesualdo M. Zucco et al., Frontiers Research Topics (Frontiers Media SA, 2014), 213–

32.

230 L. Buck and R. Axel, “A Novel Multigene Family May Encode Odorant Receptors: A Molecular Basis for

Odor Recognition,” Cell 65, no. 1 (April 5, 1991): 175–87; A. Chess et al., “Molecular Biology of Smell:

Expression of the Multigene Family Encoding Putative Odorant Receptors,” in Cold Spring Harbor Symposia

on Quantitative Biology, vol. 57 (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 1992), 505–516,

http://symposium.cshlp.org/content/57/505.extract; Kerry J. Ressler, Susan L. Sullivan, and Linda B. Buck, “A

Molecular Dissection of Spatial Patterning in the Olfactory System,” Current Opinion in Neurobiology 4, no. 4

(1994): 588–596; Linda B. Buck, “Unraveling the Sense of Smell (Nobel Lecture),” Angewandte Chemie

International Edition 44, no. 38 (2005): 6128–6140; Richard Axel, “The Molecular Logic of Smell,” Scientific

American 273, no. 4 (1995): 154–159.

68

and access memory stores. While it has been generally agreed that we can perhaps

differentiate between ten thousand smells, newer research indicates that we can

hypothetically discriminate between one trillion smells.231 A secondary system, based on the

trigeminal nerve, also helps compile smell data. This is the nerve that is responsible for facial

sensations, and it has olfactory endings which can detect some chemicals and react to them.

This nerve is activated when people cry while cutting onions, for example.232

When Buck and Axel won the Nobel Prize, it was assumed that all the olfactory

receptors were in the nose (we have about 350–400 olfactory receptors in the nose). More of

our DNA is devoted to genes for different olfactory receptors than for any other type of

protein.233 However, in the following years, new studies emerged, indicating the presence of

olfactory receptors throughout the body, including the kidneys, muscles, lungs, nervous

system, and blood vessels.234 In the nose, the receptors act as sensitive chemical sensors

which mediate our sense of smell. The others in our body are not “smelling,” per se. Rather,

they are detecting changes in chemicals via the same hardware and mechanism with which

we detect smells. Pluznick explains in her TED Talk that the olfactory receptor’s primary job

is to be a chemical sensor, which includes smelling, sperm navigation, muscle cell migration,

231 Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses, 26–27; C. Bushdid et al., “Humans Can Discriminate More than

1 Trillion Olfactory Stimuli,” Science 343, no. 6177 (March 21, 2014): 1370–72,

https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1249168; Richard C. Gerkin and Jason B. Castro, “The Number of Olfactory

Stimuli That Humans Can Discriminate Is Still Unknown,” ELife 4 (July 7, 2015): e08127,

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.08127. Although we can theoretically discriminate a trillion different smells, the

number which we can express verbally is still quite limited.

232 Susan A. Lanham-New, Ian A. MacDonald, and Helen M. Roche, Nutrition and Metabolism (John Wiley &

Sons, 2011), Section 9.5 Chemethesis.

233 “Jennifer Pluznick: You Smell with Your Body, Not Just Your Nose | TED Talk | TED.Com,” accessed

August 6, 2017, https://www.ted.com/talks/jennifer_pluznick_you_smell_with_your_body_not_just_your_nose.

234 Niranjana Natarajan and Jennifer L. Pluznick, “Olfaction in the Kidney: ‘Smelling’ Gut Microbial

Metabolites,” Experimental Physiology 101, no. 4 (April 1, 2016): 478–81, https://doi.org/10.1113/EP085285;

Isidro Ferrer et al., “Olfactory Receptors in Non-Chemosensory Organs: The Nervous System in Health and

Disease,” Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience 8 (2016), https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2016.00163; Jennifer L.

Pluznick et al., “Olfactory Receptor Responding to Gut Microbiota-Derived Signals Plays a Role in Renin

Secretion and Blood Pressure Regulation,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110, no. 11

(March 12, 2013): 4410–15, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1215927110; “Jennifer Pluznick: You Smell with

Your Body, Not Just Your Nose | TED Talk | TED.Com.”

69

wound healing, and the body’s response to inhaled chemicals.235 This multi-tasking by the

body is not limited to olfactory receptors; taste sensors are also found outside of the tongue

and our eyes’ light receptors are involved with our blood vessels.236 As this research

continues to understand how olfactory receptors function throughout the body, it is

“revolutionizing our understanding of the scope of influence for one of the five senses…”237

How this research might change our understanding of smelling is still unclear; as the research

progresses, however, it might provide insight into the still-unknown mechanism by which

receptors actually detect smell.

How are smells produced?

We are not entirely sure how smells are produced and transmitted to our receptors. There are

two major theories: the shape theory and the vibration theory.238 Scientists are still actively

researching and arguing about the various theories. The shape theory is more established and

has much more support in the scientific community. It states that a particular odor is related

to the shape, size, and structure of the molecule. Each molecule will have a unique shape that

will only fit into specific receptor cells in your nose, like a key would fit into a lock. Once the

key finds its lock, the receptors send signals to our brain and we recognize the odor.

235 “Jennifer Pluznick: You Smell with Your Body, Not Just Your Nose | TED Talk | TED.Com”; Marc Spehr et

al., “Identification of a Testicular Odorant Receptor Mediating Human Sperm Chemotaxis,” Science 299, no.

5615 (March 28, 2003): 2054–58, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1080376; Christophe Pichavant, Thomas J.

Burkholder, and Grace K. Pavlath, “Decrease of Myofiber Branching via Muscle-Specific Expression of the

Olfactory Receptor MOR23 in Dystrophic Muscle Leads to Protection against Mechanical Stress,” Skeletal

Muscle 6 (January 21, 2016): 2, https://doi.org/10.1186/s13395-016-0077-7; Daniela Busse et al., “A Synthetic

Sandalwood Odorant Induces Wound-Healing Processes in Human Keratinocytes via the Olfactory Receptor

OR2AT4,” Journal of Investigative Dermatology 134, no. 11 (November 1, 2014): 2823–32,

https://doi.org/10.1038/jid.2014.273.

236 Robert J. Lee et al., “Bitter and Sweet Taste Receptors Regulate Human Upper Respiratory Innate

Immunity,” The Journal of Clinical Investigation 124, no. 3 (March 3, 2014): 1393–1405,

https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI72094; “What Sensory Receptors Do Outside of Sense Organs,” The Scientist,

accessed August 5, 2017, http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/46831/title/What-Sensory-

Receptors-Do-Outside-of-Sense-Organs/; Ignacio Provencio et al., “A Novel Human Opsin in the Inner Retina,”

Journal of Neuroscience 20, no. 2 (January 15, 2000): 600–605.

237 “Jennifer Pluznick: You Smell with Your Body, Not Just Your Nose | TED Talk | TED.Com.”

238 For a history and review of earlier theories, see A. E. Bourgeois and Joanne O. Bourgeois, “Theories of

Olfaction: A Review,” Revista Interamericana de Psicologia/Interamerican Journal of Psychology 4, no. 1

(1967), https://journal.sipsych.org/index.php/IJP/article/view/575.

70

However, there are some problems with this theory. There are molecules with very similar

shapes that smell vastly different, such as ferrocene and nickelocene (figure 5). There are also

molecules with very different shapes that produce the same odor (figure 6).

Figure 5: The molecular shapes of ferrocene and nickelocene. Despite being the same shape, they produce different odors.

Image from the Science Photo Library.

Figure 6: All of these molecules, although shaped differently, produce the same camphor odor. Image from the Science

Photo Library.

71

The vibration theory says it is not the shape of the molecule but its unique vibrational

frequency which is important. This theory has been championed by scientist Luca Turin, who

revived and updated it after it had been studied and discarded by Malcolm Dyson in the

1930s and R.H. Wright in the 1960s, as it failed to explain how the vibrations allowed the

molecular information to jump from the molecule to the receptors.239 Turin, with a Ph.D. in

biophysics, a sensitive nose, and an interest in fragrance (he is still today considered one of

the leading experts on perfumes) was frustrated by the problems with shape theory and

intrigued by this discarded vibration theory. He realized that classical mechanisms would

never be able to explain how the electrons jumped, but quantum physics might be able to. He

found that olfactory receptors are infrared spectrometers that use electron tunneling and the

nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate-oxidase (NADPH) enzyme complex as an

239 Luca Turin, “A Spectroscopic Mechanism for Primary Olfactory Reception,” Chemical Senses 21, no. 6

(December 1, 1996): 773–91, https://doi.org/10.1093/chemse/21.6.773. The story of Turin’s revitalization of the

Vibration Theory of Olfaction and his subsequent experiments have been documented in the popular book

Emperor of Scent by Chandler Burr (Chandler Burr, The Emperor of Scent: A Story of Perfume, Obsession, and

the Last Mystery of the Senses (Random House Publishing Group, 2003).). Vosshall (Leslie B. Vosshall,

“Laying a Controversial Smell Theory to Rest,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United

States of America 112, no. 21 (May 26, 2015): 6525–26, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1507103112.) argues that

this positioning of Turin and his theory as an “underdog” by Burr allowed the theory to last longer than it

should, as people are sympathetic to these narratives. When Turin’s papers are rejected by top scientific

journals, Burr characterizes it as ““scientific corruption.” In a follow-up book written by Turin, The Secret of

Scent (Luca Turin, The Secret of Scent: Adventures in Perfume and the Science of Smell (HarperCollins, 2007).),

he blames the process of peer-review because anyone who has the academic credentials to review a work must,

by extension, also be a competitor and, as his work combined physics, biology, and chemistry, there are very

few academics qualified to review it. Burr also relates that during the peer-review process, the biologists had a

problem with the chemistry, the chemists a problem with the physics, and the physicists a problem with the

chemistry, noting that it “embodies the failure of the scientific process” (227). Furthermore, as the book

acknowledges, the perfume industry gave Turin access to the libraries, databases, and equipment so that he

could work on his theory, which, if true, could revolutionize the industry. The private company, Flexitral, with

which Turin has been working since 2001, claimed a 1 in 10 success rate for creating molecules that can go to

market in a perfume; the industry standard in 1 in 1000. Turin eventually loses industry support (which Burr

interprets as the industry feeling threatened). Flexitral closed in 2010, when Turin took a job at MIT to work on

a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) project called RealNose, which “aims to simulate the

mammalian olfactory system and applies the vibration theory” to sniff out chemical weapons (Nina Sinatra,

“The Science of Smell,” The Tech Online, accessed August 31, 2017,

http://tech.mit.edu/V130/N21/sinatra.html.). The project was ended shortly after, however, when it failed to

meet its milestones and was unable to work at room-temperature (Sara Reardon, “The Pentagon’s Gamble on

Brain Implants, Bionic Limbs and Combat Exoskeletons,” Nature News 522, no. 7555 (June 11, 2015): 142,

https://doi.org/10.1038/522142a.).

The controversy surrounding Turin’s experience in academia even generated several articles on the

correctness and ethics of scientific practice, including Miriam Solomon, “On Smell and Scientific Practice,”

Science 313, no. 5788 (August 11, 2006): 763–64, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1131937; Andrea Rinaldi,

“The Scent of Life. The Exquisite Complexity of the Sense of Smell in Animals and Humans,” EMBO Reports

8, no. 7 (July 2007): 629–33, https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.embor.7401029.

72

internal energy source.240 When the molecule vibrates, its electrons jump to specific sets of

receptors, which are still constrained by shape, in the nose using the quantum process of

inelastic electron tunneling. Different molecular vibrations produce different odors. All

attempts to validate these results have failed, although a recent study on honeybees does not

contradict the theory.241 Overall, there are many scientific challenges to this theory and even a

2017 study by Paoli, Turin, and others is actually inconsistent with the vibration theory,

although they write “results do not exclude that there might be receptors…have evolved a

mechanism for using molecular vibration to support response selectivity.”242 Furthermore, a

recent study by Wolf et al. indicates that based on the existing evidence there is no evidence

for the vibration theory of olfactory recognition and that the shape theory is more plausible.243

The authors of textbook “Scent and Chemistry” note, is such that not only is not helping our

understanding of olfaction and smell, it rather causes confusion…. Evidence against VTO is

certainly stronger than ever before.”244 Vosshall, in her 2015 article which summarizes the

problems with the vibration theory, notes that:

After centuries of conjecture on how a molecule leads to a smell percept, we still lack

a convincing framework to predict the smell of a molecule from its chemical

240 Turin, “A Spectroscopic Mechanism for Primary Olfactory Reception.”

241 Eric Block et al., “Implausibility of the Vibrational Theory of Olfaction,” Proceedings of the National

Academy of Sciences 112, no. 21 (May 26, 2015): E2766–74, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1503054112; Marco

Paoli et al., “Differential Odour Coding of Isotopomers in the Honeybee Brain,” Scientific Reports 6 (February

22, 2016), https://doi.org/10.1038/srep21893.

242 Block et al., “Implausibility of the Vibrational Theory of Olfaction”; Andreas Keller and Leslie B. Vosshall,

“A Psychophysical Test of the Vibration Theory of Olfaction,” Nature Neuroscience 7, no. 4 (April 2004): 337–

38, https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1215; Rajeev S. Muthyala et al., “Testing the Vibrational Theory of Olfaction: A

Bio-Organic Chemistry Laboratory Experiment Using Hooke’s Law and Chirality,” Journal of Chemical

Education, June 23, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.6b00991; Christiane Geithe et al., “Structural

Determinants of a Conserved Enantiomer-Selective Carvone Binding Pocket in the Human Odorant Receptor

OR1A1,” Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, June 27, 2017, 1–21, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-017-2576-

z; Eric Block, “What’s That Smell? A Controversial Theory of Olfaction Deemed Implausible,” The

Conversation, accessed August 6, 2017, http://theconversation.com/whats-that-smell-a-controversial-theory-ofolfaction-

deemed-implausible-42449; M. Paoli et al., “Minute Impurities Contribute Significantly to Olfactory

Receptor Ligand Studies: Tales from Testing the Vibration Theory.,” ENeuro, June 5, 2017, 9,

https://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0070-17.2017.

243 Steffen Wolf et al., “Evidence for a Shape-Based Recognition of Odorants in Vivo in the Human Nose from

an Analysis of the Molecular Mechanism of Lily-of-the-Valley Odorants Detection in the Lilial and Bourgeonal

Family Using the C/Si/Ge/Sn Switch Strategy,” PLOS ONE 12, no. 8 (August 1, 2017): e0182147,

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0182147.

244 Scent and Chemistry, “Scent and Chemistry—Posts,” accessed August 31, 2017,

https://www.facebook.com/ScentChemistry/posts/1846611915365814:0.

73

structure…If molecular vibration were in fact predictive of an odor percept, the

application of the theory would dramatically accelerate the development of raw

ingredients by the fragrance industry, which is currently guessing what new

molecules will smell like rather than engineering them.245

Problems processing smells in the brain

The process of the brain interpreting all this data is quite difficult.246 Our brain recognizes and

identifies odors in a different process from the other senses, which impacts our ability to

name them and contributes to our “impoverished” olfactory vocabulary.247 We recognize far

more scents than we can name.248 It becomes even more difficult as the body adapts to smells

and becomes more familiar with them. People will subconsciously adjust and begin to ignore

smells that are considered insignificant, such as the smell of one’s home or office. Adaption

actually decreases the receptors’ ability to notice smells, and this process can occur in as few

as twenty minutes. However, small breaks from smells can revive the receptors’ ability.

Given how complex this system is, it is interesting that when presented with a familiar smell,

people only correctly identify it about 50% of the time.249 There are many important aspects

that affect how this entire system performs, so to speak. Henshaw identifies three sources, the

characteristics of which can strongly influence our ability to perceive smells: the individual,

the environment, and the odor.250 Everything from our bodily state, our culture, the

temperature, and the concentration of the odor will impact perception. Essentially, we often

do not pay attention to smells unless they catch our attention. Sela and Sobel argue that

people “don’t trust their nose” and this need to catch our attention is ultimately tied to spatial

and temporal “envelopes” of olfaction:

245 Vosshall, “Laying a Controversial Smell Theory to Rest.”

246 For a detailed overview of the neurobiological processes occurring during olfactory perception and

identification, see the sensory science section of the literature review.

247 Jonas K. Olofsson et al., “A Designated Odor–Language Integration System in the Human Brain,” The

Journal of Neuroscience 34, no. 45 (November 5, 2014): 14864–73, https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2247-

14.2014.

248 Engen, The Perception of Odors, 1982.

249 J. A. Desor and Gary K. Beauchamp, “The Human Capacity to Transmit Olfactory Information,” Perception

& Psychophysics 16, no. 3 (May 1, 1974): 551–56, https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03198586.

250 Henshaw, Urban Smellscapes.

74

Regarding the spatial envelope, selective attention is allocated in space. Humans

direct an attentional spotlight within spatial coordinates in both vision and audition.

Human olfactory spatial abilities are minimal. Thus, with no olfactory space, there is

no arena for olfactory selective attention. Regarding the temporal envelope, whereas

vision and audition consist of nearly continuous input, olfactory input is discreet,

made of sniffs widely separated in time. If similar temporal breaks are artificially

introduced to vision and audition, they induce "change blindness", a loss of

attentional capture that results in a lack of awareness to change. Whereas "change

blindness" is an aberration of vision and audition, the long inter-sniff-interval renders

"change anosmia" the norm in human olfaction. Therefore, attentional capture in

olfaction is minimal, as is human olfactory awareness. All this, however, does not

diminish the role of olfaction through sub-attentive mechanisms allowing subliminal

smells a profound influence on human behavior and perception.251

Smell and Memory

We have a much better understanding of how vision and hearing contribute to our declarative

memories, as well as the neural systems that contribute to forming memories (and recalling

them).252 Although we now have an overall view of how the olfaction and memory systems

work together, researchers are still attempting to determine the many complexities of the

processes.

A study on the Jorvik Viking Cultural Center253 attempted to rectify these issues. The

researchers designed an experiment where museum visitors were divided into three groups

and tested on information in the exhibition under specific odor conditions and then re-tested

using different odor conditions. In order test long-term memory, these tests were conducted

several years after the visitors experienced the museum exhibition. The results show that

visitors who were re-exposed to the odors that were actually present within the exhibition

scored higher on the tests than visitors who were exposed to random odors and no odors.

Age and Smell

251 Lee Sela and Noam Sobel, “Human Olfaction: A Constant State of Change-Blindness,” Experimental Brain

Research 205, no. 1 (August 2010): 13, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-010-2348-6.

252 Howard Eichenbaum, “How Does the Brain Organize Memories?,” Science 277, no. 5324 (July 18, 1997):

330–32, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.277.5324.330; Arshamian et al., “The Functional Neuroanatomy of

Odor Evoked Autobiographical Memories Cued by Odors and Words.”

253 Aggleton and Waskett, “The Ability of Odours to Serve as State-Dependent Cues for Real-World Memories:

Can Viking Smells Aid the Recall of Viking Experiences?”

75

Three-quarters of people over 80 have decreased olfactory systems, as do over half of people

between 65 and 80.254 This decrease stems from a variety of factors including changes in the

nasal structure, disease, damage from the environment, changes in ossification and the

relevant neuron systems, and a loss of receptors. The loss of the ability of correctly interpret

olfactory information can lead to everything from the sense that food is lacking in flavor to

increased fatalities (from activities such as ingesting spoiled food and failing to smell smoke

as a fire builds).255 A disproportionate number of elderly die in gas leaks, being unable to

smell the agents added to the gas.256 Studies mentioned further in the chapter attempt to look

at long-term memory recall ability; however, no studies have specifically looked at whether

age impacts smell memories from years before. Although we could guess that old age would

make it more difficult to access memories via smell, it can also be assumed that an olfactory

stimulant in strong enough quantities would be significant enough to trigger past memories.

Anosmia

Anosmia means loss of smell. It is a medical condition that affects only a small number of

people in the world.257 While a few people are born without the senses of smell, most people

lose their sense of smell after a traumatic injury or as a medical side-effect.258 There are some

specific smell-related anosmias that appear to be the result of genetic mutations. Most

notably, it is estimated that at least thirty percent of the population has some degree of a musk

254 Doty and Kamath, “The Influences of Age on Olfaction: A Review.”

255 Susan S Schiffman and Jennifer Zervakis, “Taste and Smell Perception in the Elderly: Effect of Medications

and Disease,” Advances in Food and Nutrition Research 44 (January 1, 2002): 247–346,

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1043-4526(02)44006-5; Daniel V. Santos et al., “Hazardous Events Associated with

Impaired Olfactory Function,” Archives of Otolaryngology—Head & Neck Surgery 130, no. 3 (March 2004):

317–19, https://doi.org/10.1001/archotol.130.3.317.

256 H. D. Chalke, J. R. Dewhurst, and C. W. Ward, “Loss of Sense of Smell in Old People: A Possible

Contributory Factor in Accidental Poisoning from Town Gas,” Public Health 72, no. 6 (September 1958): 223–

30; Joseph C. Stevens et al., “Aging Impairs the Ability to Detect Gas Odor,” Fire Technology 23, no. 3 (August

1, 1987): 198–204, https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01036936.

257 National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, “Quick Statistics About Taste and

Smell,” NIDCD, 2010, https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/quick-statistics-taste-smell.

258 William W. Campbell, Pocket Guide and Toolkit to Dejong’s Neurologic Examination (Lippincott Williams

& Wilkins, 2007).

76

anosmia.259 Furthermore, although not always medically considered anosmia, it is important

to note that as people age, their ability to smell decreases. Beyond general aging, it seems that

years of sinus infections and colds, nasal lesions, and other trauma contributes to this loss.260

Although largely medical, anosmia can also be more cultural or experiential, such as

tied to traumatic emotional events. A particularly clear example of this experiential anosmia

as seen in an interview in the Urban School in the San Francisco Oral History Archives

Project. Gloria Lyon was interviewed as part of their Holocaust memory project in 2002. She

was originally from Czechoslovakia and sent to Auschwitz during the war. The traumatic

conditions and the toxic environment caused her to lose her sense of smell. However, in

1991, Gloria returned to Auschwitz.261 After visiting and ensuring that it was now “harmless,”

Gloria’s sense of smell returned. Gloria’s story highlights the deeply emotional nature of

smell and the senses.262 Hamilton, also writing about Gloria’s story, comments that “This is

259 Elizabeth A. Bremner et al., “The Prevalence of Androstenone Anosmia,” Chemical Senses 28, no. 5 (June 1,

2003): 423–32, https://doi.org/10.1093/chemse/28.5.423.

260 Thomas Hummel, Basile N. Landis, and Karl-Bernd Hüttenbrink, “Smell and Taste Disorders,” GMS

Current Topics in Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery 10 (April 26, 2012),

https://doi.org/10.3205/cto000077.

261 Many Holocaust survivors suffered long-term PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) due to their

experience. Revisiting the concentration, although often incredibly difficult, is way to help survivors heal and

cope with their memories.

262 Gloria’s full story is available in the Telling Their Stories Oral History Project Archive. The following

passage relates her loss and later re-gain of her sense of smell:

In 1944, sometime in May, 1944, I was assigned to work in the Canada work detail. And I just

didn't feel good, I kept throwing up, I kept throwing up because of the smell of burnt human

bodies, and bone, and hair. And the air was very, very bad. And I realize that that is why. And

so I couldn't eat the little food we were given.

This concerned my mother very much, and me too because I was losing weight rapidly. Even

if I had not thrown up I would have been losing weight. Once one loses weight in Auschwitz,

one doesn't live very long. . . . One day I no longer threw up. I heard others talk about it, but it

no longer bothered me. I didn't know why I don't smell those things. Actually I didn't realize

that I lost my sense of smell totally until I was liberated 13 months later and taken to

Sweden.”

Anyway after I went through the steps of revisiting Auschwitz–harmless touching of the

electric wire fences, opened and shutting gates to make sure they were rendered harmless and

talking a blue streak, oh my poor husband.

We left and on the way out away from Auschwitz, we were still in Poland going through the

serene countryside, I began to notice something. I said to Karl, What's that I smelled? Is that

manure? Like I had my smell all along. He was driving at the time and he said you smell that?

I said, I think so, just realizing, gee, I wasn't able to smell that before. He pulled over to the

77

clear evidence of what is known as ‘situated knowledge’ and embodiment, that is, sensorial

understanding related to a particular place and time. Gloria had to return to the place of

trauma for her sense of smell to be turned back on like a switch.”263

Synaesthesia

Synaesthesia is a condition where an impression of a sense becomes triggered after the body

is exposed to a different sense. Synaesthesia is normally experienced along a scale, with a

few people readily making associations, such as seeing smells as colors or correlating sounds

to numbers. As far as we know, there is no reliable baseline for these associations; each

person’s synaesthetic experience is unique.

A more common synaesthetic experience is that of creating associations, such as

thinking of the color green when thinking of grass. These associations are more simplistic

and are often based on physical characteristics [grass is normally a shade of green], but there

does appear to be some more consistent associations between the senses. Even if people do

not see colors when experiencing smells, researchers have used an implicit association test to

show that there are some systematic color-odor associations.264 Quercia et al. studied these

associations by mapping smells to “orthogonal dimensions’ like emotions and colors.265 The

color-odor associations in their study met “expectations”—traffic smells were black and red

(the study was conducted in Barcelona and London, which has red city buses), trees and soil

side and opened up the beauty box and pulled out his after-shave and he said, smell this. For

the first time in 47 years my sense of smell returned, just like that. But what I can't get over is

how smoothly this went as if I had it along, what's the problem here? And thinking back now,

it just seems very strange.

- The Urban School of San Francisco, Telling Their Stories Oral History Archives Project.

www.tellingstories.org, Interview with Gloria Hollander Lyon, May 6, 2003.

263 Hamilton, “Oral History and the Senses,” 110.

264 A. G. Greenwald, D. E. McGhee, and J. L. Schwartz, “Measuring Individual Differences in Implicit

Cognition: The Implicit Association Test,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 74, no. 6 (June 1998):

1464–80; A. N. Gilbert, R. Martin, and S. E. Kemp, “Cross-Modal Correspondence between Vision and

Olfaction: The Color of Smells,” The American Journal of Psychology 109, no. 3 (1996): 335–51; M Luisa

Demattè et al., “Cross-Modal Interactions between Olfaction and Touch,” Chemical Senses 31 (May 2006):

291–300, https://doi.org/10.1093/chemse/bjj031; Carmel Levitan et al., “What Color Is That Smell? Cross-

Cultural Color-Odor Associations,” Proceedings of the Cognitive Science Society 36, no. 36 (January 1, 2014),

http://escholarship.org/uc/item/8dk5829j.

265 Quercia, Aiello, and Schifanella, “The Emotional and Chromatic Layers of Urban Smells.”

78

green, food brown and orange.266 More significantly, our brains often implicitly understand

when there is a multi-sensory mismatch; Mattila and Wirtz showed that in a shop

environment there was higher customer satisfaction when equivalent smells and sounds were

presented together (lavender and relaxing music, grapefruit and energizing music).267

Bousfield offers that synesthesia should be considered a “socially-cultivated skill” which is

developed through language and various ways of perceiving the world.268 This notion can be

supported by language, such as the use of synesthetic metaphors (for example, in Greek, you

can say “listen to that smell”).269

266 Qeurcia et al. found some of the following associations: the color black characterizes smells 29% of the time,

brown 19%, green 15%, orange 12%, blue 10%, red 6%, gray 5%, violet and yellow 2%, and white 1%.

Cleaning and industrial smells are largely black, food is mostly brown with some orange, trees are majority

green, with some brown, yellow, orange, and violet, and animals are mixed, with blue, brown, green, orange,

and red all being represented. Although they had more smell categories, they only published the results of these

5. There was no analysis of the statistical significance of these associations.

267 Anna S Mattila and Jochen Wirtz, “Congruency of Scent and Music as a Driver of In-Store Evaluations and

Behavior,” Journal of Retailing 77, no. 2 (June 1, 2001): 273–89, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-

4359(01)00042-2.

268 J. Bousfield, “The World Seen As a Color Chart,” in Classifications in Their Social Context, ed. RF Ellen

and D Reason (London: Academic, n.d.), 195–220.

269 David Evan Sutton, Remembrance of Repasts: An Anthropology of Food and Memory (Berg, 2001), 91.

79

Part 2: A History of Thought on Smell

The body, and by extensions, the senses, were an important topic for many ancient thinkers.

In the past, the other senses were often considered to be just as important as the visual, if not

more so, on many occasions. There is an important distinction to be made here, however.

Arguments about our modern desensitized world are predicated on the idea that the premodern

world lent more significance to the other senses. We know that smell came to play an

incredibly significant role in religious ritual and identification. Therefore, we can say that the

pre-modern societies were perhaps much more attuned to smells, and took more pleasure

from them than we do today. Despite this deeper embodiment of the senses, most ancient

thinkers still considered smell to be one of the “baser” senses, partially because of its ability

to affect emotion.

Different societies developed varying scales of the importance of the senses, and these

designations are not always based on (perceived) logic or medical and biological approaches.

We possess a large body of material from the ancient world demonstrating an awareness of a

sensory philosophy and education. For centuries, people thought about and acted on ideas

about the sensory experience. The ancient Greeks, for example, ordered the senses and

categorized them in higher and baser groups as recognition of the role they play in the bodily

experience.270 As André Laks notes, theories about the senses were often based on ideas of

movement and transference, they were “Largely stories about travelling, going through, and

reaching.”271 There was a continual preoccupation with odor and boundaries, movement

between one source and another, and the eventual contact made between an odor and the

perceiver are explored in the Greek philosophical schools, along with the observation of the

270 Classen, Howes, and Synnott, Aroma: The Cultural History of Smell; Mark Bradley, ed., Smell and the

Ancient Senses (London: Routledge, 2014); Han Baltussen, “Ancient Philosophers on the Senses of Smell,” in

Smell and the Ancient Senses, ed. Mark Bradley (New York: Routledge, 2015), 30–45.

271 André Laks, “Soul, Sensation, and Thought,” in The Cambridge Companion to Early Greek Philosophy, ed.

A. A. Long (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 264.

80

other senses. The crucial question was how this sensory information traveled from object to

perceiver, which was first modeled by Empedocles (c. 492–432 BCE), in which he posited

his theory of “emanations” (by his definition, streams of odor that left the object and traveled

to the observer).272 Another philosopher, Theophrastus (c. 371–287 BCE) further explicated

that humans had passages for each sense which fit the shape of the emanations.273

Theophrastus, Harvey notes, “asserted that everything that had a smell had its own,

distinctive smell…Further he argued that every smell belonging to a living thing conveyed

not only identity, but also condition and circumstance.”274 These followers of the Epicurean

system of philosophy believed that our senses replicated reality and therefore only through

our senses could humans know truth. They also believed that smell from the “emanations”

from an object, and that this stream was comprised of atoms.275

Plato prioritized reason over all the senses, but also acknowledges that sight is the

“foundation of philosophy.”276 Aristotle, on the other hand, developed a clear hierarchy, with

sight and sound at the top.277 Taste and touch were at the bottom, as they were “animal”

senses that could be abused. Smell sat alone between the four others, still a baser sense, but

somewhat elevated as it could not be “abused.”278 Much like the approaches of later societies,

these divisions illustrate a far more complicated relationship between the body and the

272 Mieke Koenen, “Lucretius’ Olfactory Theory in De Rerum Natura IV,” in Lucretius and His Intellectual

Background, ed. K. A. Algra, M. H. Koenen, and P. H. Schrijvers (North-Holland, NY: Koninklijke

Nederlandse Adademie van Wetenschappen, 1997), 163–77; Kate Allen, “Stop and Smell the Romans: Odor in

Roman Literature” (University of Michigan, 2015).

273 For example, the smell emanations were the right shape to fit into our nose pores, while sounds animations

cannot. Interestingly, this ancient Greek theory is not too far from one of the current theories on how we smell—

it is today known as the “shape theory” of olfactory reception and claims that the specific shapes of molecules

fit into our olfactory receptors like keys into a lock.

274 Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Scenting Salvation: Ancient Christianity and the Olfactory Imagination (Univ of

California Press, 2015), 125.

275 Allen, “Stop and Smell the Romans: Odor in Roman Literature,” 18.

276 Hamilton and Cairns, The Collected Dialogues of Plato as quoted in Anthony Synnott, “Puzzling over the

Senses: From Plato to Marx,” in The Varieties of Sensory Experience: A Sourcebook in the Anthropology of the

Senses, ed. David Howes, vol. Anthropological horizons (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991), 63.

277 Synnott, “Puzzling over the Senses: From Plato to Marx.”

278 A Synnott, “A Sociology of Smell,” Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue Canadienne de Sociologie 28, no.

4 (1991): 439.

81

senses. Our experiences are built around all the senses and then remembered (re-experienced)

on a spectrum of sensorial memory.

Our knowledge of ancient Greek and Roman thought about the senses is not limited to

philosophers and scientists; poets and authors frequently wrote about the senses and appealed

to readers’ senses to impart knowledge and create evocative worlds. They understood the

importance of the senses to the human experience. Pliny, for example, writes that perfume is

“among the most elegant and also most honorable enjoyments in life.”279 In her dissertation

on odor in Roman literature, Allen highlights the deep consideration many Roman authors

give to the senses, noting, for example, that the Roman poet Lucretius (approx. 94–55 BC),

writes about odors in his De Rerum Natura (very inspired by the earlier Greek Epicurean

thought), conceiving as “odors not only stream off of things…[which] come from deep within

them, escaping with some difficulty and then scattering in all directions, if rather

sluggishly.”280

The medieval scholar Roger Bacon argues that senses were imperative to

understanding the external world empirically.281 St. Thomas Aquinas, additionally,

perpetuates the long-held hierarchy of cognition and the senses, stating that humans’

“cognitive faculties” are split into “sensory” and “mental,” with the mental faculties being of

a higher order.282 However, these mental faculties must receive information and utilize the

lower sensory faculties.

The Enlightenment was, Vila informs us, “first and foremost…a culture of sight.”283

However, during the Enlightenment, many scholars explored the impact of the senses on

279 Victoria Frolova, “The Secret of Scent or Adventures in Provence,” Bois de Jasmin, accessed September 1,

2017, https://boisdejasmin.com/2016/12/the-secret-of-scent-or-adventures-in-provence.html.

280 Allen, “Stop and Smell the Romans: Odor in Roman Literature,” 18.

281 Beata Hoffmann, “Scent in Science and Culture,” History of the Human Sciences 26, no. 5 (October 2013):

32, https://doi.org/10.1177/0952695113508120.

282 Hoffmann, 32.

283 Anne C. Vila, “Introduction: Powers, Pleasures, and Perils of the Senses in the Enlightenment Era,” in A

Cultural History of the Senses: In the Age of Enlightenment, ed. J. P. Toner et al. (Bloomsbury Academic,

2014), 1.

82

knowledge and the body. La Mettrie believed that the soul was comprised of sensory

experiences and sensations.284 The mind not only stored remembered sensations, but all

knowledge was made from those sensory experiences, according to Condillac. He also claims

that “the sense of smell was [is] what guaranteed complete development of the human

mind.”285 His published works were some of the most influential in changing perceptions

about the senses.286 Condillac, inspired by Locke, echoes Locke’s own view of knowledge,

which was based on the belief that the senses helped “register” experiences in the mind,

which in turn helped create a system of knowledge.287 Rousseau considers scent to be the

sense of “affects and their secrets” and “imagination and desire” which lifted the soul.288

Saint-Lambert writes that “we delight in pleasant scents from the moment we sense them

whereas visual pleasures are more resultant on reflection, the desires stimulated by the

perceived objects, the hope which they arouse.”289 Kant expresses clear divisions between the

brain and sensory experiences (and clearly preferred the former), but still acknowledged the

necessity of sensory awareness in order to judge the “sources of cognition.”290

Especially during the Enlightenment, many thinkers frequently echo the ancient

Greeks’ hierarchical approach to and view of smell as a “baser” sense. In their search to

examine how humans were different (and better) than animals, figures such as Hegel and

Freud denounce the more “animalistic” senses. Freud not only considers scent useless but an

“atrophic ability” that “ceased to be necessary when our forefathers assumed an upright

284 Hoffmann, “Scent in Science and Culture,” 32.

285 E. B. de Condillac, Treatise on the Sensations, trans. G. Carr (Los Angeles: University of Southern

California Press, 1930), xxxi. as cited in Classen, Howes, and Synnott, Aroma: The Cultural History of Smell,

89.

286 Corbin, The Foul and the Fragrant: Odor and the French Social Imagination, 10.

287 Danijela Kambaskovic and Charles T. Wolfe, “The Senses in Philosophy and Science: From the Nobility of

Sight to the Materialism of Touch,” in A Cultural History of the Senses: In the Renaissance, ed. J. P. Toner et al.

(Bloomsbury Academic, 2014), 107–26.

288 Hoffmann, “Scent in Science and Culture,” 36; Elisabeth de Feydeau, A Scented Palace: The Secret History

of Marie Antoinette’s Perfumer (I.B.Tauris, 2006), 15.

289 Robert Mauzi, L’idée de Bonheur Dans La Littérature et La Pense Francaises Au XVIIIe Siecle [The Idea of

Happiness in French Literature and Thought in the XVIIIth Century] (Paris: A. Colin, 1960), 273.

290 Hoffmann, “Scent in Science and Culture,” 32.

83

position.”291 Charles Darwin considers smell to be “of extremely slight service”; to Kant it is

unproductive and a “coarse sense” and he considers smell to be the “most thankless” and

“most expendable,” as does William Buchan, an early nineteenth-century physician who

published extensively on smell in his book Domestic Medicine in 1769, one of the first

medical texts meant for the average person.292 Even Howard Gardner, famous for his theory

of multiple intelligences, claims that smell has “little special value across cultures.”293 Marx

categorizes touch, taste, and smell as “primitive, with hearing and sight as “civilized,”

reflecting the feelings of many Europeans at the time.294 This type of thinking helped create a

“hegemony of vision.” As visual observation became the method through which people

discovered, categorized, and understood the world, an “objective” visual approach became

the only academic position. The baser senses—taste, touch, and smell—were not only

considered inferior by the academic elite, but utterly primitive. Non-white, non-European

societies cared about these baser senses, and therefore they were relegated by European elites

to insignificance. Post-enlightenment thinkers specified sight as the “pre-eminent sense of

reason and civilization, smell was the sense of madness and savagery.”295

Not all philosophers took such a negative approach to the senses. Francis Bacon

argues that inductive science must utilize both the knowledge and observations gained from

the senses.296 Descartes asserts that sensory awareness is important, despite placing the basis

291 Hoffmann, 35.

292 Charles Darwin, The Works of Charles Darwin: The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (NYU

Press, 1989), 21; Immanuel Kant, Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View (Springer Science & Business

Media, 2012), 37; William Buchan, Domestic Medicine: Or, A Treatise on the Prevention and Cure of Diseases

by Regimen and Simple Medicines: With an Appendix, Containing a Dispensatory for the Use of Private

Practitioners (A. Strahan; T. Cadell ... ; and J. Balfour, and W. Creech, at Edinburgh., 1790).

293 Howard Gardner, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (Basic books, 1985), 61.

294 Synnott, “Puzzling over the Senses: From Plato to Marx.”

295 Classen, Howes, and Synnott, Aroma: The Cultural History of Smell, 4.

296 The inductive approach is better known today as the scientific method. A researcher starts with observations

of a system and then tries to prove some large and powerful statements about how the system works (frequently

called laws and theories). This approach stands in contrast to the deductive method, which is largely based on

logic. This approach reasoned that if a statement about a system follows logically then it is likely true, despite

what is actually observed happening in the system. Francis Bacon, The Essayes Or Counsels, Civill and Morall,

ed. Michael Kiernan (Clarendon Press, 1985), 140.

84

of knowledge in “man himself” and not the world around him.297 Hobbes, in his process of

cognizance, recognizes the senses as the starting point.298 Basically, the senses are the first

point of contact for objects humans encounter and knowledge about those objects travels

through a succession of sensory organs till it finally reaches the brain, which interprets the

information and creates an image. Once again, despite the importance of all the senses, the

visual reigns supreme.

Simmel notes that smell is a “dissociative sense” due to its emotional implications, as

there is “something radical and non-negotiable about its emotional judgments.”299 Bourdieu

points out in Distinction that knowledge about the senses and the ability to differentiate

between specific odors is a significant aspect of a person’s cultural capital.300 Heidegger, in

his attempt to define the “thingness of the thing” asserts that we must un-distort our

perceptions in order to remove all the filters that language and the semiotic process provide.301

In many ways, he calls for an embodied approach which questions what sight, hearing, touch,

smell, and other perceptions of the senses bring us in understanding a thing.

297 Hoffmann, “Scent in Science and Culture,” 32.

298 Hoffmann, 32.

299 Georg Simmel, Soziologie: Untersuchungen über die Formen der Vergesellschaftung (Suhrkamp, 1992),

736. as cited in Robert Jütte, “The Sense of Smell in Historical Perspective,” in Sensory Perception: Mind and

Matter, ed. Friedrich G. Barth, Patrizia Giampieri-Deutsch, and Hans-Dieter Klein (Springer Science &

Business Media, 2012), 327.

300 Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (Harvard University Press, 1984),

174–75.

301 Martin Heidegger, “The Origin of the Work of Art,” in Basic Writrings (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul,

1978), 156.

85

Part 3: Language and Semiotics

The prevailing notion that smell is inferior to the other senses, most notably vision, has been

discussed for thousands of years.302 Furthermore, it is widely accepted that most societies do

not possess the vocabulary to express olfactory nuances and details, leading McKenzie to say

that “smell is speechless” and Henning to argue that “olfactory abstraction is impossible.”303

Others note that the lack of a vocabulary attached to olfaction may have also served as a

blockade to discourse, as it was not as “convenient.”304

Recently, biologists and psychologists have attempted to look for biological, genetic,

neural, or anatomical explanations which could justify or disprove these notions.305

Significantly, scientific studies highlight that our identification, and even perception, of odors

is highly dependent on brain processes that mediate these perceptions with vocabulary, the

existence of which was confirmed by Olofsson et al. and discussed below. 306 As O’Meara and

Majid note, “In English, a stink is a stink is a stink,” reflecting a rather impoverished

vocabulary.307

Furthermore, scientists have studied how odors are linked by the brain to their lexical

representative (the word that identifies the odor). This process of integration for olfactory

302 For a detailed overview of the history of thought on smell, consult Chapter 2 of this dissertation.

303 This lack of vocabulary to express nuances is covered in the introduction, which provides an overview of the

most common olfactory words in English and their complicated differences (and lack thereof). For more

information on vocabulary and olfaction, cf. Melissa Barkat-Defradas and Elisabeth Motte-Florac, Words for

Odours: Language Skills and Cultural Insights (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016); Dan McKenzie,

Aromatics and the Soul: A Study of Smells (London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1923), 60; Hans Henning, Der

Geruch (Leipzig: Barth, 1916), 66 as cited in Annick Le Guérer, “Olfaction and Cognition: A Philosophical and

Psychoanalytical View,” in Olfaction, Taste, and Cognition, ed. Catherine Rouby et al. (Cambridge University

Press, 2002), 4.

304 Edwin Diller Starbuck, “The Intimate Senses as Sources of Wisdom,” The Journal of Religion 1, no. 2

(1921): 129–45, https://doi.org/10.2307/1195667.

305 Olofsson et al., “A Designated Odor–Language Integration System in the Human Brain.”

306 Pamela Dalton et al., “The Influence of Cognitive Bias on the Perceived Odor, Irritation and Health

Symptoms from Chemical Exposure,” International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health 69,

no. 6 (1997): 407–417; Hans Distel and Robyn Hudson, “Judgement of Odor Intensity Is Influenced by

Subjects’ Knowledge of the Odor Source,” Chemical Senses 26, no. 3 (2001): 247–251; Jelena Djordjevic et al.,

“Olfaction in Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease,” Neurobiology of Aging 29,

no. 5 (2008): 693–706; Olofsson et al., “A Designated Odor–Language Integration System in the Human Brain.”

307 Carolyn O’Meara and Asifa Majid, “How Changing Lifestyles Impact Seri Smellscapes and Smell

Language,” Anthropological Linguistics 58, no. 2 (2016): 107, https://doi.org/10.1353/anl.2016.0024.

86

integration, argues Jönsson and Stevenson and Herz, is inherently different than the process

for the other senses, but those studies provide limited neural-mechanical evidence.308 These

theories were confirmed with the study of Olofsson et al., which conducted ERP and fMRI

experiments on visual and olfactory identification and showed that our brains possess “an

odor-specific lexical-integration system, which may encode and maintain predictive semantic

aspects of odor input to guide subsequent word choice and thus influence olfactory

naming.”309 This system, then, highlights that olfactory understanding is not only different

from the other senses but actually depends on a lexical translation, which other studies show

is necessary for encoding and maintaining memories.310 Furthermore, the Olofsson et al. study

shows that because of the specific locations in the brain of this odor-lexical association

process (the caudal orbitofrontal cortex and the anterior temporal lobe), the associations

between odors and words are not deeply differentiated or elaborated on, which, the authors

argue, contributes to both our rather “impoverished” olfactory vocabulary, the general lack of

precision in identifying smells, and the length of time the process can take. Ultimately, they

posit that the “dynamic interplay between the olfactory and lexical systems, and their

interface with higher-order centers for retrieval and verbalization…may be collectively

responsible for the elusive nature of olfactory language.”311

These studies also address another phenomenon well-recognized within the

psychological sphere, that beyond not having the vocabulary, sometimes we are not even

aware that we need vocabulary. All of our senses are consistently flooding our brain with

data, which the brain then interprets into meaning. Hamilton notes that “…there is no longer

308 Fredrik U. Jönsson and Richard J. Stevenson, “Odor Knowledge, Odor Naming and the ‘Tip of the Nose’

Experience,” in Tip-of-the-Tongue States and Related Phenomena, ed. Bennett L. Schwartz and Alan S. Brown

(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 305–26; Herz, “Odor-Associative Learning and Emotion.”

309 Olofsson et al., “A Designated Odor-Language Integration System in the Human Brain,” 14871.

310 Michael D. Rabin and William S. Cain, “Odor Recognition: Familiarity, Identifiability, and Encoding

Consistency.,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 10, no. 2 (1984): 316;

C. Jehl, J. P. Royet, and A. Holley, “Role of Verbal Encoding in Shortand Long-Term Odor Recognition,”

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics 59, no. 1 (1997): 100–110.

311 Olofsson et al., “A Designated Odor–Language Integration System in the Human Brain,” 14872.

87

an assumption that human thought and experience is only structured through words, senses

and the embodied experience are sometimes outside language…,” echoing Michael Polanyi’s

words, “we know more than we can tell…which is implied, understood referentially.”312

While these neurobiological studies provide compelling factual evidence and reasons

for our problematic olfactory language—in English, and, it is hypothesized, most other

languages—there are some notable exceptions to the rule, including the Kuman of Uganda,

the Jahai and Maniq speakers, part of the Aslian languages of the Malay Peninsula, five

language groups in Gabon, the Kapsiki/Higi of North Cameroon and North-Eastern Nigeria,

the !xóõ of Africa, the Matsigenka and Yora speakers in the Amazon, and the Seri of

Mexico.313 More importantly, refuting Henning’s claim that “olfactory abstraction is

impossible,” speakers of these groups have numerous terms for smells (from five in the

Gabonese languages and twelve for the Jahai to twenty-one for the Kumam) that are

“abstract,” meaning the terms are not based in an odor-emitting source, but rather can refer to

a variety of sources that share the same abstract smell.314 Another common theme across these

studies is that many (but not all) are hunter-gatherer communities; indeed, several of the

312 Hamilton, “Oral History and the Senses,” 107; Michael Polanyi, The Tacit Dimension (Garden City: Anchor

Books, 1967). as cited in Hamilton, “Oral History and the Senses,” 108; Joy Parr, “Notes for a More Sensuous

History of Twentieth-Century Canada: The Timely, the Tacit, and the Material Body,” Canadian Historical

Review 82, no. 4 (2001): 720.

313 O’Meara and Majid, “How Changing Lifestyles Impact Seri Smellscapes and Smell Language,” 108–9;

Stephen C. Levinson and Asifa Majid, “Differential Ineffability and the Senses,” Mind & Language 29, no. 4

(2014): 407–427; Lila San Roque et al., “Vision Verbs Dominate in Conversation across Cultures, but the

Ranking of Non-Visual Verbs Varies,” Cognitive Linguistics 26, no. 1 (2015): 31–60; Niclas Burenhult and

Asifa Majid, “Olfaction in Aslian Ideology and Language,” The Senses and Society 6, no. 1 (2011): 19–29;

Sylvia Tufvesson, “Analogy-Making in the Semai Sensory World,” The Senses and Society 6, no. 1 (2011): 86–

95; Asifa Majid and Niclas Burenhult, “Odors Are Expressible in Language, as Long as You Speak the Right

Language,” Cognition 130, no. 2 (February 2014): 266–70, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2013.11.004;

Ewelina Wnuk and Asifa Majid, “Revisiting the Limits of Language: The Odor Lexicon of Maniq,” Cognition

131, no. 1 (April 2014): 125–38, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2013.12.008; Jean Marie Hombert,

“Terminologie Des Odeurs Dans Quelques Langues Du Gabon,” Pholia 7 (1992): 61–65; Walter E. A. van

Beek, “Dirty Smith : Smell as a Social Frontier among the Kapsiki / Higi of North Cameroon and North-Eastern

Nigeria,” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 62, no. 1 (1992): 38–58; Glenn Shepard,

“Pharmacognosy and the Senses in Two Amazonian Societies,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Medical Anthropology

Program, University of California, Berkeley., 1999,

https://www.academia.edu/12613580/Pharmacognosy_and_the_Senses_in_Two_Amazonian_Societies.

314 Henning, Der Geruch, 66 as cited in Guérer, “Olfaction and Cognition: A Philosophical and Psychoanalytical

View,” 4.

88

authors hint that this lifestyle or environment may engender an awareness of smell, as

opposed to modern urban communities.315 This tentative link is not well-attested enough to be

considered a rule and the research examples and results are diverse, including those from the

present-day Seri population, who have changed from a semi-nomadic, desert-foraging

lifestyle to a more settled one, and Kaluli of Feld’s landmark soundscape study, both of

which showed that when the community moved to a new environment, their “knowledge of

sensory experiences becomes culturally obsolete.”316 O’Meara and Majid highlight many

similar situations with the Seri, most notably, as the younger generation no longer forages in

the desert for plants, they lack exposure to smells such as the desert blooms after the

monsoon season and, therefore, rarely acquire the olfactory knowledge and vocabulary the

elder generations knew well. This changing generational knowledge was confirmed in

O’Meara and Majid’s experiments, which show that when exposed to and ask to describe

smells of items newly introduced to the Seri culture (apple, lemon, garlic, and vinegar), the

younger generation was more likely to use a Spanish loanword, while the older generation

identified them via the smells of traditional plant names.317 Another study in China on the

relationship between generations, changing environment, language, and sensory perception

and expression shows that younger Cantonese speakers had more visual-based terms than

elder speakers, while elder speakers communicated greater distinctions in smell and taste.318

De Sousa notes that not only are rapid economic development and increased literacy affecting

this change, but so is increased sanitation and changes in food culture. Despite the fragile

evidence, the insinuation of this idea—our environment and activities can shape, for good or

315 Shepard, “Pharmacognosy and the Senses in Two Amazonian Societies”; Majid and Burenhult, “Odors Are

Expressible in Language, as Long as You Speak the Right Language”; Wnuk and Majid, “Revisiting the Limits

of Language.”

316 O’Meara and Majid, “How Changing Lifestyles Impact Seri Smellscapes and Smell Language”; Steven Feld,

Sound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics, and Song in Kaluli Expression (Duke University Press, 2012);

O’Meara and Majid, “How Changing Lifestyles Impact Seri Smellscapes and Smell Language,” 110.

317 O’Meara and Majid, “How Changing Lifestyles Impact Seri Smellscapes and Smell Language,” 118.

318 Hilário De Sousa, “Changes in the Language of Perception in Cantonese,” The Senses and Society 6, no. 1

(2011): 38–47.

89

bad, our sensory awareness—offers intriguing possibilities for future research and increasing

social awareness.

Semiotics

Semiotic theory, from the Greek work sema (sign), is the application of the theory of signs

and has been used by many scholars as a framework through which to understand how the

senses fit into the process of interpretation. Semiotics states that each sign has a meaning

beyond its literal self and looks at the relationship between the sign vehicle, the interpretant,

and object. Charles Peirce, one of the most important semiotic theorists, believes that

everything we know in our brain (our intellect) is first understood in a sensory capacity.319

Jackson, furthering Peirce’s classification of the relation between sign and object, argues that

“all sensory data necessarily serves as signs of that which is perceived; a visual image, an

auditory signal, a tactile impression, a taste—all signify in some form characteristic features

of sensed object or substance.”320 Waskul and Vannini also explore how olfaction can fit into

semiotic theory, looking at the relationship between symbols and indexes.321 They argue that

smell is an act and that sensing is ultimately a social practice, rather than just chemical or

physiological. Odor is a “sign vehicle,” and our perception of odor becomes meaningful

through indexes and chains of associations (arguing directly against Sperber, who claimed

that “There is no semantic field of smell”).322 Smell (the action) gives odor (the state of

319 Marcel Danesi, “Semiotics of Media and Culture,” in The Routledge Companion to Semiotics, ed. Paul

Cobley (New York: Routledge, 2010), 138.

320 Jackson, “Scents of Place,” 613.

321 Waskul and Vannini, “Smell , Odor , and Somatic Work : Sense-Making and Sensory Management.” In order

to test their theories, the authors collected data through graduate student research journals. Subjects were asked

to record their experiences with smell over a two week period. From a variety of anecdotes from the journals,

the authors proclaim that “we have empirically illustrated what Classen, Howes, and Synnott [Aroma¸1994, pg.

3] conceptually argue—‘smell is cultural’” (pg. 68). What they do address explicitly, however, is the role of

emotion within the paradigm. Their results are not at odds with studies about how we attach meaning to the

senses, but in comparison to more science-orientated neurobiological and psychology studies, this seems to be

just a starting step, an incomplete picture.

322 Dan Sperber, Rethinking Symbolism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), 115–16; O’Meara and

Majid, “How Changing Lifestyles Impact Seri Smellscapes and Smell Language,” 108.

90

existence) meaning reflexively. The meaning, therefore, does not reside in the odor itself, but

in the action/interaction of the body, the mind, and the object.

Categorization

For thousands of years, people have been thinking about, and more significantly, categorizing

smells. Categorization is particularly interesting, as, as many scholars have noted, we lack a

true vocabulary for smell. Smells smell like something, and those "somethings" are

frequently turned into adjectives to describe smells. Roses smell like roses, and something

can smell like a rose, or rosy. As a result, words rather fail us with smells. Words struggle to

provide a quality, or a richness, when describing smell, that can be much more easily

deployed with the other senses. Simmel notes that:

Smell does not form an object on its own, as do sight and hearing, but remains, as it

were, captive in the human subject, which is symbolized in the fact that there exist no

independent, objectively characterizing expressions for fine distinctions. If we say “it

smells sour', then this only means that it smells the way something smells which

tastes sour.323

Although I mention that olfactory categories have existed for thousands of years, there is still

no universal, scientifically-accepted categorization. In 1752, Charles Linnaeus, famous for

his work in taxonomy and classification system, grouped smells into seven classes: fragrant,

aromatic, ambrosial/musky, alliaceous/garlicky, hircine/goaty, repulsive, and nauseous.324

This list was updated to nine categories (adding ethereal and burned) later by a Dutch

physiologist, Hendrik Zwaardemaker, who also added subclasses such as floral and

balsamic.325 Hans Henning, in 1916, categorized smells into 6 groups: fragrant, ethereal,

resinous, spicy, putrid, and burned.326 This trend continues throughout the twentieth century,

323 David Frisby and Mike Featherstone, eds., Simmel on Culture: Selected Writings (London: SAGE, 1997),

118.

324 Trygg Engen, The Perception of Odors (Elsevier, 2012), 45.

325 Harry T. Lawless and Hildegarde Heymann, Sensory Evaluation of Food: Principles and Practices (Springer

Science & Business Media, 2013), 55.

326 Henning, Der Geruch.

91

with other scientists proposing different classification systems. Today, there is still no

universally accepted scientific categorization for smell. There is, however, urban odor

descriptor wheel, developed through a Ph.D. project at UCLA, aimed at helping scientists and

city officials classify and talk about urban smells.327 It groups chemical compounds and

provides two levels of common adjectives for these chemical compounds (things that people

would likely say if they encountered these smells). Of the thirteen classifications, only one

(Fragrant) is dedicated to chemicals that people would consider pleasant smelling (the wheel

does not provide this judgment; it is my own observation).

General assessment of urban odors, however, still typically falls to a simple “sniff

test.” Although some cities have employees professionally certified to hunt down the source

of odors (such as the city of Guangzhou in China), other cities simply rely on employees in

the environmental protection office to investigate.328 Occasionally, these investigations result

in legal cases against the source of the foul odor. In Irwindale, California, the town brought a

case against Huy Fong Foods, claiming the smells from the sriracha sauce factory were

making people ill.329

What many of these categories have in common, even those groupings from ancient

Greek philosophers, is that there is a negative quality to smell. In every system, there is one

classification (at minimum) where all the bad smells go. Indeed, most of us today already

have this dichotomy in our minds; smells are good or bad, and anything in-between passes by

relatively unnoticed. Synnott argues that perhaps olfaction's status as one of the "bad" and

"base" senses is the reason we do not have a good vocabulary for it.330 Ironically, this lack of

vocabulary seems to also further reinforce the association between smell and bad. Fox notes

327 Jane Curren, “Characterization of Odor Nuisance” (University of California, Los Angeles, 2012),

http://www.wcsawma.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/JMC-dissertation.pdf.

328 Henshaw, Urban Smellscapes, 17.

329 Kate Pickert, “Inside the Sriracha Factory Causing A Stink In California,” Time, accessed September 2,

2017, http://time.com/12539/sriracha-factory-california-pictures/.

330 Synnott, “A Sociology of Smell.”

92

that the verb “to smell” carries a negative connotation, so when speaking about smells, a

negative connotation is present unless clarified otherwise with comments such as “smell

good” and “smell nice,” ultimately summarizing that “smells are guilty until proven

innocent.”331 The second reason for hedonic classifications, one quite important to this study,

is that smells do not exist in isolation. Odors are the product of nature, of the environment, of

human activities, and of the social and cultural meanings that surround life. Smells are

"highly contextualized concepts" and are interpreted (and remembered) thusly.332 The section

on sensory research in psychology and neurobiology further explores the biological basis of

these claims.

In the changing attitudes towards olfaction in academia, it is generally accepted that

smell has not been, and is not, valued by “Western” societies. As we struggle to re-experience

the world and history through smell, there are some groups throughout the world that utilize

olfactory demarcations as part of their daily lives. In Aroma, Classen, Howes, and Synnott

present to readers the Desana of the Amazon and the Serer Ndut of Senegal, who use smell to

categorize people, groups such as the Ethiopian Dassanetch and the Andaman Islanders who

mark the passage of time with smells, and the Brazilian Bororo and Malaysian Batek who

employ awareness of smell to both prepare and consume their food.333 Other studies show that

the Kapsiki/Higi also use odors to categorize people and the Seri of Mexico use different

smells words to separate non-indigenous Mexicans and Seris.334 This method of distinction

331 Kate Fox, “The Smell Report,” Social Issues Research Centre, 2006, 26,

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6c00/45a251ff506739be2fab1f0693785d47a357.pdf.

332 Constance Classen, “The Odor of the Other: Olfactory Symbolism and Cultural Categories,” Ethos 20, no. 2

(1992): 133–66.

333 Classen, Howes, and Synnott, Aroma: The Cultural History of Smell. Some of the merchants of the Spice

Market, whose job is to identify the desires and needs of their customers, also spoke of using smell to categorize

people according to status and nationality.

334 Beek, “Dirty Smith : Smell as a Social Frontier among the Kapsiki / Higi of North Cameroon and North-

Eastern Nigeria”; O’Meara and Majid, “How Changing Lifestyles Impact Seri Smellscapes and Smell

Language,” 124.

93

echoes Classen’s claim that when there has been prolonged hostility between groups they are

likely to use odors as a description of difference.335

335 Classen, “The Odor of the Other: Olfactory Symbolism and Cultural Categories.”

94

Part 4: Smell and Culture

Gender and Ethnicity

Expanding on the concepts which employ categories and bifurcation, scholars have also

pointed to a second narrative regarding the debasement of senses such as smell, touch, and

taste: their association with women. Henshaw, Classen, Low, Reinarz, Cohen, and Le Guérer

all note the gendering of olfactory perception, especially the association between the “lower”

senses and notions of the feminine.336 Classen, in her article “The Witch’s Senses: Sensory

Ideologies and Transgressive Femininities from the Renaissance to Modernity” explores the

idea that during the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, these base senses were not

only part of a woman’s domain, but also aided in the construction and classification of a

witch:

The feminine sensory sphere consisted of labors associated with the intimately

corporeal senses of touch, taste and smell…and were considered to be inferior and

subservient to the masculine gaze…[these] so called lower senses had powers of their

own, powers that emanated from their presumed primal, irrational nature. Properly,

women used their senses to care for their families; cooking, cleaning, sewing and

nurturing. Improperly they dedicated their senses to fulfilling the coarse cravings

considered innate to women: greed, lust, and a perverse desire for social dominion.

Most improperly, women imbued their animal sensuality with supernatural force and

became witches.337

As patriarchies continued to dominate society and thinking, those characteristics associated

with women were relegated to a lower status. Women associated with immoral activities

(namely, prostitution) were often considered inherently bad-smelling, while virtuous women

smelled sweet, especially with floral-based scents.338 Additionally, the long history of

336 Henshaw, Urban Smellscapes, 10; Constance Classen, “The Witch’s Senses: Sensory Ideologies and

Transgressive Femininities from the Renaissance to Modernity,” in Empire of the Senses, ed. David Howes

(Berg Publishers Oxford, UK, 2005), 70–84; Low, Scents and Scent-Sibilities: A Sociocultural Inquiry of Smells

in Everyday Life Experiences, 113–18; Reinarz, Past Scents, 113–43; Colleen Ballerino Cohen, “Olfactory

Constitution of the Postmodern Body: Nature Challenged, Nature Adorned,” in Tattoo, Torture, Mutilation, and

Adornment: The Denaturalization of the Body in Culture and Text, ed. Frances E. Mascia-Lees and P. Sharpe

(SUNY Press, 1992), 48–78; Annick Le Guérer, Scent: The Mysterious and Essential Powers of Smell (Turtle

Bay Books, A Division of Random House, 1992).

337 Classen, “The Witch’s Senses: Sensory Ideologies and Transgressive Femininities from the Renaissance to

Modernity,” 70–71.

338 Reinarz, Past Scents, 115–23.

95

association between women and emotions339 and the strong link between emotions and scent

(discussed in Chapter 1) further strengthened the notion of scent as a “feminine” sense.

Still, males were not permitted to smell bad. Scholars point to a dichotomy in how

men and women are “supposed” to smell. Synnott notes that “Men are supposed to smell of

sweat, whiskey and tobacco…[while] women, presumably, are supposed to smell “good”:

clean, pure, and attractive.”340 These expectations are then reinforced by products such as

perfume and cologne, which for men includes more woodsy and musty notes and for women

more floral, citrus, and other sweet components. We are then forced into making the choices

and reinforcing these smell-based gender norms because, as Breu argues, “members of a

group may consciously or unconsciously achieve a similar level of olfactory presentation

through the use of similar commercial perfumes, scented oils, or other added fragrances, by

acceptance of a level of body odor, or by having no detectable smell at all.”341

Discussions about gender and olfaction echo discourses about smell being associated

with “primitive” (non-white) peoples by European elites, and, as Reinarz notes, smell was

used to reinforce racial stereotypes throughout the twentieth century.342 Lorenz Oken, a

nineteenth-century natural historian, actually categorized human races via the senses:

European were “eye-men,” Asians were “ear-men,” the Native American was a “nose-man,”

the Australian aboriginal a “tongue-man,” and Africans were “skin-men.”343 Even for scholars

who did not quite follow Oken’s sensory-human hierarchy, non-white people were sometimes

considered blind or “living in the dark” due to their use and acknowledgment of the other

339 E. Ashby Plant et al., “The Gender Stereotyping of Emotions,” Psychology of Women Quarterly 24, no. 1

(March 1, 2000): 81–92, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2000.tb01024.x.

340 Synnott, “A Sociology of Smell,” 449.

341 Marlene R. Breu, “The Role of Scents and the Body in Turkey,” in Dress Sense: Emotional and Sensory

Experiences of the Body and Clothes, ed. Donald Clay Johnson and Helen Bradley Foster (Berg Publishers,

2007), 64.

342 Reinarz, Past Scents, 85–112.

343 Constance Classen, “Foundations for an Anthropology of the Senses,” International Social Science Journal

49, no. 153 (1997): 405; Howes, Sensual Relations, 5.

96

senses.344 Cohen notes that in the United States, we inherently associate natural body scent

with the “primitive” whereas added scents, such as perfumes, are symbols of refined

culture.345 This problem of associating the “baser” senses with non-European cultures has had

significant implications for museum practice, which is discussed in depth in Chapter 3 of this

dissertation.

Religion and Royalty

Scent has always been inextricably linked with religion and ritual. Evans notes that “tales of

divine scent have existed in many different traditions from ancient to modern times; from the

United States, Europe, Russia, and around the Mediterranean, Middle East, India and Sri

Lanka.”346 While, as Evans notes, there are many different olfactory traditions, there are

surprising continuities between olfactory religious practices throughout the centuries. The

following paragraphs look specifically at the relationship between olfaction and religion,

focusing specifically on commonalities that have crossed cultural, geographical, and temporal

boundaries as Anatolia and its bordering regions experienced waves of religious change,

especially during the development and expansion of the Christian church in Constantinople

during the 4–7th centuries CE, during the development of Islam, and in Ottoman and Turkish

religious practices.

However, in the context of these cultures, it is necessary to consider olfaction in the

realm of court culture parallel to religious practice. In the Umayyad, Byzantine, and Ottoman

empires (as with many other), although they were built on military power, the ruler had a

hereditary or divine right to rule and they were not only the heads of their empires, but the

heads of the congregation of believers (for the Ottomans, however, this divine right to rule

did not come until they conquered the Hijaz in 1517 and the sultan was proclaimed caliph and

344 Classen and Howes, “The Museum as Sensescape: Western Sensibilities and Indigenous Artifacts,” 207.

345 Cohen, “Olfactory Constitution of the Postmodern Body: Nature Challenged, Nature Adorned.”

346 Evans, “The Scent of a Martyr,” 194–95.

97

protector of the holy cities of Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem). Due to the close relationship

between religion and government, there are many shared olfactory components, as well as a

symbolic component that joins the two. For example, Uzun argues that once the Ottoman

sultans also became the caliphs of the Islamic world, the use of aromatic materials considered

significant in Islam (such as musk, ambergris, rosewater, and agarwood) became more

meaningful and symbolic.347

Oleg Grabar discussed the “shared culture of objects” in his work on the Book of

Treasures and Gifts, an eleventh-century work on the gift exchange of luxury items

(including aromatic good) in the medieval Mediterranean.348 Nina Ergin has argued that “this

notion can be profitably extended to more ephemeral phenomena, such as a shared culture

that includes both the visual and the olfactory.”349 We can extend this notion to examine a

shared olfactory culture that stems from both Anatolia’s topography and location—

traditionally, on the trade route of aromatic goods from the East—and as a land with strongly

routed traditions of paganism, Christianity, and Islam.

Islam and Christianity

Perfume in its greatest sense has long been associated with the lands of the greater Middle

East. It was the source for valuable scents, such as frankincense, cedar, and saffron and

imported fragrances like oud, musk, and camphor. Like many other places, rituals, from the

daily to the religious, the sacred to the profane, are marked by perfume, the application of

rosewater, the burning of incense. These notions are deeply tied to religious health and

spiritual purification.350 Both musk and camphor, as well as other aromatic riches, are

mentioned by name in the Quran, the hadiths, and other Arabic texts in celebration of their

347 Uzun, “Ottoman Olfactory Traditions in a Palatial Space: Incense Burners in the Topkapı Palace,” 121.

348 Oleg Grabar, “The Shared Culture of Objects,” in Byzantine Court Culture from 829 to 1204 (Washington,

D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 1997), 115–29. as cited in Ergin, “The Fragrance of the Divine: Ottoman Incense

Burners and Their Context.”

349 Ergin, “The Fragrance of the Divine: Ottoman Incense Burners and Their Context,” 71.

350 Thurlkill, “Odors of Sanctity : Distinctions of the Holy in Early Christianity and Islam.”

98

prestige, relative rarity and luxury, and even medicinal qualities.351 The Prophet Mohammed

was known to have been a connoisseur of pleasant scents; perfuming his home, beard, and

clothing. The smell of rose is considered particularly divine and linked to the prophet

Mohammed.352 During the Umayyad period, the Dome of the Rock was the site of a public

perfuming ceremony, according to the thirteenth-century Muslim historian Sibt ibn al-Jawzi:

Every Monday and Thursday the gatekeepers used to melt musk, ambergris, rose

water and saffron and to prepare with it [a kind of perfume called] ghāliya … Every

morning on the above-mentioned days, the attendants … rub the ṣakhra over with the

perfume. Then the incense is put in censers of gold and silver inside of which there is

an Indian odoriferous wood … The gate-keepers lower the curtains so that the incense

encircles the ṣakhra entirely and the scent clings to it. Then the curtains are raised so

that this scent drifts out until it fills the entire city … Of everyone on whom the scent

was found, it was said that this person had been today in the ṣakhra.353

Throughout Umayyad and Abbasid rule, tastes in fragrance changed. The centuries following

the Islamic conquests, as Amar Zohar and Efraim Lev have noted:

…opened new trading centres that flooded the markets with goods and prestigious

products from all over the world, mainly from South and East Asia. These included

new perfumes (musk and camphor) that were available and comparatively cheap, and,

as we mentioned before, they replaced traditional perfumes. As a result, the demand

for traditional aromatic goods like balsam and myrrh dropped dramatically.354

The flood of aromatic goods coming from the East replaced many of those that had been

important in previous centuries. As noted above, the incense ritual at the Dome of the Rock

included many of the newer aromas, while the public perfuming of the second Jewish temple

(located in roughly the same location as the Dome of the Rock) included the aromas of

balsams and myrrh.355 Christian religious ceremonies continued to use these scents, however;

351 Ergin, “The Fragrance of the Divine: Ottoman Incense Burners and Their Context,” 72; Anna Akasoy and

Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim, “Along The Musk Routes: Exchanges Between Tibet and The Islamic World,” Asian

Medicine 3, no. 2 (June 1, 2007): 217–40, https://doi.org/10.1163/157342008X307857; Anya King, “The

Importance of Imported Aromatics in Arabic Culture: Illustrations from Pre‐Islamic and Early Islamic Poetry,”

Journal of Near Eastern Studies 67, no. 3 (July 1, 2008): 175–89, https://doi.org/10.1086/591746; Gary Paul

Nabhan, Cumin, Camels, and Caravans: A Spice Odyssey (Univ of California Press, 2014).

352 Samuel Marinus Zwemer and Margaret Clarke Zwemer, “The Rose and Islam,” The Muslim World 31, no. 4

(October 1, 1941): 360–70, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-1913.1941.tb00950.x.

353 Amikam Elad, Medieval Jerusalem and Islamic Worship: Holy Places, Ceremonies, Pilgrimage (Brill,

1995), 55.

354 Amar Zohar and Efraim Lev, “Trends in the Use of Perfumes and Incense in the Near East after the Muslim

Conquests,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 23, no. 1 (2013): 29.

355 Zohar and Lev, 29.

99

incense recipes from the Byzantine era frequently included various balsams, frankincense,

and myrrh. Myrrh remained particularly important within the Christian tradition, most likely

because it was one of the three gifts presented to Jesus by the Magi.356

Ultimately, archival records for Ottoman mosques indicate that buhurcıs (perfumers,

coming from the word buhur [incense] were paid to scent the elite and sacred spaces of the

empire). Incense burners and elaborately decorated censers were regularly filled by buhurcıs

with a variety of aromatics such as oud (agarwood), ambergris, and musk in order to perfume

the words of prayer. Foundation documents for mosque complexes noted money set aside for

perfumers to produce “beautifully smelling smoke.”357

Another job of buhurcıs was to help prepare fragrances and incense for the royal

palace. A recipe book for confections, fragrances, medicines, and incense, the Register of the

Helvahane and Pharmacy, written in 1608, was used in the Ottoman palace throughout the

17th and 18th centuries to create sensorial delights and pharmaceutical remedies from a

variety of ingredients including sugar, mastic, hyacinth, camphor, ambergris, and musk.

Ergin supports the idea of shared olfactory practices between royal and religious

spaces, noting that:

Unsurprisingly, many of the valued scents were those that had been passed down

through Islamic tradition and were also used to scent religious spaces. We know that

at the end of a meal, the sultan was “incensed with amber and aloe wood, the fumes

of which give a soft and agreeable odor”; a small candle perfumed with the same

ingredients was burned before bedtime; music and dancing celebrations were often

356 “Balsam” actually refers to the resinous by-product of various trees and shrubs. Balsams are oleoresins,

meaning they contain a high-enough percentage of oil that the consistency is more of a viscous liquid rather than

hard (Linda Crampton, “Frankincense, Myrrh and Amber: Tree Resin Facts and Uses,” Owlcation, accessed

September 4, 2017, https://owlcation.com/stem/Frankincense-Myrrh-Amber-and-Other-Plant-Resins.).

Unfortunately, it is often difficult to determine exactly which type of balsam was being used. For more

information on early Christian and Byzantine incense, see Dalby, Tastes of Byzantium; Béatrice Caseau,

“Incense and Fragrances: From House to Church: A Study of the Introduction of Incense into Early Byzantine

Christian Churches,” in Material Culture and Well-Being in Byzantium (400–1453), ed. Michael Grünbart et al.

(Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2007), 75–92; Tera Lee Hedrick and Nina Ergin, “A

Shared Culture of Heavenly Fragrance: A Comparison of Late Byzantine and Ottoman Incense Burners and

Censing Practices in Religious Contexts,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 331–354, 69 (2015); Harvey, Scenting

Salvation.

357 From the foundation documents of Nurbanu Sultan mosque complex, as translated by and cited in Ergin,

“The Fragrance of the Divine: Ottoman Incense Burners and Their Context,” 70.

100

perfumed, and that the sultan’s clothes were regularly perfumed while being

washed.358

Thanks to both the existence of Ottoman recipe books, including the Register of the

Helvahane and Pharmacy and the notebooks of Head Chief Laundryman Yusuf Ağa, which

are preserved in the Topkapı Palace Archives (No. 7011), we are able to identify specific

ingredients and quantities that went into royal aromatic mixtures. The following are recipes

for the sultan’s incense and for buhur suyu (incense water), which was often offered to guests

before and after a meal to wash their hands or to a weary traveler upon arrival. This is still a

practice today in Turkey with various colognes.

The Sultan’s Incense (From The Helvahane Defteri and translated by Nina Ergin):359

1. Combine a 0.4 gram each of ambergris and musk and a 0.75 gram each of agarwood,

storax, hyacinth, gum tragacanth, and engüşt [we do not know what this ingredient is]

2. Grind everything to a powder

3. Add rosewater

4. Mold the mixture into a pastille

Buhur Suyu (Incense Water, from the notebooks of Head Chief Laundryman Yusuf Ağa,

from the Topkapı Palace Museum archives no. 7011 and published in Kutsal Dumandan

Sihirli Damlaya: Parfüm |Sacred Incense to Fragrant Elixir: Perfume):360

1. Put each of the following in separate bags and boil in a jug of rosewater for 12

hours:

yellow sandalwood, cyclamen, gum benzoin, agarwood

2. Put the rosewater in a new jug and again add separate bags of the following

ingredients and boil for 12 hours:

yellow sandalwood, oil of cyclamen, agarwood, ground kalamet [A Burmese

sandalwood], gum benzoin

3. To the infused water add musk and flower water

4. Shake (helps to refine the fragrance)

All of these techniques, traditions, and preferences for certain scents were passed down to the

Ottoman Empire via a strong Islamic heritage. However, influence came not only from

358 Ergin, 74.

359 Ergin, 87.

360 Yentürk, “Osmanlı Parfümleri | Ottoman Perfumes,” 67–68.

101

Islamic practice but also the established Byzantine Christian rituals. As Hedrick and Ergin

demonstrate in their article on the shared religious practices of the Byzantines and Ottomans,

there was much continuity, including a strong Byzantine influence on the design and

decoration of censers and the use of incense burners in ritual. At a much deeper level,

Hedrick and Ergin note, “both religions relied on more ancient understandings of incensation.

Moreover, in both contexts incense created an olfactory environment that was essentially

timeless and placeless and that connected all coreligionists across periods and territories.”361

However, they caution, there are distinct differences, in purpose, content, and practice.

Byzantine olfactory practices were utilized for their “sacrificial and mimetic dimensions” as

opposed to the Ottoman focus on purification.362 Furthermore, the materials used for incense

were quite different. Hedrick and Ergin suggest that this difference is due both to the larger

Islamic tradition which valued aromas such as musk and ambergris, but also due to the need

to define their sacred spaces as aromatically-distinct from Christian ones. As discussed in the

literature review and the previous section on gender, the concept of using smell to separate

and mark “us” versus “others,” pervades across time and through cultures.

As Nina Ergin has found in her research on Ottoman religious spaces, there is very

little narrative or contextual understanding of olfactory practices in Ottoman spaces, but there

exists a large body of circumstantial evidence, including archival documents, visual sources,

and material culture objects such as incense burners, which “suggests the importance that

Ottomans attached to olfactory practices and traditions in general.”363

From Paganism to Byzantine Christianity

Most major religions incorporate smell in some component, especially through incense.

Greek gods were believed to have powerful senses of smell, and their followers used smell as

361 Hedrick and Ergin, “A Shared Culture of Heavenly Fragrance: A Comparison of Late Byzantine and

Ottoman Incense Burners and Censing Practices in Religious Contexts,” 353.

362 Hedrick and Ergin, 353.

363 Ergin, “The Fragrance of the Divine: Ottoman Incense Burners and Their Context,” 70.

102

a method communication and supplication, as it was understood that Greek gods could “feed”

on smells of sacrifice.364 Romans scented the gods' statues and temple walls in order to please

the gods.365 However, because of the strong associations with pagan ritual, early Christianity

condemned the ritual use of incense for several centuries. In fact, it was very specifically

banned for many years, and its reintroduction to the church was a gradual process.366

There are various reasons as to why early Christianity so forcefully denounced the use

of scent in its religious proceedings. As previously mentioned, scent was an important

component of pagan rituals across the Roman world. By banning any use of perfumes,

aromas, or incense in the Christian church, the church fathers were making a clear stand

again paganism. However, I think that we can also look to the neurobiology study by Herz

and Engen, “Odor Memory: Review and Analysis,” and find a reason there.367 Smell evokes

memories and emotions more than any other sense. It is difficult enough to break a

population away from one religion towards another, but if the Church had continued to use

scents that evoked paganism, the congregation would remember, most likely with good

emotions, their prior religion. Mary Thurlkill argues that “odors are particularly potent within

religious ritual and ceremony because they are at once radically individual (recalling personal

memories and emotions more powerfully than any other sensory stimulus) and communal

(binding a group together through a shared sensory experience).”368 Of course, there was

always the possibility of using completely different scents to differentiate Christianity and

364 Ashley Clements, “Divine Secrets and Presence,” in Smell and the Ancient Senses, ed. Mark Bradley

(London: Routledge, 2014), 48. In the myth of Prometheus, Prometheus and Zeus were deciding which parts of

sacrificed animals would be left for the gods. Prometheus covered the bones of cow in fat and put the meat

inside the cow’s stomach. He tricked Zeus into accepting sacrifices of bones and fat, as that appeared and

smelled more delicious. Furthermore, Prometheus then betrayed Zeus and gave humans fire. Zeus was enraged,

but became mollified by the scent of the sacrifices to him, which the fire augmented and help stretch to the

heavens.

365 Mary Thurlkill, Sacred Scents in Early Christianity and Islam (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016), 76.

366 Caseau, “Incense and Fragrances: From House to Church: A Study of the Introduction of Incense into Early

Byzantine Christian Churches.”

367 Rachel S. Herz and Trygg Engen, “Odor Memory: Review and Analysis,” Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 3,

no. 3 (1996): 300–313.

368 Thurlkill, “Odors of Sanctity : Distinctions of the Holy in Early Christianity and Islam,” 133.

103

paganism, yet this did not happen. Thus, the reintroduction of scents into Byzantine

Christianity can be viewed as an acknowledgment that the scents no longer invoked

memories and emotions of paganism for the majority of the population. However, we know

that various pagan cults continued in Constantinople itself, creating the possibility that

residents viewed smell as an integral part of religious, regardless of the religion itself.

Thurlkill supports this view, believing that Christianity purposefully integrated fragrance into

its liturgy because it needed to compete with the continued existing pagan groups.369 Caseau

notes that the Church carefully avoided using scents in a sacrificial context while pagan

groups were still active, but capitalized on other symbolic usages, including medical and

fumigatory.370

A reintroduction of scent, rather than continuance of scent, allowed Church officials

to pick the perfect scents to integrate into the sacred space. Thurlkill supposes that the Church

chose aromas for incense which contained the same basic components as those found in many

medicines because this would have increased the positive emotions with the smell, especially

those focused on healing and bringing peace to the minds and bodies of the congregation.371

Choosing which scents were included in various rituals allowed Church officials another

layer of definition, emotion, and memory for each religious performance. In particular, the

human-divine relationship was marked with scent through baptism, healing, and other church

rituals. Moreover, smells themselves worked as a source personal identity, defining the

manner in which they could connect with the Divine and their position within society.372 It is

not just that sweet smells were linked to paradise and the divine, while bad smells were

linked to evil. It is the presence or absence of these smells that helped define a space as either

369 Thurlkill, 137.

370 Caseau, “Incense and Fragrances: From House to Church: A Study of the Introduction of Incense into Early

Byzantine Christian Churches.”

371 Thurlkill, “Odors of Sanctity : Distinctions of the Holy in Early Christianity and Islam,” 137.

372 Thurlkill, 133.

104

sacred or mortal. This means that they actually had to define what smells were sacred, as

opposed to mundane. In other words, everything that smelled good was not necessarily

sacred, but sacred smells were defined as being good. Thus, some “good” smelling things

were not sacred at all, but quite mundane.

The use of smells in sacred ritual expanded the late fourth to seventh centuries. The

Church worked on creating a space that smelled good, was holy, and reminded worshippers

of God’s presence. The atmosphere was achieved through a variety of ways. Most commonly,

incense was burned and perfumes were added to the oils, which gave off a perfumed

fragrance when lit. This shows one of the ways the senses intermingled, simulating, in

essence, a synesthetic environment. Although we do not know every scent which was used in

Church rituals, or how many variations occurred between churches, sources frequently

mention aromas extracted from various nard and balsam plants, although changes occurred

throughout the centuries, especially as the places in which the raw materials grew switched

between ruling powers.373

Ultimately, smell was a prominent aspect of the Byzantine experience. Rather than

just accepting the basic existence of scents, smell was utilized to enhance the built

environment. Despite early Christian resistance to smell within the liturgy, the creation of a

sensory environment led to a synesthetic atmosphere in which the faithful were reminded of

God’s presence and divinity. The source materials themselves, such the plants, flowers, and

resins, could be put in different contexts to help recreate a sacred space, while the ideas of

smells could be built upon by monks to make grand (and often noxious) statements about the

fatality of the human condition. Not quite tangible, and not quite intangible, smell became the

perfect sensory medium for the divine to manifest itself in the Byzantine world.

373 Caseau, “Incense and Fragrances: From House to Church: A Study of the Introduction of Incense into Early

Byzantine Christian Churches”; Hedrick and Ergin, “A Shared Culture of Heavenly Fragrance: A Comparison

of Late Byzantine and Ottoman Incense Burners and Censing Practices in Religious Contexts,” 345. For more

information on balsam, see footnote 398.

105

Cleanliness: Cities and Bodies

Invariably, in thinking about smells, people always bring up the “disgusting” nature of premodern

cities; the lack of waste management must have made for some very ripe-smelling

environments, at least in contemporary minds. Reinarz, for example, refers to the “intolerable

odours” of Paris.374 Pre-industrial towns and cities were often filled with organic matter such

as excrement, mud, decomposing animals, meat, alcohol, and blood. Industrialization,

characterized by burning coal, metal furnaces, and coal-polluted air not only significantly

changed the smellscapes of both cities and homes but also strengthened beliefs that foulsmelling

air was the source of diseases. Industrialization did not help matters. Called the

“excremental age of architecture” by Barbara and Perliss, pollution increased dramatically as

factories took over the landscape. 375 Traditional ideas about miasmas and foul air causing

sickness pervaded. Therefore, even as early as 1873 inventors were creating odorless water

closets in order to help cities clean the “poisonous air.” Personal hygiene was becoming

increasingly popular amongst those who could afford it; there were those who even opposed

letting the poor have soap, in fear that they would no longer be able to use smell to

differentiate the social classes.376 Public health initiatives have changed many of these

attitudes, and also drastically changed the urban smellscape. Smell continued to mar the

landscape, however, and the suburbanization in countries like the United States further

reinforced a relationship between economic-status and smell. Those privileged enough to

afford it left the dirty, smelly cities for clean country air.377 Again, this narrative of place,

smell, and money perpetuated beliefs about racial stereotypes and smell, as the large majority

374 Reinarz, Past Scents, 193.

375 Barbara and Perliss, Invisible Architecture, 30.

376 T. Grigg, “Health & Hygiene in Nineteenth Century England in Museums Victoria Collections,” Museums

Victoria Collections, 2008, https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/articles/1615.

377 Andrew Burke, “"Do You Smell Fumes? ": Health, Hygiene, and Suburban Life,” ESC: English Studies in

Canada 32, no. 4 (June 20, 2008): 149, https://doi.org/10.1353/esc.0.0004.

106

of suburban families were white.378 Even although our urban landscapes have gone through

massive amounts of sterilization, people still wish that we could get rid of the smell of

cigarette smoke, garbage containers, transportation exhaust, and many other odor-producing

objects.

Archaeological and historical research on smells in Antiquity has provided some basic

templates and commonalities in the urban environment that produced smells. Bartosiewicz

examines how archaeological evidence from both Antiquity and the medieval period can

provide smellscape clues; he looks specifically at the uses of animals and animal remains in

public spaces.379 Castel et al. undertook a large, multidisciplinary study of Mediterranean

archaeological remains; their project team composed of archaeologists and chemists sought to

understand how perfumes were developed.380 Multiple works by Koloski-Ostrow provide a

comprehensive overview of how water and sanitation operated (and smelled) in a typical

Roman city.381 Although very far removed from the context in which our modern-day cities

developed, Pawlowska has utilized archaeological evidence to theorize on the smellscapes of

the Neolithic settlement of Çatalhöyük.382

In the nineteenth century, the miasma theory—the theory that diseases were caused by

noxious air—served as a catalyst for cities, especially, to clean up. Residents, believing that

378 Douglas S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton, American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the

Underclass (Harvard University Press, 1993); Peter Mieszkowski and Edwin S. Mills, “The Causes of

Metropolitan Suburbanization,” The Journal of Economic Perspectives 7, no. 3 (1993): 135–47,

https://doi.org/10.2307/2138447.

379 László Bartosiewicz, “‘There’s Something Rotten in the State...’: Bad Smells In Antiquity,” European

Journal of Archaeology 6, no. 2 (August 2003): 175–95, https://doi.org/10.1177/146195710362004.

380 Cécilia Castel, Xavier Fernandez, and Jean-Jacques Filippi, “Perfumes in Mediterranean Antiquity,” Flavour

and Fragrance Journal, no. June (2009): 326–34, https://doi.org/10.1002/ffj.

381 Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow, “Finding Social Meaning in the Public Latrines of Pompeii,” De Haan y Jansen

(Eds.), 1996, 79–86; Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow et al., “Water in the Roman Town: New Research from Cura

Aquarum and the Frontinus Society,” Journal of Roman Archaeology 10 (1997): 181–191; Ann Olga Koloski-

Ostrow, Water Use and Hydraulics in the Roman City:[Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of

America Called" Water Use in the Ancient City", New York City, December 1996] (Kendall/Hunt Publ., 2001).

382 Kamilla Pawlowska, “The Smells of Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey: Time and Space of Human Activity,”

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 36 (2014): 1–11. While it may not be considered a city comparable to

today, it was an urban environment, with “compact spatial organization” and a population of between 3,500 and

8,000 people (Pawlowska, 3).

107

foul-smelling winds sweeping down the streets would give them cholera, the plague, or

myriad other diseases, advocated for vast urban changes. These changes included progressive

events—the development of health boards, improved ventilation standards, and the

construction of urban parks—but also the removal of anything considered noxious, including

people, certain trades, and even the ailanthus tree (tree of heaven).383 Although the miasma

theory had existed in various forms for millennia, with Hippocrates, Vitruvius, and Galen

attributing some sort of ill-health to bad air and smells, theories which resurged during the

Middle Ages as the miasma theory.384 Melanie Kiechle, in her article on mid-nineteenthcentury

New York’s struggle with bad air, notes that cities throughout America and Europe

struggled with similar problems.385 Despite many changes, residents were continually

frustrated with smelly winds and these continual conflicts “over olfactory geography and

knowledge of stenches’ sources pitted bodily experience against scientific expertise and

government authority” well into the 1870s (even although germ theory was, by this point,

well-established).386 In New York, sanitation advocates led smell tours of the city to make

citizens and government officials aware of foul odors.387 As part of its first sanitary report, the

Metropolitan Board of Health had physicians conduct house-by-house evaluations of the

sanitary conditions, noting all olfactory-related aspects, including particularly noxious odors,

poor ventilation, topographical considerations, garbage dumps, and drainage routes, resulting

in a precise olfactory map of the city.388 Cairo had a sanitation health board from about 1830–

1880, called the Doctor’s Council, to deal with similar problems. Led by a French doctor,

383 In Philadelphia, the location of butchers were regulated so that their smell would not affect the public

(Kiechle, “Navigating by Nose,” 757.) and in Cairo, the sellers of salted fish were forbidden from having shops

on the main pedestrian routes and were supposed to all be located in one area (Fahmy, “An Olfactory Tale of

Two Cities: Cairo in the Nineteenth Century,” 176.); Kiechle, “Navigating by Nose,” 754. The literal Chinese

translation of this tree name is “foul smelling tree."

384 Carl S. Sterner, “A Brief History of Miasmic Theory,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 22 (1948): 747.

385 Kiechle, “Navigating by Nose,” 754.

386 Kiechle, 754.

387 Kiechle, 756.

388 Kiechle, 761–62.

108

Cairo was evaluated according to the latest French standards and worries: miasma theory and

the negative effects of sewers and subterranean waterways.389 There was a strong class bias

among those who were affected by these bad odors (those who were affluent enough could

complain to authorities about smells and have them dealt with while lower socio-economic

classes did not share that privilege). Fahmy argues that it “reflected the heightened sensitivity

to odors, or lower olfactory tolerance, that was part of the project of modernity as understood

by Egypt's upper classes, Ottoman-Egyptian and French trained alike, and imposed on the

public at large.”390 In a rather Orientalizing fashion, the European-allied Egyptian elites felt

that they needed to “civilize” the lower classes through the regulation of smell, which in

many instances failed, and, Fahmy notes, explains the persistence of many of these smells in

present-day Cairo.391

Although the sensory research of cities is far more than that of rural areas, we have

for Turkey some hints at the smellscapes and olfactory values of rural Turkish life, thanks to

a number of ethnographic studies of village life.392 Carol Delaney, writing about Turkish

village life in the central Anatolian plateau, notes that “personal odors in general are an

intimate part of the self, and like glances appear to be an aspect of the person that extends

beyond his or her bodily boundaries: an invisible but personal substance that moves and can

permeate others.”393 She further notes that there are restrictions placed on who can perceive

another person’s smell; both passively perceiving smells and actively smelling a person

389 Fahmy, “An Olfactory Tale of Two Cities: Cairo in the Nineteenth Century,” 172.

390 Fahmy, 178.

391 For the various and rather humorous ways that the lower classes “resisted” these cultural regulations, see

Fahmy, 179–81.

392 Most of the studies discussed here did not start off as scent-based research and therefore the findings are not

well-contextualized in the existing sensory theories and methodologies, with the exception of Christina Luke,

Christopher H. Roosevelt, and Catherine B. Scott, “Yörük Legacies: Space, Scent, and Sediment

Geochemistry,” International Journal of Historical Archaeology 21, no. 1 (March 1, 2017): 152–77,

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-016-0345-6.

393 Carol Delaney, The Seed and the Soil: Gender and Cosmology in Turkish Village Society (University of

California Press, 1991), 79.

109

should be done only by family.394 Breu offers that in Turkey, as opposed to the United States,

it is acceptable to use or reference personal bodily scents as a form of “personal identifier.”395

In Scent: The Mysterious and Essential Powers of Smell, Le Guérer documents a particular

aspect of Anatolian and Mediterranean folk dances, in which “the male dancer stimulates his

partner’s ardor by fluttering a handkerchief imbued with underarm sweat under her nose.”396

Although dances are highly symbolized, this particular act does reflect a basic understanding

both of scents as a form of personal identifier and of the chemistry and biology behind

attraction.397

Breu also highlights the way that smell illustrates inherent differences in

socioeconomic status between rural and urban life in Turkey; in villages, livestock is

sometimes kept on the ground level of the home, which infuses an animal smell not only into

the home but onto bodies via clothing. She contrasts this lifestyle with that of the urban

secular Turks who have followed Atatürk’s footsteps in adopting more European behaviors.398

While Breu’s argument is based on rather generalist views of rural and urban life, her thesis

of olfaction serving as a socio-economic boundary is supported by numerous other studies.399

As discussed briefly in the preceding section on religion, for hundreds of years

Turkish and Ottoman culture has used various types of scented water as a cleanser and

refresher for the hands, arms, face, and neck, and this ritual crosses all social and economic

boundaries. In the Ottoman Empire, both buhur suyu and rose water served this function, but

the ubiquitous product of today’s Turkey is cologne, normally with a lemon scent. In addition

to being used a cleanser, Delaney argues, it also covers some of the body’s natural scent and

394 Delaney, The Seed and the Soil.

395 Breu, “The Role of Scents and the Body in Turkey,” 63.

396 Guérer, Scent, 10.

397 Rachel Herz, The Scent of Desire: Discovering Our Enigmatic Sense of Smell (DIANE Publishing Company,

2010).

398 Breu, “The Role of Scents and the Body in Turkey,” 65.

399 O’Meara and Majid, “How Changing Lifestyles Impact Seri Smellscapes and Smell Language”; Beek, “Dirty

Smith : Smell as a Social Frontier among the Kapsiki / Higi of North Cameroon and North-Eastern Nigeria.”

110

places every person at the same level, symbolizing and acknowledging the users as part of the

same group.400

The preceding section on religion discussed some of the ways in which spaces were

both purified and perfumed. However, at the level of the individual, certain smells were also

considered problematic. Tansuğ et al. report that noxious smells originating in the body (and

the mouth) were shameful, and on Fridays even considered a sin, so that the scent of flowers

or herbs were sometimes used to cover the odor of sweaty feet.401 Both Tansuğ et al. and Breu

note the utilization of dried flowers, herbs, and sometimes cloves in clothing and

headdresses.402 This practice also has an equivalent in Ottoman society; small balls infused

ambergris, musk, or cedar (called şemmame) were affixed to clothes to scent bodies and, on

occasion, stationery boxes, although whether this was to provide a pleasing scent for the

writer, the recipient, or both, is unclear.403

The Industrial Revolution brought about massive changes to the smellscapes of places

as thousands of factories and refineries pumped out thick smoke full of volatile odors and

chemicals. These larger changes to the environment eventually came to be mirrored in

personal spaces, as attitudes towards food preparation and sanitation changed and natural

cleaning products came to be replaced by industrial and synthetically-created alternatives. In

today’s cleaning products, however, we can often find a trace of historical smellscapes and

cultural preferences. The Seri of Mexico, for example, used to adorn the interior spaces of

their brush houses with sand verbena flowers and evening primrose.404 Today, mass-produced

cleaning products preferred by the Seri are largely floral and herbal, which, remain “in line

400 Delaney, The Seed and the Soil, 79–80.

401 Sabiha Tansuğ, Charlotte A. Jirousek, and Serim Denel, “The Turkish Culture of Flowers,” in The Fabric of

Life: Cultural Transformation in Turkish Society, ed. Ronald Marchese (Binghamton, NY: Global Academic

Publishing, 2005), 252.

402 Tansuğ, Jirousek, and Denel, 260; Breu, “The Role of Scents and the Body in Turkey,” 68–69.

403 Yentürk, “Osmanlı Parfümleri | Ottoman Perfumes,” 70.

404 O’Meara and Majid, “How Changing Lifestyles Impact Seri Smellscapes and Smell Language,” 122.

111

with their traditional smellscapes.”405 Different cultures have a different understanding of

what smells indicate cleanliness. For example, Kerr, Rosero, and Doty showed that

Americans and Europeans find pine a particularly clean scent.406 Scent preference is such a

significant aspect of consumer choice that major companies, such as Unilever and Johnson &

Johnson hire experts to discover which smells would most appeal to customers in different

regions. The impact of the globalization and commercialization of industrial products is

discussed in more depth in Chapter 4. However, Davis and Thys-Şenocak offer a particularly

telling anecdote from Istanbul, Turkey:

Some visitors to the Yeni Valide Sultan mosque, built at the same time and in the

same socio-religious complex as the Spice Market, found the antiseptic scent of

internationally used cleaning products used today to clean the carpets and floors of

the mosque to be ‘mis gibi,’ literally ‘smelling of musk.’ In fact, this commonly used

Turkish phrase, which today is a positive descriptor for a clean environment, actually

reveals a lost and rich olfactory heritage of myriad scents used by the Ottomans to

clean and perfume ritual and holy spaces of prayer, among these rosewater, ambergris

and real musk, which was derived from the glands of a male deer.407

Travelogues and Memoirs

Memoirs and travelogues are also a never-ending source of sensory observations. Although

we may assume that these works of non-fiction are more “accurate” than novels, it is

important to remember that every writer has his or her own experiences and biases.

Furthermore, especially in case of travelogues, writers have specific agendas, such as

presenting a place as beautiful, backwards, or less-refined (as was particularly the case with

the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth-century western European and American

travelers, whose works were often meant to play into stereotypes of non-whites as uncivilized

and were used to justify imperial expansion, slavery, and colonization). Said notes that this

invention on the exotic East as the “Other”

“helped to define Europe (or the West), as its contrasting image, idea, personality,

experience. Yet none of this Orient is merely imaginative. The Orient is an integral

405 O’Meara and Majid, 122.

406 Ressler, Sullivan, and Buck, “A Molecular Dissection of Spatial Patterning in the Olfactory System.”

407 Davis and Thys-Şenocak, “Heritage and Scent,” 730.

112

part of European material civilization and culture. Orientalism expresses and

represents that part culturally and even ideologically as a mode of discourse with

supporting institutions, vocabulary, scholarship, imagery, doctrines, even colonial

bureaucracies and colonial styles.”408

In relation to the senses in travel literature, this focus on the “Other” results in specifically

chosen sensory details that highlight a different and exotic place. Furthermore, as the elite

spaces of the West became more sanitized and deodorized, the mere presence of a sensory

experience highlighted the feeling of exoticness and otherness. For most Europeans, they

themselves lived a life of the mind, while exotic others lived “a life of the body.”409 In 1923,

England’s premier otolaryngologist, Dr. Dan MacKenzie, wrote Aromatics and the Soul: A

Study of Smells, which covers topics including public health, olfactory memory, and smell in

history and folklore, but also discusses the smell of places. He writes:

But in this matter Western Europe, at its worst—say, in one of the corridor-trains to

Marseilles—is a mountain-top to a pigstye compared with the old and gorgeous East.

‘The East,’ ejaculated an old Scotsman once—‘the East in just a smell! It begins at

Port Said and disna stop till ye come to San Francisco’….Who can ever forget the

bazaar smells of Indian, the mingled must and fust with its background of garlic and

strange vices, or the still more mysterious atmospheres of China with their deep

suggestion of musk? Naturally the air of a cold country is clearer of obnoxious

vapours than the of tropical and sub-tropical climes, but in spite of that, the first whiff

of a Tibetan monastery, like that of an Eskimo hut, grips the throat, they say, like the

air over a brewing vat. So that, after making every allowance for the favour of

Nature, we are still entitled to claim the relative purity of England, and of English

cities, towns and even villages, is an artificial achievement. I may therefore, with

justice, raise a song of praise to our fathers who have had our country thus swept and

garnished, swept of noxious vapours and emanations, and garnished with the perfume

of pure and fresh air, to the delight and invigoration of our souls.410

Mackenzie’s passage perfectly encapsulates the Orientalist point-of-view—the East is both

“old” and “gorgeous,” yet reeks. The overwhelming presence of smells contrasts England’s

superior and pure smellscapes and paints the East as one without leadership or civilized

culture. Most other writers mimic these sentiments, with few exceptions. The smells related

to more elite spaces and groups of people—such as the sultan or the harem—are often

408 Edward W. Said, Orientalism (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2014), 1–2.

409 Classen and Howes, “The Museum as Sensescape: Western Sensibilities and Indigenous Artifacts,” 206.

410 Dan MacKenzie, Aromatics and the Soul: A Study of Smells (W. Heinemann, 1923), 10–11.

113

considered “bad” but certainly still exotic and also sometimes alluring. The flora of exotic

places is typically portrayed as “good”—the cleaner air and fresh scents of flowers and trees

often received praise from travelers.

Similarly, the early nineteenth-century experience of being able to touch and hold

objects from exotic locales allowed Westerners to “vicariously participate in, and confront

their fear of, the supposedly brutal lifestyles of “primitive” peoples.”411 Even as the West

depreciated the East and its savagery and uncivilized behavior, it was still fascinated by a

more sensuous lifestyle. The Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford was created with the specific

intent of showing the evolution of technology, ranging from primitive indigenous cultures to

the modern West. Classen and Howes characterize this intent as “a case of the West…trying

to create a satisfying and self-fulfilling identity for itself through institutional display [rather]

than a meaningful depiction of the cultures of others.”412 Despite the pervading belief that

these artifacts, and the cultures to which they were tied, were backward and uncivilized, the

West still felt the need to “collect” or “rescue” them, thereby acknowledging a value in the

object, if not in its source culture.

Although the use of sensory aspects certainly served certain interests, writers also

included sensory information simply because it was what they noticed and how they

remembered places. Reinarz notes that many travel writers composed “toposmias” of places,

which “located odors in particular places.”413 He further notes that to an extent, other sensory

experiences might be controlled, by acts such as refusing to try food or entering a noisy place,

but odors can often not be avoided, unless “cocooned by the “sanitized, hygienic bubble’ of

an air-conditioned tour bus.”414

411 Classen and Howes, “The Museum as Sensescape: Western Sensibilities and Indigenous Artifacts,” 203.

412 Classen and Howes, 209.

413 Reinarz, Past Scents, 88.

414 Reinarz, 88.

114

Furthermore, tourists are occasionally better suited to report on the smellscapes of a

place, as they are not subject to the habituation effect, which stipulates that repeated exposure

to stimuli often results in less reaction and awareness by our brains.415 It is important to note

that our olfactory receptors continue to perceive habituated smells at the same level, but the

neural response to these smells decreases.416 A 2014 study also reports that more we are

exposed to and become habituated to smells, smells initially reported as “pleasant” deviate to

“neutral” with repeat exposure, while “negative” smells continue to be reported as “negative”

or also deviate slightly towards “neutral.”417 This study contradicts earlier ideas on the topic,

which argued that more familiar smells are reported as “pleasant.”418 While tourists may be

more cognitively aware of smells in a foreign place, as they have not been habituated as

locals may have, tourists cannot convey the cultural significance of the smells. Significantly,

smells recognized as cultural identifiers can, for the local population, counter-act the

habituation effect. A study out of Switzerland showed that when Swiss citizens are primed

(reminded) with their Swiss identity, they rate the intensity of the smell of chocolate higher

than a non-Swiss related smell (in this case, popcorn) and higher than Swiss primed with a

European or individual identity.419 This study highlights that through the priming of a specific

group identity, people become more aware of culturally-significant smells associated with the

group.

415 Richard J. Stevenson and Tuki Attuquayefio, “Human Olfactory Consciousness and Cognition: Its Unusual

Features May Not Result from Unusual Functions but from Limited Neocortical Processing Resources,”

Frontiers in Psychology 4 (November 1, 2013), https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00819; E. Bruce Goldstein,

Encyclopedia of Perception (SAGE, 2010), 676–77.

416 Dipesh Chaudhury et al., “Olfactory Bulb Habituation to Odor Stimuli,” Behavioral Neuroscience 124, no. 4

(August 2010): 490–99, https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020293.

417 Camille Ferdenzi et al., “Repeated Exposure to Odors Induces Affective Habituation of Perception and

Sniffing,” Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 8 (2014): 119, https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00119.

418 J. Douglas Porteous, “Smellscape,” in The Smell Culture Reader, ed. Jim Drobnick (New York: Berg, 2006),

90.

419 Géraldine Coppin et al., “Swiss Identity Smells like Chocolate: Social Identity Shapes Olfactory Judgments,”

Scientific Reports 6 (October 11, 2016), https://doi.org/10.1038/srep34979.

115

Olfactory Projects, Products, and the Digital Future

There is an increasing number of art-historical, cultural heritage, social awareness, and art

projects that are either focused on olfaction or incorporate smell as a significant aspect of

study. While the literature review in this dissertation focuses on the important methodological

and theoretical implications resulting from published academic studies, there have been

numerous projects shared via social media and the web that have not yet been published or

are not academic studies, yet are highly significant in understanding potential opportunities

and pathways for future research on scent. This section provides an overview of these smellrelated

projects and programs.420

Jorge Otero-Pailos, professor and director of historic preservation at Columbia,

organized a project between Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and

Preservation graduate students and the Morgan Library and Museum in New York to

understand the library’s aroma in 1906, whilst J.P. Morgan himself worked there, so that they

could “rethink how to preserve objects in a creative way that reengages people with those

objects.”421 By collaborating with the library curator, a neuroscientist, a master perfumer, and

an organic chemist, they examined objects and spaces using headspace technology. These

objects included the fireplace, a sixteenth-century tapestry, Morgan’s cigars, and books. The

particles captured by the headspace technology were then analyzed with a mass spectrometer.

Otero-Pailos plans to continue with the project, turning the olfactory reconstruction into an

art project that will make the 1906 building less “invisible” to visitors, and, he hopes, develop

a methodology for future research.

McLean works on innovate mapping techniques for smell (Figure 7). She encourages

“mapping the smellwalk in motion” to reveal how “smells have their own subtle and

420 In this section I have purposely not included any museum-related projects; these are covered in Chapter 3.

421 Allison Meier, “Researchers Bury Their Noses in Books to Sniff Out the Morgan Library’s Original Smell,”

Hyperallergic, February 28, 2017, https://hyperallergic.com/360698/smelling-the-old-books-of-the-morganlibrary/.

116

mesmerizing beats, pulses and fades…these rhythms interact intimately with each other, over

a landscape, through the dimensionally of constantly changing atmospheres.”422 McLean has a

smartphone application in Beta development called “Smellscaper,” which would allow users

to record smells at a location, as well as note their intensity, duration, and pleasantness.423

Figure 7: Smell map of Amsterdam designed by Kate McLean.

There has been an increasing number of place-based projects, especially those which

explore scents through art and memory. In Amsterdam, “Odorama: Scent as a Storyteller”

brought together participants for a discussion on the interconnections of scent, memory,

music, and stories. The event’s purpose was to “gather on the crossroad of the different ways

that scents connect to memories, connotations and emotions…. During Odorama their

crossroad will be shared, it is covered with scents, perfumes, odours, music, stories, emotions

422 Kate McLean, “Un-Freezing the Map,” 2017, slide 114.

423 Kate McLean, “Development of the Smellwalk - Methodologies & Tools,” blog, Sensory Maps (blog), April

29, 2016, http://sensorymaps.blogspot.com/2016/04/development-of-smellwalk-methodologies.html.

117

and people.”424 A similar but much larger-scale event occurred in Berlin last year. A 2-month

program of art installations, community programs, and lectures, called Osmodrama, was

created. According to the creators (who built a scent machine called Smeller 2.0),

“Osmodrama is the art of time-based composing and storytelling with scents via Smeller 2.0.

Smeller 2.0 is a functional artwork and electronic medium for the creation, recording and

projection of distinct scent-sequences in collective experience. This opens up a new practice

of olfactory art…”425

Finally, there are several web-based blogs and projects with the aim of disseminating

sensory knowledge. The blog “What Men Should Smell Like” is a lifestyle and cologne

review blog.426 However, the blogger’s travel posts are infused with a deep awareness of scent

rarely invoked in similar travel narratives. The website “Scent Culture News” is a wealth of

information for interesting research and projects related to scent in different ways.427 There is

also an endless number of perfume-related websites and blogs; although clearly scent-related,

projects related to the perfume industry tend to focus on ingredients rather than the larger

sensory environment and are thus not included in this overview.

The increasing permeation of technology into our lives has further increased our

alienation from the sensory world. Mirko Zardini links the sensory world with new digital

technologies, arguing that civilization possesses unparalleled possibilities for communication

and outreach, and the digital world has “amplified” the sensory to such an extreme that we

can no longer “detach.”428 He argues that “the senses constitute not so much a new field of

424 “Odorama: Scent as Storyteller,” Evensi, accessed September 15, 2017, https://www.evensi.nl/odoramascent-

as-storyteller-stichting-mediamatic/197267127. https://www.evensi.nl/odorama-scent-as-storytellerstichting-

mediamatic/197267127.

425 “Osmodrama: Every Breath a New Smell,” Osmodrama, accessed September 15, 2017,

https://osmodrama.com. https://osmodrama.com.

426 Clayton, “What Men Should Smell Like,” What Men Should Smell Like, accessed September 15, 2017,

http://whatmenshouldsmelllike.com. http://whatmenshouldsmelllike.com.

427 Scent Culture Institute, “Scent Culture News,” accessed September 15, 2017, https://scentculture.news/.

https://scentculture.news/.

428 Zardini, Sense of the City: An Alternate Approach to Urbanism.

118

study as a fundamental shift in the mode and media we employ to observe and define our

own fields of study.”429 The digital world excels in, and constantly innovates within, the

realms of vision and sound, although its haptic experience is largely limited to touch-screens.

Digital interfaces certainly do not offer any exposure to taste, although companies are

pushing to enhance eating via digital tools. Examples include an initiative by Samsung,

which encourages restaurants to utilize Virtual Reality so that guests may dine in unique

environments, such as a Tuscan garden or underwater. A more extreme option is offered by a

startup company called Project Nourished, which hopes to take the guilt out of eating

decadent foods by creating a multisensorial experience food experience by printing food with

3D technology using algae and enhancing the eating process with “tools such as a VR headset

to visualise the shape of the food, an Aromatic Diffuser to dissipate the smell of foods, a

Bone Conduction Transducer to mimic the chewing sounds and simulate the texture of the

food, Gyroscopic Utensils to translate the physical movement into virtual reality, and a

Virtual Cocktail Glass to create simulated intoxication.”430

Initial forays of computer science into olfaction has focused on technologies which

could capture and generate smells, the latter often being heralded as an effective way to

increase feelings of immersion in virtual environments. These studies range from specifically

looking at gaming to those hoping to use smell as a training mechanism. For example, Tortell

et al. researched whether exposure to odors in training could help military soldiers perform

better in high-pressure situations.431 This question was tested by pairing scents with a virtual

“game” environment. Test subjects “played” the game and then were tested on their ability to

recall aspects of the virtual environment accurately. Half the tests were completed with the

429 Zardini, 22.

430 Haris Rahmanto, “Eating with All Your Senses: How Digital Technology Can Enhance the Eating

Experience,” accessed March 8, 2017, https://research.rabobank.com/far/en/sectors/consumer-foods/Eatingwith-

all-your-senses-how-digital-technology-can-enhance-the-eating-experience.html.

431 R. Tortell et al., “The Effects of Scent and Game Play Experience on Memory of a Virtual Environment,”

Virtual Reality 11, no. 1 (2007): 61–68.

119

same olfactory conditions as the game, and the other half were completed with no odor

component. The authors hypothesized that those participants who were presented with smells

both during the game and the later recall session would score the highest in terms of recalling

the scene accurately. However, it was the group that experienced the virtual environment

with scent but then answered questions without the scent that was able to recall details the

most accurately. The authors propose that this discrepancy is due to the fact that the scents

made no sense outside the virtual game environment and therefore served as a distraction.

This seems to be in contradiction to most other odor-based memory studies. The authors note

that part of the difference could be that the odors presented in this environment were

particularly “bad” smelling and that the questioning session, which took place right after the

game, did not allow enough time for the memory-smell link to be imprinted.

Olfoto was created by Brewst et al., which allowed users to tag photos and search the

collection via smell.432 The transmission of smell via digital technologies has also been

successful, with the experiment of Ranasinghe et al. and the development of the oPhone,

which allows users to send smell messages.433 In another study, Bodnar and Corbett show that

smell-based notifications were less disruptive than their auditory or visual counterparts (such

as your phone beeping or flashing). Research is consistently showing that when technologies

interact with smell the associations are richer.434 These types of research have led gaming

companies in particular to experiment with technologies and innovative ways to incorporate

odor into the gaming experience.

432 Stephen Brewster, David McGookin, and Christopher Miller, “Olfoto: Designing a Smell-Based Interaction,”

in Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (ACM, 2006), 653–662,

http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1124869.

433 Nimesha Ranasinghe et al., “Digital Taste and Smell Communication,” in Proceedings of the 6th

International Conference on Body Area Networks (ICST (Institute for Computer Sciences, Social-Informatics

and Telecommunications Engineering), 2011), 78–84, http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2318795.

434 Marianna Obrist, Alexandre N. Tuch, and Kasper Hornbaek, “Opportunities for Odor: Experiences with

Smell and Implications for Technology,” in Proceedings of the 32nd Annual ACM Conference on Human

Factors in Computing Systems (ACM, 2014), 2843–2852, http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2557008.

120

Tortell et al. note that being in a virtual environment involves an actual shift away

from a person’s physical location and attention being driven to the “consistent set of sensory

stimuli presented as a virtual location.”435 It has been theorized that introducing smell into that

virtual environment would heighten a person’s sense of “place” within it. This concept of

having the “right” sets of sensory stimuli paired together is reinforced by research from other

disciplines, including psychology and marketing.436 Furthermore, including synesthetic

associations, especially those color associations that seem more consistently experienced by a

wide range of people, may help increase this awareness of place by effectively tying the

visual to the other senses.

At the time of writing this dissertation—summer 2017—within the realm of cultural

heritage and museums, there is a growing recognition of museum visitors as embodied and

active participants, both in digital environments and outside of these.437 Not much is clear,

especially how the digital can engender emotional or sensorial experiences that augment the

learning processes within museum spaces. Damala et al. acknowledge that “we know

surprisingly little about interactive Cultural Heritage experiences intending to promote a

positive emotional reaction.”438 New technologies, such as Augmented Reality (AR) and

Virtual Reality (VR) are constantly evolving thanks to excessive interest and funding in

Silicon Valley, making most cultural heritage projects and experiments quickly obsolete.

Projects that simply use these technologies to augment—such as using AR to display a color

435 Tortell et al., “The Effects of Scent and Game Play Experience on Memory of a Virtual Environment,” 62.

436 Mattila and Wirtz, “Congruency of Scent and Music as a Driver of In-Store Evaluations and Behavior.”

437 Kirsten Drotner and Kim Christian Schrøder, Museum Communication and Social Media: The Connected

Museum, vol. 6 (Routledge, 2014); Ross Parry, Museums in a Digital Age (Routledge, 2010); Jenny Kidd, “With

New Eyes I See: Embodiment, Empathy and Silence in Digital Heritage Interpretation,” International Journal of

Heritage Studies, 2017, 1–13, https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2017.1341946; Andrea Witcomb, “The

Materiality of Virtual Technologies: A New Approach to Thinking about the Impact of Multimedia in

Museums,” in Theorizing Digital Cultural Heritage: A Critical Discourse, ed. Fiona Cameron and Sarah

Kenderdine (Media in Transition series. Cambridge and London: MIT Press, 2007), 35–48.

438 A. Damala et al., “Exploring the Affective Museum Visiting Experience: Adaptive Augmented Reality

(A2R) and Cultural Heritage,” International Journal of Heritage in the Digital Era 2, no. 1 (March 1, 2013):

124, https://doi.org/10.1260/2047-4970.2.1.117.

121

overlay of an ancient Roman marble—help establish a standard method for museums to share

information in an exciting and accessible manner. As new technologies arrive, these

standards can be updated and deepened. How can these digital technologies be used to build a

more affective, empathetic, or meaningful experience for visitors? Such a process would

likely involve the intersection of the digital and the senses. Kidd suggests that rather than

incorporating sensory aspects into the digital environments, we should be making the new

virtual worlds respond to the already existing sensory environment.439 By augmenting and

responding to the real world, Damala et al. argue that we can create a “truly multisensory,

embodied, and tangible museum visiting experience.”440 One of the successful examples of

this type of collaboration is the recent With New Eyes I See (WNEIS) project, a collaboration

between Cardiff University, street gaming and story company yello brick, and the National

Museum Wales.441 The project allows visitors to discover (and, at times, create) the story of

Cyril Mortimer, a botanist at the museum who left to fight in WWI and never returned. The

project took place at Cathays Park in Cardiff at dusk. Visitors would work in groups and take

a flashlight around the park (encased inside the flashlight were a speaker, a smartphone, a

projector, and an RFID technology) to piece together the narrative of his life and time at war.

The project focused specifically on engendering empathy and visitors were surveyed on the

subject at the end. The research team found that “embodied and tangible digital heritage

encounters can be created from loose fragments and in outdoor environments that might

themselves be considered challenging.”442 Additionally, this experience drastically altered

439 Kidd, “With New Eyes I See: Embodiment, Empathy and Silence in Digital Heritage Interpretation,” 3.

440 Areti Damala et al., “Evaluating Tangible and Multisensory Museum Visiting Experiences: Lessons Learned

from the MeSch Project” (Museums and the Web, Los Angeles, 2016),

http://mw2016.museumsandtheweb.com/paper/evaluating-tangible-and-multisensory-museum-visitingexperiences-

lessons-learned-from-the-mesch-project/.

441 yello brick, “About,” yello brick, 2017, http://yellobrick.co.uk/. http://yellobrick.co.uk/.

442 Kidd, “With New Eyes I See: Embodiment, Empathy and Silence in Digital Heritage Interpretation,” 11.

122

participants relationship with the setting—a park many pass through on a daily basis—and

also altered their assumptions about what museums are.443

Another innovative project that attempted to bring the digital to the sensorial was the

Living Water project in Australia. It focused on the Georges Rivers as a “vehicle of

knowledge and catalyst for change” and utilized sensorial knowledge to explore how

“mobility and resilience can sustain a place’s diverse and unique heritage through the

appropriation of new media tools for creative expression and by giving voice to the

communities’ multiple interpretations of the river’s history and culture.”444 Unfortunately,

beyond Veronesi’s article on the project, little documentation remains as the website which

stored the interactive mapping and the AR applications are no longer active and there are no

other records available online.

Recent research conducted by Bordegoni et al. at Politecnico di Milano examined

how odors can affect digital learning environments.445 There is almost no existing research

that measures the impact of odors on the experience of reading and learning in the framework

and by the metrics utilized by the authors. Although there is plenty of research on scent and

emotions, scent and learning, and even scent and human-computer interaction (HCI), this

paper combines these topics in a new way. This paper examines the potential effects of odor

on the experience of reading and learning. The authors test their hypotheses—that presenting

odors while reading can create a more engaging environment and that the introduction of

odors can increase learning performance—through a series of experiments that included

reading and learning exercises both with and without scents. The authors measured the

443 Kidd, 11.

444 Francesca Veronesi, “Curating the Sensorial: Digital Mediation and Social Engagement with Place, Objects

and Intangible Heritage,” in Collecting the Contemporary: Recording the Present for the Future, ed. Owain

Rhys and Zelda Baveystock (Edinburgh: MuseumsEtc, 2014), 421,

http://www.academia.edu/20056677/Curating_the_sensorial_digital_mediation_and_social_engagement_with_p

lace_objects_and_intangible_heritage.

445 Monica Bordegoni et al., “Investigating the Effects of Odour Integration in Reading and Learning

Experiences,” Interaction Design and Architecture(s) Journal, no. 32 (2017): 104–25.

123

participants’ physiological data and conducted a post-experiment questionnaire and test. They

concluded that scents can make reading and learning more immersive and pleasant and that

odors do appear to have a small effect on learning performance.

The project Mapping Memory Routes was created under the auspices of the

ALDATERRA Projects with the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Centre for Critical

Heritage Studies and Politecnico di Milano.446 This project presented the lived heritage of

Moroccan migrants by creating a shared, interactive, and multisensorial map of Golborne

Street in Little Morocco, an area now undergoing gentrification which is forcing many

Moroccan families and businesses to leave. Rather than taking place on the actual street,

these projects worked using a model of the street which has symbolic objects positioned on it.

Visitors scan the model for markers, which then play videos or stories created by the

community; the model also emitted smell through a specially-designed hardware attachment.

It is unfortunate that the project was only done on a small scale rather than on the street itself.

Nevertheless, the project is one of the few to experiment with augmenting a visual experience

with fabricated olfactory elements.

Although it is certain that an embodied approach to heritage, and life in general,

engenders a more meaningful lived experience, the new digital age in which we live creates

both possibilities and uncertainties. We are only beginning to comprehend what a life filled

with visual-based augmented and virtual reality might mean for ways of bodily

understanding. However, we can perhaps look to the senses to help mediate and guide these

new experiences, both in our lives and in cultural heritage spaces.

446 Alda Terracciano et al., “Mapping Memory Routes: A Multisensory Interface for Sensorial Urbanism and

Critical Heritage Studies,” in Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors

in Computing Systems, CHI EA ’17 (New York, NY, USA: ACM, 2017), 353–356,

https://doi.org/10.1145/3027063.3052958.

124

Chapter 3: Aromatic Exhibitions

This chapter examines and evaluates my exhibition “Scent and the City,” held at Koç

University’s Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations, April 14 to June 8, 2016. There is

no standard evaluation for exhibitions; many museums develop their own processes and

templates. I therefore created my own evaluation report format, loosely based on guidelines

from Beverly Serrell, the National Association for Museum Exhibition, East of England

Museum Hub, and the Museum Planner service, as well as several example reports from the

US National Park Service, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Australian

Museum.447 Exhibition evaluations are done in several stages throughout the exhibition

process. Generally accepted practice involves four separate evaluations: front-end, formative,

remedial, and summative.

The first section of this chapter contains a literature review of research related to

creating interactive, sensory exhibitions. The second section explains the design, content, and

activities of “Scent and the City” in detail. Finally, the third section of this chapter is

dedicated to the final summative evaluation report, in which I have written a critique of

“Scent and the City,” incorporating many of the questions and guidelines from the standards

listed above.

447 Beverly Serrell, Exhibit Labels: An Interpretive Approach (Rowman Altamira, 1996); National Association

for Museum Exhibition, “Standards,” American Alliance of Museums, accessed December 30, 2016,

http://name-aam.org/about/who-we-are/standards; Harriet Foster, “Evaluation Toolkit for Museum Practioners”

(Norwich: East of England Museum Hub, 2008), http://visitors.org.uk/wpcontent/

uploads/2014/08/ShareSE_Evaltoolkit.pdf; Mark Walhimer, “Museum Exhibition Design, Part VI,”

Museum Planner (blog), July 10, 2012, https://museumplanner.org/museum-exhibition-design-part-vi/; Theresa

G. Coble et al., “Transforming History, Creating a Legacy: An Evaluation of Exhibit Effectiveness at Little

Rock Central High School National Historic Site” (Little Rock, Arkansas: National Park Service, September

2010); Rockman et al, “Brain: The Inside Story” (New York, NY: American Museum of Natural History, June

2011), https://www.amnh.org/content/download/2033/.../evaluation_exhibition_brain.pdf; Lynda Kelly,

“Dinosaur Unearthed Summative Evaluation Report” (Sydney, Australia: Australian Museum, 2006),

https://australianmuseum.net.au/document/dinosaur-unearthed-summative-evaluation-report.

125

Part 1: Creative Museums and Sensory Interaction

In the museum world, constructivism is an important learning theory which posits that

visitors construct their own knowledge.448 Critical to this theory of learning in the museum

world is the concept of a visitor-centric model. Interaction, rather than passive reception,

once a new, slightly risky yet creative strategy, is now the accepted, and expected, norm.449

According to constructivist museological practice, every cultural exhibition is not a mere

display of artifacts, but rather a joint enterprise that is made meaningful for both the

producers or exhibitors and the audience or viewers. On the consumption side, visitors are

actively engaged in the construction of heritage and memory and they become co-creators of

social meaning.450

The history of sensory interactions within museum spaces is complex. Although not

often referred to as “museums,” per se, the cabinets of curiosity of sixteenth and seventeenth

centuries, as well as the opening of the Ashmolean Museum signified the importance of

collecting and displaying objects.451 These early institutions were not normally open to the

public, although those privileged enough were able to access the collections. Accounts from

the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries at the Ashmolean Museum and the British Museum

attest that not only were some visitors able to access these collections, interaction with

objects was permitted.452 The patterns of wear and tear on many eighteenth-century museum

objects illustrate an interaction that included touching, smelling, and even tasting. Gradually,

448 Andrea Witcomb, “Interactivity: Thinking Beyond,” in A Companion to Museum Studies, ed. Sharon

MacDonald (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), 353–61.

449 Timothy Ambrose and Crispin Paine, “Museum Basics,” in Museum Basics, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge,

2006), 18–19.

450 Athinodoros Chronis, “Constructing Heritage at the Gettysburg Storyscape,” Annals of Tourism Research 32,

no. 2 (2005): 387–407; S. Crew and J. Sims, “Locating Authenticity: Fragments of a Dialogue,” in Exhibiting

Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display, ed. Ivan Karp and Steven Lavine (Washington, D.C.:

Smithsonian Institute Press, 1991), 159–75.

451 Geoffrey D. Lewis, “History of Museums,” Encyclopedia Britannica, September 25, 2000,

https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-museums-398827; Oliver Impey and Arthur Macgregor, eds., The

Origins of Museums: The Cabinet of Curiosities in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Europe (Ashmolean

Museum, 2017).

452 Classen and Howes, “The Museum as Sensescape: Western Sensibilities and Indigenous Artifacts,” 201–2.

126

however, in the mid-nineteenth century, due to changing societal rules of decorum, and

preservation concerns, the interaction between object and visitor shifted to a primarily visual

experience.453 All the other senses, when used to understand cultural objects, were thought of

as childish and primitive and antagonistic to the “civilized” museum world.454

It was not until the twentieth century that museums began to express an interest in the

larger public and increasing their visitor numbers. No longer just for society’s elites, people

from varying ages, socio-economic groups, and cultures walked through museum doors.

Financial concerns certainly stimulated part of this renovation, but the mission of many

museums gradually changed from simply displaying items to making collections meaningful,

understandable, and accessible. This transformation motivated creative practices in the

museum setting and more research about visitor needs and wants. There is no short answer to

the question of what visitors want, but several trends emerged, namely the desire for a more

intimate, individual relationship with the collections, objects, and narrative. Visitors prefer

activity and interactivity, to be stimulated, but also to be told a great story.455

This new focus on the interactivity of the visitor opens a useful path to sensorial

studies. In “Interactivity: Thinking Beyond,” Andrea Whitcomb laments that typically the

“understanding is that interactivity seems to be generally understood as a process that can be

453 Classen and Howes, 208.

454 Classen and Howes, 207.

455 Chieh-Wen Sheng and Ming-Chia Chen, “A Study of Experience Expectations of Museum Visitors,”

Tourism Management 33, no. 1 (February 1, 2012): 53–60, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2011.01.023; GSM

Project, “Actively Engaging Museum Visitors & Why It Matters,” September 26, 2016,

https://gsmproject.com/en/journal/article/actively-engaging-museum-visitors-and-why-it-matters/; Leslie

Bedford, “Storytelling: The Real Work of Museums,” Curator: The Museum Journal 44, no. 1 (January 1,

2001): 27–34, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2151-6952.2001.tb00027.x; Michael Danks et al., “Interactive

Storytelling and Gaming Environments for Museums: The Interactive Storytelling Exhibition Project,” in

Technologies for E-Learning and Digital Entertainment, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (International

Conference on Technologies for E-Learning and Digital Entertainment, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2007),

104–15, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-73011-8_13; Eilean Hooper-Greenhill, “Changing Values in the Art

Museum: Rethinking Communication and Learning,” International Journal of Heritage Studies 6, no. 1

(January 1, 2000): 9–31, https://doi.org/10.1080/135272500363715; Graham Black, The Engaging Museum:

Developing Museums for Visitor Involvement (Psychology Press, 2005); E. Arnold Modlin, Derek H. Alderman,

and Glenn W. Gentry, “Tour Guides as Creators of Empathy: The Role of Affective Inequality in Marginalizing

the Enslaved at Plantation House Museums,” Tourist Studies 11, no. 1 (April 1, 2011): 3–19,

https://doi.org/10.1177/1468797611412007.

127

added to an already existing display and that most often involves some form of computerized

technology.”456 Rather, she argues, that dialogue through a constructivist approach should be

the basis for interactivity. This is not to say that museums should not include new digital

technologies or haptic experiences. However, the process should move beyond simply

pressing a button to create a place where visitors can contribute and take away their own

meaning. Wood and Latham argue in their article “The Thickness of Things: Exploring the

Curriculum of Museums through Phenomenological Touch,” that “the museum functions as a

phenomenological text that stimulates the senses through acts of perception, memory, and

consciousness” and that a more “holistic” approach which includes all the senses would

greatly benefit both museum education and experience.457 Museums have begun to

experiment with giving visitors the chance to touch objects again, but, as Wood and Latham

argue, it is rare to discover the object; rather the emphasis is on using the object to teach

another subject.458 However, specialists in museum engagement and visitor studies

consistently argue that “it is only through the object-subject engagement that the material

artefact or specimen becomes real at all.”459 Being in, and experiencing the world, is centered,

therefore, on physical engagement. Chronis also argues that life is fleshed out in the

audience’s imagination only because it is grounded in the materiality of objects; the object is

necessary to the embodied experience in the museum.460

Naumova, writing specifically on living history museums, with Mackenzie House

Museum in Toronto as her example, argues that these types of museums should be considered

“sensory spaces.”461 Building on McLuhan’s notion of “visual” and “acoustic” spaces as

456 Witcomb, “Interactivity: Thinking Beyond,” 354.

457 Elizabeth Wood and Kiersten Latham, “The Thickness of Things: Exploring the Curriculum of Museums

through Phenomenological Touch,” Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, January 1, 2011, 51.

458 Wood and Latham, 56.

459 Dudley, “Museum Materialities,” 5.

460 Chronis, “Heritage of the Senses,” 290.

461 Naumova, “‘Touching’ the Past,” 2.

128

flexible, Naumova proposes that there are changing spheres both constructed through and

composed of our senses.462 Naumova finds living history museums particularly well-suited to

sensory experiences, as she notes that traditional historical museums are rather designed to

“subdue all other senses” so that visitors may focus on the material culture while the goal of

living history museums is to “recreate that indefinable “sense” or “aura” of the time period”

and can allow methods of direct interaction with (certain) objects. Naumova, also building off

Merleau-Ponty’s pioneering work on phenomenology,463 borrows Wood and Latham’s notion

of the “phenomenological touch,” which, for museums, “denotes a lived experience of

touching a physical object as a form of the coming together of a person and an object” and

“moves the past into the domain of immediacy, translating stories of the seemingly remote

and inaccessible past into a lived and, at times, highly intimate experience of the present.” 464

This last point, i.e. bringing the past into the present, is highly relevant to how museums need

to function, as is it often through our own lived experiences that we construct meanings for

objects of the past. Traditional museums have still not embraced this idea of the

“phenomenological curriculum,” but, as Naumova argues, they can learn from living history

museums, which already draw on these lived experiences. Furthermore, she notes, when

working within a sensory sphere, “the first level of interaction is always the emotional

one….one examines what it feels like to be there first, and attempts to rationalize these

sensations second. Living museums, then, facilitate a range of learning experiences that

originate at the “roots’ of perception.”465 Naumova also applies Freud’s theory of “primary

process” to the experience of visitors in a living heritage museum, the state of which allows

462 M. McLuhan and Quentin Fiore, “Medium Is the Message: An Inventory of Effects” (Corte Madera: Ginko

Press Inc., 2001); M. McLuhan, “Acoustic Space,” in Media Research: Technology, Art, Communication, ed.

Michael A. Moos (Amsterdam: G & B Arts, 1997), 39–44; Naumova, “‘Touching’ the Past,” 2.

463 Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception; Wood and Latham, “The Thickness of Things”; Naumova, “‘

Touching’ the Past,” 3.

464 Naumova, “‘Touching’ the Past,” 2.

465 Naumova, 5.

129

them to approach a collection and learning in a state of “wide awareness,” which,

significantly, can unconsciously allow us to understand ourselves better and remove

traditional barriers, such as time, in our minds.466

The museum visitor is now understood as an “embodied and active agent.”467 Rather

than just creating an informative display, museums need to consider that visitors themselves

bring not just their cultural understandings and contexts, but bodies that, Luigina Ciolfi

argues, require “a consideration for the body and the senses, the physical environment, and

the social world” in which visitors can become “situated.”468 Museums that intend to function

not just as places of learning, but spaces of empathy, are particularly well-situated for a

sensory, embodied intervention. In Gokciğdem’s recent edited volume on empathy in

museums, she argues that museums are ideal institutions for building empathy.469 They

already excel at presenting other cultures and times, but they can also serve as “safe spaces”

for visitors to encounter their own culture, including “collective behavior, knowledge,

complex histories, and values.”470 Neuroscientist Paul Zak states that telling stories—the

mission of and medium by which most museums function—has further been shown to be an

excellent approach to increase empathy.471 Furthermore, Gokciğdem argues that museums are

good for building empathy because they incorporate experiential learning, promote awe and

wonder, and provide space for contemplation.472

466 Naumova, 5.

467 Kidd, “With New Eyes I See: Embodiment, Empathy and Silence in Digital Heritage Interpretation,” 2.

468 Luigina Ciolfi, “Embodiment and Place Experienced in Heritage Technology Design,” in The International

Handbook of Museum Studies: Museum Media (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2015), 420.

469 Elif M. Gokciğdem, ed., “Introduction,” in Fostering Empathy Through Museums (Rowman & Littlefield,

2016), xix–xxxii; Elif M. Gokciğdem, “Five Ways Museums Can Increase Empathy in the World,” Greater

Good Magazine, January 9, 2017,

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/five_ways_museums_can_increase_empathy_in_the_world.

470 Gokciğdem, “Introduction,” xx.

471 Zak, Empathy, Neurochemistry, and the Dramatic Arc: Paul Zak at the Future of StoryTelling 2012, n.d.,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1a7tiA1Qzo.

472 Gokciğdem, “Five Ways Museums Can Increase Empathy in the World.”

130

With this new focus on interaction, embodiment, phenomenology, and empathy in

museums, it becomes useful to consider the potential role of the senses. Smell is the most

powerful sense for evoking communal and individual memories and emotions. An exhibition

focused on historic or present smellscapes would provide an excellent platform for dialogue

and individual meaning-making while also providing the museum with the possibility of a

richer narratives.

The utilization of smell and other sensory components as interactive elements in an

exhibition raises practical questions about implementation and logistics. Rich argues in her

article on collecting and curating sound in London’s Science Museum that curating sound

poses particular challenges, some of which are similar to other multi-sensory museum

experiences, while others are unique to sound.473 Traditional museum scholarship says that,

unlike touch, which was a significant aspect of early nineteenth-century museum visits, sound

has never been a natural component of museums.474 Tony Bennett notes that museums

frequently viewed sound as a source of “interference” and “disturbance” that negatively

impacted communication.475 However, Rich shows that sound displays have been an active

part of the Science Museum since the 1920s and that the only “failure” of sound in museums

is the “unwillingness of sound to conform to visual regimes of governing knowledge and

conduct in the museum.”476

Furthermore, bringing the sensorial world into museums has larger theoretical

implications. Foucault’s concept of discursive environments, as discussed by Penz, says that

museums and other institutions already have these hidden structures of knowledge in which

473 Dr Jennifer Rich, “Acoustics on Display,” Science Museum Group Journal 7, no. 07 (2017),

https://doi.org/10.15180/170706.

474 Constance Classen, “Museum Manners: The Sensory Life of the Early Museum,” Journal of Social History

40, no. 4 (July 1, 2007): 895–914; Classen and Howes, “The Museum as Sensescape: Western Sensibilities and

Indigenous Artifacts.”

475 Tony Bennett, The Birth of the Museum: History, Theory, Politics (Routledge, 1995).

476 Rich, “Acoustics on Display,” n.p.

131

the visual is grounded and prioritized.477 Museums should try to reveal these hidden arenas of

power and knowledge. Although not entirely possible or practical, an emphasis on the entire

sensory experience helps reveal some of the layers of the hidden structures behind the visual.

Penz argues, for example, that cinema can “augment and challenge these static organizations

of objects,” a concept which can easily be extended to the entire sensorial spectrum.478

Cinema takes one sense, sight, explores limits, and builds on the experience through sound.

Approaching objects and history through smell can produce similar results.

Finally, a significant aspect of the museum world is the much-discussed “aura” and

“experience” of seeing objects. Walter Benjamin, in his classic Work of Art in the Age of

Mechanical Reproduction, contends that although we can reproduce the art, we cannot

reproduce the experience.479 By reducing art to its (visual) reproduction, Benjamin argues that

we lose the experience. Experiencing an object means more than just looking—it means

taking in the environment, your emotions, your state of mind, other visitors, everything.480

The sensory environment is just as important, if not more so, than the visual. Penz quotes

Picasso’s famous “I can’t paint a tree, but I can paint the feeling you have when you look at a

tree,” highlighting that sometimes the direct, literal, visual method is not the most important

aspect of art.481

While the incorporation of smell and the senses into museum exhibitions is relatively

new, there are several interesting examples of smell-centric museum exhibitions. Starting in

the mid-1990’s, some European cultural institutions experimented with creating temporary

sensory exhibitions. These include the Federal Exhibition Hall in Bonn, whose exhibition

477 Francois Penz, “Museums as Laboratories of Change: The Case for the Moving Image,” in Film, Art, New

Media: Museum Without Walls?, ed. Angela Dalle Vacche (Houndsmills, NY: Palgrave MacMillan, 2012),

278–300.

478 Penz, 284.

479 Walter Benjamin, Illuminations (Random House, 2015).

480 Will Gompertz, “Too Famous to See?,” BBC News, May 21, 2013, sec. Entertainment & Arts,

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-22595987.

481 Penz, “Museums as Laboratories of Change: The Case for the Moving Image,” 283.

132

“The Sense of the Senses” debuted in 1997, the Basel Museum of Design’s “Aroma, Aroma”

and “Touch Me” exhibitions in 1995 and 1996, and the Palais de la Découverte’s “Theatre

des Sens” in 1998. Since then, the trend of using scent in museum exhibitions has spread to

other parts of the world. Most smell-related exhibitions can broadly be broken down into

three categories: those which focus exclusively on scents (typically perfumes), those which

utilize scent to add historical intrigue, and those which use scent as a method to explore art.

The Jorvik Viking Centre in York, England showcases a completely reconstructed

Viking village. In order to provide visitors with a more realistic experience, the museum has

strategically incorporated scents such as roast beef, apples, fish, and cesspits to give the

visitor a better “feel” and sense of the village.482 Visitors encounter the smells and sounds as

part of a ride through the village; they are not given the opportunity to explore this section at

their own pace. The major problem with these types of historical scent exhibitions is that they

do not provide sufficient context. Mark Smith posits that even although we smell what the

Vikings smelled, we do not experience it like they did.483 It is only by putting historical smells

into specific contexts that we can actually create meaning for the visitors.484

Other exhibitions use smell to augment visitors’ interactions with materials. The

Museum of Spirits in Stockholm, Sweden states in its promotional material that it focuses on

“the Swedish people’s bittersweet relationship to alcohol. The museum exhibitions will take

you on an unforgettable journey from pain to pleasure, from park bench to cocktail party,

based on art, scenery, experience, scents, and tastes…”485 During my visit in December 2013,

482 Stephanie Weaver, Creating Great Visitor Experiences: A Guide For Museums, Parks, Zoos, Gardens, and

Libraries (Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press, 2007), 109.

483 As cited in Courtney Humphries, “A Whiff of History,” Boston.Com, July 17, 2017,

http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2011/07/17/a_whiff_of_history/.

484 A good example of this is the smell of wintergreen/mint-related scents. In the US, variations of the smell are

part of toothpaste, but mint ice cream and mint tea are quite popular. For the World War II generation of the

UK, however, that smell evokes sickness. It was used as medicine and to treat wounds during the war. Simply

presenting the smell of wintergreen is meaningless; the context provides meaning.

485 Spritmuseum, “About the Museum,” Spritmuseum, accessed July 15, 2016, https://spritmuseum.se/en/aboutspritmuseum/.

133

a special exhibition invited visitors to smell various scenes associated nightclubs, including

stale beer, a bathroom, and smoke. Throughout the regular exhibition, smell was incorporated

into displays about the raw ingredients that go into making alcohol.

Some museums and exhibitions incorporate smell to a lesser degree. In the

Amsterdam City Museum’s Amsterdam DNA exhibition introduces visitors to the history of

the city, including a small cabinet with see-through drawers. Visitors can peer in, see the

objects, and pull the drawer out to smell them. This particular component highlighted the

(wonderfully smelling) organic goods that the Dutch imported, including items such as

cinnamon, nutmeg, and flowers. The Bible Museum in Amsterdam uses similar technology;

there are large chests with drawers you can pull out to smell various substances important in

the Bible (such as frankincense).

Museum Tinguely in Basel, Switzerland, hosted an exhibition in Spring 2015 called

“The Scent of Art,” which asks questions such as “What happens when our nose suddenly

plays the principal role in the experiencing of art? How does art smell? Can scents and the

various areas of our lives that are influenced by them be of use as a medium of artistic

expression and creativity?” The exhibition itself is a collection of artworks from the past

twenty years which utilize scent in some way. It includes art from noted smell artist Sissel

Tolaas, who has created numerous exhibitions that explore how society reacts to odors. One

of her most evocative pieces, The Smell of FEAR, exhibited at the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology, took synthesized human sweat pheromones from 9 men and added them to the

wall paint. Visitors wandered around, sniffing the walls in this new version of “scratch and

sniff” technology.

The museum world has only recently begun to explore the artistic possibilities of

smell. Although some famous artists have been working with smell for years, it was not until

November 2012 that a museum exhibition opened which was dedicated to the artistic nature

134

of perfume: the New York Museum of Arts and Design’s “The Art of Scent, 1889–2012.”

Curated by Chandler Burr, journalist and author of two books about the perfume industry,

this museum exhibition is dedicated to exploring the design and aesthetics of olfactory art

through perfume. In stark contrast to the Jorvik Viking Cultural Center, this exhibition has no

objects and no scenery. Using extremely minimalist décor, the walls were stark white, with

delicately carved out areas from which smell emanate. In order to keep the walls bare, all

exhibition text, including the instructions, is projected on to the floor. In an interview for the

New York Times, the exhibition designer, Liz Diller, a partner in design company Diller

Scofidio & Renfro, re-affirmed this mission, saying “We really wanted to suck everything out

of that place except the scent.”486 The exhibition explored the artistic creation of twelve

perfumes, chosen not necessarily because they are the “best” perfumes of all time, but

because they are the quintessential examples of different schools of artistic olfaction. To

encourage interaction, the exhibition ended in a special room where all twelve perfumes are

displayed in shallow glass dishes with blotters. This gave visitors more time to experience the

fragrances. Visitors could then choose an adjective and noun to describe the perfume, which

were instantly uploaded to a computer and projected on to a screen.

In the past decade, an exciting trend of multi-sensory exhibitions has re-emerged. In

2006, MIT hosted an exhibition called “Sensorium: Embodied Experience, Technology, and

Contemporary Art,” which explored the relationship between body and technology (a topic

that is returning forcefully as digital technologies develop). In 2014, the Singapore Art

Museum launched “Sensorium 360: Contemporary Art and the Sensed World,” which

“reveals the complexity of the human senses, and explores how sensory experiences locate us

486 Carol Kino, “‘The Art of Scent’ at the Museum of Arts and Design,” The New York Times, November 15,

2012, sec. Art & Design, https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/16/arts/design/the-art-of-scent-at-the-museum-ofarts-

and-design.html.

135

in understanding the world and knowing the self.”487 Tate Britain opened an exhibition in late

summer 2015 called Tate Sensorium, which used technology to create sensory experiences

with specific artwork. They collaborated with noted perfume researcher and event planner

Odette Toilette (who also led fragranced tours of the pre-Raphaelite painters at Tate

Britain).488

Looking specifically at scent and place, the Helsinki Museum opened “Smell” from

October 2016–October 2017. The museum asked its customer panel about the smells of

Helsinki and used those responses to design the exhibition. The exhibition is free from most

other stimuli and is instead a calming environment for visitors to ponder. Each week featured

a different Helsinki-related scent and at the end of the exhibition there was a room for visitors

to leave a record of their thoughts and memories. In the promotional material, the museum

notes that “in many museums, scents have been used as a part of an exhibition or work of art,

but Smell tests whether a museum exhibition can be built entirely on one smell.”489

Finally, scent and sensory exhibitions are a particularly welcome addition in the

sphere of disability access. Scent and the senses provided an avenue for those with visual

impairments or other disabilities to connect with and create art. The Royal National of Blind

People in England held an exhibition called “Scents and Sensibility” in 2011 which featured

art by sight loss artists, inspired by scent.

Some scholars do question how authentic any smell-based exhibition can be. Both

Drobnick and Bembibre and Strlič worry about the risk of manipulation with “synthesized”

scents that are used in most museum exhibitions, as opposed to the natural source material.490

487 “Sensorium 360°: Contemporary Art and the Sensed World,” Singapore Art & Gallery Guide | Art Events &

Exhibitions in Singapore, September 21, 2014, http://sagg.info/sensorium-360-contemporary-art-and-thesensed-

world/.

488 Lizzie Ostrom, “Odette Toilette,” Odette Toilette: Purveyor of Olfactory Adventures, 2016,

http://www.odettetoilette.com/.

489 “Smell,” Helsinki City Museum, accessed September 17, 2017,

http://www.helsinginkaupunginmuseo.fi/en/exhibitions/smell/.

490 Jim Drobnick, “Towards an Olfactory Art History: The Mingled, Fatal, and Rejuvenating Perfumes of Paul

Gaugin,” Senses and Society 7, no. 2 (2012): 196–208; Bembibre and Strlič, “Smell of Heritage.”

136

Unfortunately, due to our lack of understanding about how smells are really produced and a

lack of recording equipment capable of capturing every component of smell, it is logistically

and scientifically impossible to solve this problem at the moment. One method of

compromise, however, is to always state the identity of the perfumer or artist creating the

scents, so that the visitors clearly understand that the smells they are experiencing are

(re)creations.

Much of sensory museum theory is being organized around the idea that artifacts, and

their associative values, have meaning and can generate a sensory relationship. Classen and

Howes argue that the complex web of the senses, artifacts, and values is broken once the

object is taken from its home and put into the visually-oriented museum.491 Chronis, however,

builds his entire argument on the phenomenological experience that comes from interacting

with objects in daily life, which then allows those who are familiar with the objects to have

sensory encounters via the objects in heritage spaces. Wood and Latham, furthermore,

develop the concept of the phenomenological touch to guide museums to create a more

sensuous relationship with visitors via objects.492 Naumova’s passionate argument on the

suitability (even necessity) of living history museums to evolve into a more sensuous

environment for visitors is again predicated on the object-visitor relationship.493 All these

researchers advocate a more intimate and personal relationship with objects which will

engender a constructivist learning zone and potentials for meaning-making among visitors.

Very few curators or scholars working on scent have considered how a museum could

actually organize itself around a sense other than sight (or touch), especially a collection

centered around a non-dominant sense and without objects.

491 Classen and Howes, “The Museum as Sensescape: Western Sensibilities and Indigenous Artifacts,” 200.

492 Wood and Latham, “The Thickness of Things.”

493 Naumova, “‘Touching’ the Past.”

137

Part 2: “Scent and the City”

What was the purpose of the exhibition? What needs did it fill?

The starting point for this exhibition was the reality that many museums, especially in

Turkey, continue to be very academic and the interpretive strategies are text heavy.

Unfortunately, this approach is rather restrictive and can be off-putting for potential visitors.

How could the museum experience be opened to a wider audience? Could there be a way to

strike a balance between text and experience or other forms of literacy? “Scent and the City”

was an exhibition inspired by other museums and galleries which have incorporated or

focused on scent in some ways, such as the Jorvik Viking Cultural Center smell ride and the

Museum of Art and Design’s “The Art of Scent.” The aim of “Scent and the City” was to be a

historical exhibition which introduced the idea of scent as heritage and to increase the

awareness of visitors to the importance of scent—scientifically, historically, culturally, and

emotionally.

The exhibition aimed to fulfill the needs and mission of the venue, the Koç University

Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations, which included: 1) presenting exhibitions which

fit within their mission 2) being an academic space that is still available to the public 3)

increasing brand awareness, and 4) bringing visitors through the door and have them come

back again.494 The exhibition was also organized to meet the needs of this doctoral research

project, which included: 1) gathering more data on what visitors think about the smells of

Istanbul 2) measuring the effectiveness of such an exhibition on awareness 3) investigating

how to create a fun and engaging exhibition based on smell 4) gathering data that can be

analyzed against other forms of research and 5) assessing the viability of putting the senses

into exhibitions.

Design, Layout, and Content

494 “ANAMED,” accessed September 17, 2017, https://anamed.ku.edu.tr/en.

138

The exhibition was designed by the company PATTU, run by Cem Kozar and Işıl Ünal. The

space allocated for the exhibition consisted of a lobby, an ante-chamber, and a large room for

exhibitions, the latter of which was a total of 166 meters squared (Appendix A, Plate 1). The

building’s lobby was the introduction space for the exhibition. Large banners and window

stickers advertising the exhibition welcomed visitors into the space (Appendix A, Plates 2–4).

The exhibition began (and ended) with a 2-meter by 1-meter interactive map of Istanbul

which invited participants to indicate what scents they associated with the different places of

the city (Appendix A, Plate 5).

The small ante-chamber provided a scientific overview of how we smell, how smells

are processed in the brain, and the relationship between smell, memory, and emotions. The

content was accessible in a variety of ways, including text, a graphic display of the relevant

systems (Appendix A, Plate 6) and centers in the nose and brain, and a series of four

YouTube videos.495 The videos did not play automatically but could be selected by pressing

buttons which were keyed to questions like “How do we detect smells?” “What makes a

smell good or bad?” “How many smells can we smell?” and “What is the link between taste,

smell, and memory?” The videos provided extra content for those interested but were not

necessary to watch before proceeding to the main exhibition room. Furthermore, the videos

provided the content in a variety of styles: the two by the Stuart Firestein on the Big Think

YouTube channel were delivered in a straightforward lecture manner, the Ted-Ed talk was

narrated by Rose Eveleth over colorful and engaging animation, and the video by Greg Foot

of Brit Lab was informative yet casual.

495 TED-Ed, How Do We Smell? By Rose Eveleth, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snJnO6OpjCs.; Big

Think, Unlocking the Mysterious Connection Between Taste, Smell, and Memory, n.d.,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-TTHK40u4w.; Big Think, Dr. Stuart Firestein: The Limits of Our Sense

of Smell, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPflaQgs7bo.; BBC Earth Lab, How Do You Smell? | Greg Foot,

n.d., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbusJuQ44PA.

139

Moving into the main hall, each table held smells relating to a specific period

(Appendix A, Plate 7). The tables were designed and custom-built from wood and stone to

hold the specific number of scent machines needed for each section. The sections were

Hittite, Greek and Roman, the Byzantines, Spice Market (from the Byzantines to the

Ottomans), Turkish coffee, Incense, Roses, Cologne, and Modernization. Interspersed with

the scents were passages from primary sources related to the scents presented. Almost every

scent was accompanied by a small visual sample. Choosing the scents was one of the hardest

curatorial tasks of the exhibition. The main criterion of scent selection for the exhibition was

that the scent had to be produced in Anatolia or had to reflect an aspect of use in Anatolia’s

past. That still presented thousands, if not millions, of options. The exhibition moved

chronologically from the Hittite period, which dates to about 1500 BCE, through the Greek

and Roman periods, the Byzantine Empire, and the Ottoman Empire to the modern era.

Visitors experienced the smells by pressing a button which caused scent-infused

smoke to billow out of a small pipe. The scent machines were created by our exhibition

designers, who spent many months researching and developing them. We wanted to present

the scent as an object itself, so the final product produced smoke. Underneath the tabletop

were basic food storage containers filled with water and a few drops of the scent. Inside the

water was a piezoelectric motor which applied an electrical current to the water, causing it to

boil without making it hot (for a few seconds). This boiling water produced steam, which was

pushed out of the container and through the pipe by a fan. The curved pipe then sucked some

of the smoke back in, creating a closed system that reduced the smells lingering in the air, as

it was important not to have all the scents interacting (Appendix A, Plates 8–11). A push of

the button started the process, which activated a 10-second timer.

The majority of the smells were produced and donated by the MG Gülçiçek fragrance

company, where chemist Sylvain Cara worked with the exhibition team to develop and refine

140

fragrances for our purposes.496 Turkish scent expert Vedat Ozan provided invaluable aid in

this process; his extensive knowledge, especially of obscure and valuable scents, helped us

find exact formulations that best fit our needs.497 For a few scents, it seemed that exact

chemical replications could not be made, so these were procured in other ways. For example,

we bought pure “labdanum absolute” and “spikenard oil” from essential oil companies based

in the United States. Furthermore, another two scents, burned hemp seed and Byzantine

church incense, were produced by the author.498 Rose water was provided by Gülsha, a

Turkish rose company.499 Turkey is one of the best growing regions for rosa damascena, the

rose whose water and oil is used for cosmetics, perfumes, and baked goods. We visited their

rose harvest in May 2015 as part of the research for the exhibition and dissertation. We also

worked with Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi, a famous Turkish coffee producer based next to

the Spice Market in Istanbul, and they provided us both with coffee tools to display and

freshly ground coffee for smelling.500 Atelier Rebul, one of the oldest cologne producers in

Turkey, donated lavender cologne with which guests could refresh themselves during the

496 “MG International Fragrance Company,” MG International, accessed September 17, 2017,

http://www.gulcicek.com.

497 For more of Vedat Ozan’s work, see: Vedat Ozan, “Kokucuk,” Kokucuk, accessed September 17, 2017,

http://www.kokucuk.com/; Vedat Ozan, Kokular Kitabı, 3rd ed. (Istanbul: Everest Yayınları, 2016); Vedat

Ozan, Kokular Kitabı II: Parfümler (Istanbul: Everest Yayınları, 2015); Vedat Ozan, Kokular Kitabı III:

Kültürler (Istanbul: Everest Yayınları, 2017).

498 The process of making these two scents at my home involves much trial and error and very forgiving

housemates. The inspiration for burned hempseeds comes from the following Herodotus passage: “The

Scythians then take the seed of this hemp and creep under the felt coverings, and then they throw the seed upon

the stones which have been heated red-hot: and it burns like incense and produces a vapour so thick…”

(Histories 3.112). For these burned hempseeds I followed the basic formula of making other food-based

extracts: soaking in liquid. However, I first had to burn the seeds. I burned half the seeds, dry, on the stovetop

and the other half I roasted to the point of burning in the oven. I then divided each group in half again, putting

some in vodka and some in olive oil. I let them sit out of the sun for several weeks and then tested the aromas.

By far, the most clear aroma came from jar with the oven-roasted hempseeds soaking in vodka. For church

incense there is no one standard recipe. Frankincense comprises of the majority of most incense, but they often

include other botanical elements. After researching both modern and Byzantine incenses, I chose a mixture of

frankincense, sandalwood, clove, and cinnamon. Similar to the hempseeds I did experiment with burning the

elements together and infusing liquids, but especially due to the characteristics of frankincense (easily meltable

and rather sticky) it did not infuse as well. Ultimately, I bought the essential oils of each of these ingredients and

mixed them in varying proportions until I achieved an aroma with a frankincense base note, a sandalwood and

cinnamon middle note, and a top note of clove

499 “Gülsha,” Gülsha, accessed September 17, 2017, http://www.gulsha.com.tr/?lang=en. n

500 “Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi Mahdumları,” Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi Mahdumları, accessed September

18, 2017, http://www.mehmetefendi.com/eng/pages/index.html.

141

exhibition.501 Finally, the scent of buhur suyu (Ottoman incense water) was made by

Givaudan chemist Fulya Yahya.

Section Information

Below is a short description of the smells and text and for each section of the exhibition. For

the full wall text, exhibition photos, and object list, see Appendix A.

Hittite section scents: honey, cedar, sesame

The Hittite scents were chosen from a recipe for a perfumed cleansing water used in

prayer rituals and preserved on a tablet found during excavations of the Hittite capital of

Hattusha (modern-day Boğazkale). This recipe called for perfumed “fine oil” (unfortunately

we do not know how it was perfumed or which oil was the base) combined with honey,

cedar, and sesame. A translation of the Hittite prayer ritual accompanied the scents, while the

wall text provided some context for the prayer ritual and its ingredients.502

Greek and Roman table scents: labdanum, goat, burned hempseed, cypress, cedar,

frankincense, sandalwood, mint, wine, saffron

The Greek and Roman table featured passages from numerous writers: Homer,

Herodotus, Pliny the Elder, and Virgil. The wall text introduced visitors to how Greek

philosophers thought about smell and some of the ways that Romans used smell, including

the adornment of their bodies and spaces.

Byzantine table: incense, balsam, pine, bay leave, myrtle, ivy, rosemary

The Byzantine section included a quote from John Chrysostom (C. 349–407 CE), an

Early Church Father and the Archbishop of Constantinople, who is now considered a saint by

many branches of Christianity: “Nothing is more unclean for the soul than when the body has

501 “Atelier Rebul,” Atelier Rebul, accessed September 18, 2017, https://atelierrebul.com.tr/.

502 The original translation from Hittite to German was published in Volkert Haas, “Abteilung Die Text Aus

Boğazköy,” in Corpus Der Hurritischen Sprachdenkmäler, ed. Volkert Haas et al. (Rome: Multigrafica Editrice,

1984). We are very thankful to Rick Wohmann, who translated the German to English for us. Matteo Vigo,

“The Use of (Perfumed) Oil in Hittite Rituals with Particular Emphasis on Funerary Practices,” Journal of

Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Archaeology, Consumption of perfumed oil in the ancient Mediterranean and

Near East: funerary rituals and other case studies, 1 (2014): 28.

142

such a fragrance. For the fragrance of the body and the clothes would be a sign of the stench

and filthiness of the inner man. ... Who will expect anything noble and good from one who

smells of perfumes?”503 This quote highlighted a continuation of thought from the early Greek

philosophers’ notion of smell as a “baser” sense, yet also serves as a contrast to what we

know was a rich Byzantine olfactory world. The wall text speaks of this initial resistance to

sensory rituals and then illustrates the change that occurred over the centuries as smells

became re-integrated into the church, royal rituals, and daily life.

Spice Market table: black pepper, cinnamon, myrrh, spikenard, ambergris, musk, styrax

balsam, agarwood, Spice Market

The spice markets sections served as a transition between the Byzantine and Ottoman

eras, as Istanbul continued to be a center for transit and trade of olfactory goods between both

empires. The table texts included a passage from the Byzantine Book of the Eparch which

detailed the regulations for spice merchants, the sensory impression of the Ottoman Spice

Market by nineteenth-century Italian traveler Edmondo de Amicis, and a quote from the

sixteenth-century Ottoman historian and bureaucrat Mustafa Ali’s Mevâ’idü’nnefâ’is fit

Kavâ’idi’l-mecâlis (Tables of Delicacies Concerning the Rules of Social Gatherings), which

highlights different ways Ottomans nobility utilized smell for personal adornment.

After the spice markets section, we presented four smaller “pocket” exhibitions,

which focused on important olfactory economies during the Ottoman Empire and modern

Turkey: coffee, incense water, rosewater, and cologne. These pocket exhibitions, while

enriching the larger message of the exhibition, contained additional in-depth information,

extra media, and objects.

503 Saint John Chrysostom, On Wealth and Poverty (St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1984).

143

Coffee table scents: freshly ground Turkish coffee (which was presented in a glass perfume

puffer bottle), coffee

The text for the coffee section included an explanation about the significance of the

Turkish coffee and its role in the past Ottoman and everyday life, especially around Eminönü.

The table text featured a quote by the seventeenth-century Ottoman poet Veysî. The text was

supplemented by a digitally animated Ottoman manuscript painting featuring a sixteenthcentury

coffeehouse scene, which was borrowed from the Pera Museum and their “Coffee

Break” exhibition (Appendix A, Plate 12).

Finally, thanks to generous loans from the Sümer Ayer Collection and Kurukahveci

Mehmet Efendi, we displayed four coffee cups from the Ottoman and early Republic periods

and three traditional tools for making Turkish coffee: a roasting pan, a wooden mortar and

pestle, and a coffee bean cooling bin.504

Incense water table: incense water created by chemist Fulya Yahya

Incense water, or buhur suyu, was one of the most special scents of the exhibition.

Incense water had fallen out of use in the Ottoman urban environment by the late nineteenth

century; it was largely replaced with rosewater and cologne. Incense water served many

purposes, including being a refreshing ointment for the skin; it was also given to weary

travelers upon arrival to the Topkapı Palace and other homes of the Ottoman elite and was

served between courses to cleanse the hands. The original recipe for buhur suyu can be found

in the 1708 notebooks of Chief Laundryman Yusuf Ağa, which are preserved in the Topkapı

Palace Archives (No. 7011).505 Fulya Yahya created her buhur suyu from this original recipe,

making minor alterations to the ingredients only when necessary.

504 Despite being over 100 years old, this mortar and pestle was still infused with the fragrance of freshly ground

coffee beans.

505 See Chapter 2 for the full recipe.

144

This section also featured an elaborate nineteenth-century silver incense burner and an

eighteenth-century gold-plated copper incense burner, courtesy of the Rüksan and Mehmet

Ürgüplü Collection.

Rose table: rosewater, rose oil, and geranium oil (and a bottle of rose water from Gülsha to

put on hands)

This section examined the importance of roses in Turkish and Islamic culture.

Furthermore, it explained the relationship between the rose and rose geranium, which is

frequently used as a cheap substitute for a real rose in fragrances. Visitors were invited to

cleanse their hand with real rosewater, courtesy of Gülsha rose company. Several rosewater

containers (gülabdan) were exhibited from the Rüksan and Mehmet Ürgüplü Collection.

Cologne table: lemon cologne (and a bottle of lavender cologne from Atelier Rebul to put on

hands)

The cologne section covered the development of the cologne industry in Turkey and

featured some historic cologne bottles and perfume bottles from the Aybala and Nejat

Yentürk Collection and the Atelier Rebul Collection. The section also exhibited scented

cards, which were used for the promotion of perfumes during the late Ottoman and early

Republican periods.

Modernization table: linden, rakı, sea water, jute, coal, mothballs (naphthalene), jelly soap,

car exhaust, mimosa flowers, judas blossom trees, honeysuckle flowers

The final table of the exhibition discussed the phenomena of globalization,

commercialization, and industrialization and gave visitors a chance to think critically about

how our modern world is affecting smellscapes.

Specific Exhibit Activities Goals

The goals of “Scent and the City” were that the interactive elements—the map, the scent bar,

and the survey—would not only reinforce content but also foster a social and more

participatory environment. The interactive game/questionnaire designed for the scent bar

made visitors recognize and differentiate scents they encounter in their daily lives and reflect

on scent as an intangible heritage of the city which is threatened by urban renewal projects

145

and restoration campaigns which ignore scent. As we hoped, both the scent bar and the maps

became areas for socializing, entertainment, participatory activities, and engagement. Even

after the exhibition closed at night, restaurant patrons and other building occupants would

stop by the map to discuss it and make changes.

The presence of exhibition staff aided communication; visitors clearly enjoyed

sharing their memories and ideas about the scents they smelled. The exhibition showed that

scents by themselves are wonderful catalysts for stories. Scents engage visitors from diverse

socio-economic backgrounds and can do so in a more constructivist manner, encouraging

them to create their own meanings and integrate their knowledge and memories.

Mapping Activity

The initial aim of this section of the exhibition was to engage the audience at the

entrance to “Scent and the City,” the map area became a key space in the exhibition where

conversations among friends and strangers began about Istanbul, memories, and place

(Appendix A, Plate 13). By tying scent to a particular location, visitors were able to

contextualize the scents and recall experiences from their daily lives. Magnets with about 50

scents, color-coded by theme were provided for visitors to place on the map (Table 1). We

also provided several blank magnets for users to write in their own scent associations (Table

2). The map was extremely popular; within two to three days all the magnets were used and

the map was recorded then reset. This continued for the duration of the exhibition; each new

smell was recorded daily and new blank magnets produced for visitors to write new scents on

these every few days. Given a chance to re-do this activity, more blank magnets should be

provided so as not to lead the visitors to pre-formed conclusions about the smells of Istanbul.

This would, however, require constant monitoring for inappropriate contributions. During the

span of the exhibition, we only had two write-ins that were offensive enough to be removed

immediately; a handful included a friend or lover’s name.

146

Table 1: Smells provided at the interactive “Scent and the City” map

Food and Drink Nature Animals and People Other City

chestnuts rose sweat nostalgia Coal

coffee pine vomit historic garbage

spices clean air dog medicinal sewer

beer poplar trees cat leather exhaust

rakı sea animalistic smoke

corn acacia fish gasoline

apricot mimosa horse manure paint

tomatoes jasmine urine car

cloves tulip perfume

bakery linden trees cigarettes

meat moss

fruity musty

vegetables grass

lemon lavender

chocolate judas tree

simit earthy

chamomile woody

vinegar

rotten food

hookah

147

Table 2: Scents written on blank magnets at the “Scent and the City” smell map

income quality Gezi park fish

sandwiches

Gucci

perfume

lilac poshness workshop love passion

sweat

childhood

child happiness wisteria science home is

where dog is

stadium lover past factory Hacımimi

rakı Samatya sweat lilac and wisteria

Erenköy and

Bebek

cement and

silicone

haji oil

sewer fish and rakı fish Acacia tree medicine

linden tree baked potato magnolia sewage freshly

ground coffee

anarchy sewer Beşiktaş smells of

love

rotten sewer sea

walnut tree construction kokoreç smelly lake MTB

mountain

bike

Beşiktaş

smells of

love

rotten eggs and

sulfur

wet dogs meatballs metal

pepper gas linden tree in

Gaziosmanpaşa

plane tree yogurt bribery

Scent Bar

Another component of the exhibition was an interactive scent bar (Appendix A, Plate 14).

Visitors were invited to work together or individually and asked to guess twelve scents,

experiment with mixing them, and share memories evoked by the scents.506 This interactive

game helped visitors recognize and differentiate scents they encounter in their daily lives and

reflect in a more critical way on scent as a threatened intangible heritage of the city. Within

the exhibition space, the scent bar became an area for socializing, entertainment, and

engagement. The design allowed for visitors to discuss and interact and was very successful

in this regard. However, the design of the containers and system was not intuitive; gallery

volunteers often had to show visitors how to dip the perfume strips into the containers and

506 The twelve scents were: parsley, coriander, lavender, camphor, musk, ambergris, grass, bergamot, peach,

gum mastic, oud, and baby powder.

148

show them the location of the answers. Almost no visitors took the suggestion of mixing the

scents (ideally done so by fanning oneself with several tester strips, each with an individual

scent). There appear to be multiple reasons for visitors skipping this activity. On one hand,

they were so excited by the guessing game and became rapt in conversation the mixing

activity paled in importance. Additionally, the atmosphere and design did not encourage

mixing; rather most visitors tested one and then threw the strip away. Visitors did not want to

hold strips in their hand and have it interfere with their next guess. Furthermore, the activity

generated so much trash that during busy moments gallery volunteers spent most of the time

putting out new tester strips and throwing away the old ones.

Surveys

The surveys, next to the guest book, were designed to both gather research on the smells of

Istanbul and to measure the effect of the exhibition on visitors’ thinking. The surveys were

not mandatory and visitors could fill out only parts. The survey first asked for basic

demographic information: age, gender, and nationality. Then, visitors were asked to assess

the following statements quantitatively, to mark “Strongly Disagree” “Disagree”

“Undecided” “Agree” or “Strongly Agree”:

“Before the exhibition I was already very mindful of smells”

“I have a good sense of smell”

“Scents are an important part of culture and should be protected”

“I have many memories and/or associations related to scent”

“After visiting the exhibition, I think I will pay more attention to smells around me”

Finally, the survey had three subjective, open-ended questions:

“Which smells have disappeared from Istanbul?”

“What are the symbolic smells of Istanbul?”

149

“Do you have a smell-related memory? Any other comments about scents? If you

would like, please share them.”

A selection of the 493 completed surveys is printed in Appendix B.

Marketing Strategy

The marketing strategy focused on receiving press in the major Turkish newspapers and

coverage by their arts and culture editors of those papers. A short summary of the exhibition

was written up in several newspapers a few days before the opening. Once the exhibition

opened, reporters were invited to visit and were given a tour by the curator. Articles were

published, in print and online, by many major newspapers. Furthermore, several arts-oriented

groups made announcements on their respective websites. The majority of the press is in

Turkish, although the English-language newspapers Daily Sabah and Hurriyet Daily News

also published articles. The article received some international attention, being featured in

Turkish Airlines Skylife Business Magazine and the Washington Report on Middle East

Affairs. There were approximately 50 in-print articles on the exhibition and 70 online blogs

and articles.

Furthermore, ANAMED’s public relations firm, Lobby, suggested targeting social

media and spreading news of the exhibition via the major online platforms. The press agency

organized a special viewing for young influential bloggers and Turkish social media stars.

The user-generated pictures and videos from the exhibition were often shared on Instagram

and Facebook, with the hashtags #kokuvesehir, #kokuveşehir, and #scentandthecity.

ANAMED posted a short video of the exhibition, which, as of writing this, had been viewed

32,000 times.507 This video, as well as the videos containing the interviews of people involved

in the creation of the exhibition, are also available on YouTube.508

507 “Anamed—#KokuveŞehir,” Facebook, accessed September 18, 2017,

https://www.facebook.com/Anamed.kocuni/videos/1749473888601451/.

508 ANAMED, SERGİ: Koku ve Şehir | EXHIBITION: Scent and the City, Curator and Designers (Istanbul,

2016), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQvzQ0w8HVY&t=.; ANAMED, SERGİ: Koku ve Şehir |

150

Front-End Evaluation

A front-end evaluation is conducted during the exhibition development period. It attempts to

decipher both the visitors’ pre-existing knowledge on the subject and what

misconceptions/misunderstandings they may hold. The front-end evaluation also seeks to

identify what sort of experiences the visitors may want or expect. Its goal, therefore, is to

help the exhibition team understand, anticipate, and interact with visitors’ expectations and

pre-existing knowledge. It is used, as the Australian Museum notes, to “develop themes,

audiences, goals, messages, and interpretive strategies.”509

In the preparations for scent and the city, no specific visitor surveys were done at

ANAMED or with the gallery visitors. However, much of the research undertaken during the

“Urban Cultural Heritage and Creative Practice: Smellscapes of Eminönü” workshop and

through my subsequent fieldwork contributed to our understanding of peoples’ knowledge of

smell. Participants’ reactions and discussions during the workshop and the “Sensorial

Urbanism and Smellscapes” oral history project highlighted that many, upon reflection, felt

smell was important to their lives and memories but did not know why. This information

encouraged the inclusion of an introductory scientific section in the exhibition that provided

an overview of the physiological significance of smell.

Formative Evaluation

Formative evaluations occur further in the exhibition development process, as various parts

of the exhibition are tested. An important goal of formative evaluations is to assess technical

prototypes to discover what works and how they should be modified. Further, the exhibition

content should be assessed and revised to ensure the message is being communicated in the

EXHIBITION: Scent and the City, Advisors (Istanbul, 2016),

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFuzmQ68pvw.

509 Kelly, “Dinosaur Unearthed Summative Evaluation Report.”

151

most effective manner. Overall, it measures and creates feedback on the content, prototypes,

and activities to make them more accessible, both physically and intellectually, for visitors.

Formative evaluation testing was done by both the curator and the designers. A

method for producing the scents, an integral aspect of the exhibition, was consistently tested

and refined in the months leading up to the exhibition. The designers consulted with smell

experts and designers in order to create a final working prototype. However, the testing phase

showed that, for example, alcohol-based liquids did not vaporize properly. Therefore, the

designers were able to produce another system (using the mechanism found inside an asthma

inhaler) for the wine smell.

The scent bar guessing game was tested by the curator during a presentation at the

“Sensory Histories of Place” workshop at ANAMED in April 2016. This evaluation was

useful both in choosing the final scents for the scent bar and in anticipating how visitors

would be using and acting in that space.

Summative Evaluation

The summative evaluation can start as soon as the exhibition opens and continues past its

closing date. Post notes that the “true value in summative evaluation is found in planning for

future exhibits. Summative evaluation informs staff about how well the exhibit works and if

the visitors really do understand the intended message and if not, what messages are the

visitors taking away from the exhibit?” A summative evaluation should help improve the

exhibition and other future exhibitions at the museum. It focuses on understanding visitor

interaction and the take-away knowledge. The following summative evaluation examines the

effectiveness and dissemination of the exhibition message and themes, the exhibition target

and outreach, and technological problems.

152

Exhibition Message and Themes

“Scent and the City” intended to communicate several different messages to the visitors.

Rather than employ an entirely constructivist model or a “baby bird” style exhibition, “Scent

and the City” combined multiple learning styles to share different messages. For those who

wanted a more “traditional” museum experience, there were wall texts, videos, and graphics

which offered a significant amount of information to visitors. Parallel to this type of

information were the scents themselves. Visitors could experience the entire exhibition

without reading any text and create their own narratives and meaning from this olfactory

experience. Furthermore, the interactive areas allowed for crowd-sourced information.

Visitors could contribute to the map while seeing other’s contributions. At the scent bar, fun

facts were provided about each scent, but visitors really learned by talking to each other and

hearing the stories and memories each other.

“Scent and the City” was created with one main message and several secondary

messages and teaching goals. The “big idea” of the exhibition was: Smell is all around us; a

constantly changing and meaningful component of place and of life.510 The exhibition aimed

to address the lack of awareness of the importance and meaning of smell in both the current

age and in history. It also hoped to emphasize the significance of smell in people’s lives,

memories, and history, and how smell is an important aspect of the environment and heritage.

Furthermore, the exhibition anticipated benefitting visitors by making an understudied and

intriguing aspect of history and intangible heritage accessible and fun. Additionally, the

exhibition aimed to elicit olfactory-based individual and communal memories from the

visitors. These aims were supported by several primary themes throughout the exhibition:

• Smells help us create and remember memories and is strongly tied to emotion

510 Serrell, Exhibit Labels, 1–5.

153

• Smells reflect changes in cultures, economy, politics, and the world; cultures,

economy, politics, and the world affect smells

• Istanbul and Turkey are, and have always been, home to interesting smellscapes and

provide good sites to explore the city through scent

There were several smaller messages the exhibition hoped to communicate, such as:

• Smell can often be, or reflects, manipulations in the environment

• Smell works quite differently than the other senses in the body

• Smell can be quite individual but also incredibly communal

• Smells and their variances are often difficult to put into words

• There are many new technologies/ different ways to incorporate smells into our lives

The exhibition communicated its main message—the “big idea”—effectively. Through

the use of both constructivist meaning-making techniques and more traditional learning

styles, visitors who spent at least a minute in the exhibition became more aware of the scents

around them. The notion that smells are meaningful components of life was reinforced in the

different sections, as the scientific overview highlighted the link between smell, emotions,

and memory, the historical sections invited visitors to experience significant smells from

previous centuries, and the modernization section asked them to reflect on their own past and

present. Marcel Proust’s seminal quote was displayed on a wall by itself so that visitors

would read this as they exited the exhibition, as these words captured the essence of the

exhibition’s message:

But when from a long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after

the things are broken and scattered, taste and smell alone, more fragile but more

enduring, more unsubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, remain poised a long

time, like souls, remembering, waiting, hoping, amid the ruins of all the rest; and

154

bear unflinchingly, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the

vast structure of recollection.511

Exhibition Targets and Outreach

The exhibition did not target any particular age group, ethnic group, or socio-economic class.

The hope, however, was that the exhibition would serve as a bridge between the ANAMED’s

neighborhood, Beyoğlu, and the Spice Market area, Eminönü. The initial exhibition proposal

included the idea of a display or mini-exhibition near the Spice Market so that the exhibition

would move beyond ANAMED, in the way that scent so often permeates space beyond and

through walls. This “outreach” was conceptualized to help to move visitors between the two

areas of exhibition: ANAMED on Istiklal Street and the Spice Market in Eminönü. Although

the identity of Istiklal Street is changing as the surrounding region is gentrified, Istiklal has

always been the center of nightlife, restaurants, and bars, and is a popular pedestrian avenue

for shopping and strolling by both tourists and locals. The area around the Spice Market,

however, is more conservative and while it still attracts tourists and Turks wanting to buy

spices, the local population is more working-class than those around Istiklal. Unfortunately,

due to both logistics and finances, this mini-exhibition was not implemented and we did not

collect any data of visitors’ neighborhoods. From analyzing visitor numbers against previous

ANAMED exhibitions, however, it can be concluded that “Scent and the City” reached a far

larger audience than average for ANAMED. Furthermore, according to the visitor survey

data, almost half of the visitors were young, in their 20s. There are almost no statistics

available on the average age of visitors to art and cultural events in Turkey; data from the

United States shows that the largest age group attending cultural events is 55–64, with a 38%

participation rate.512 Nina Simon contends that the demographics (age, income, ethnicity, and

511 Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time: Swann’s Way, trans. C. K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin,

2nd ed. (New York: The Modern Library, 1992), 63–64.

512 In Scent and the City, only 7% of the surveys were completed by adults in the 55–64 range. However,

surveys are not perfect representations of visitor demographics; they may be skewed towards a younger

population set who is more willing to fill out a survey.

155

education level) of visitors to exhibitions and other arts events should match the

demographics of a city’s population.513 However, they rarely do—in Simon’s case study of

California, participants in the arts events were largely white, wealthier, and more educated

than the average Californian. We did not collect any information on education level, income,

or ethnicity. Although having such information would have been useful, questions of salary

and ethnicity can be quite sensitive in Turkey and thus the survey stayed focused on the more

significant questions: the effectiveness of the exhibition and visitors’ impressions and

memories of past and present smellscapes in Istanbul.

There were two public events held in conjunction with the exhibition: a talk by scent

expert and author of three books on smell, Vedat Ozan, and a talk by Aybala and Nejat

Yentürk, who generously donated objects and their expertise in the history of Turkish and

Ottoman perfumes. There was also a private event held for a small group of Koç University

graduate students—a perfume-making workshop with Vedat Ozan. Both talks were extremely

well-attended and enjoyed by visitors.

However, the exhibition missed real opportunities to provide public programming,

especially which could have targeted children and visitors with special needs. Several school

groups attended the exhibition, but no formal educational program or outreach was

established. There was no precedence for such activities for exhibitions at ANAMED and the

exhibition team lacked the time, staff, and financial resources to implement such a program.

Furthermore, the height of the tables (about 90 centimeters high) made it difficult for most

children to even access the tables, the content, or the smells themselves (this problem also

applies to people in wheelchairs, as both the table height and navigation were difficult for this

visitor group).514 As the exhibition specifically told stories through non-visual and non-

513 Nina Simon, “Audience Demographics and the Census: Do We Have a Match?,” Museum 2.0 (blog),

February 4, 2015, http://museumtwo.blogspot.com.tr/2015/02/audience-demographics-and-census-do-we.html.

514 This problem was partially solved by giving the children/parents a light-weight stool that could be carried

around that the children could stand on top of.

156

literary means, the absence of programming for blind visitors was a disappointment. Several

blind people visited the exhibition but required a sighted-friend to guide them through.

Navigating around the tables without seeing was quite difficult and the layout/position was

not intuitive. A blind person or a person with low vision could reach around the table to find

the button for the smells, but he or she would probably find it a frustrating experience without

help. The scent bar and map were completely inaccessible without vision and the labels did

not include braille. Creating programming with people who are blind would have also infused

the stories and memories with a different perspective. Ideally, a program like this would be

organized before the opening and then there could have been a special area or activity where

blind visitors could share their memories and understanding of the city via smells; these

experiences are probably much richer than a person who relies on sight.515

Another lost opportunity was related to programming for people with other

disabilities, especially with people who cannot read well or typically have a short attention

span. The scents themselves tell stories and bring meaning to those experiencing them, with

no need to read about them. The exhibition also missed out on the opportunity for more nonacademic

programming. Although ANAMED is very much an academic institution, the

exhibition could have supported book discussion and movie nights with works that focus on

the sense of smell.516

515 Hannah Macpherson, “Articulating Blind Touch: Thinking through the Feet,” The Senses and Society 4, no. 2

(2009): 179–193; Douglas Pocock, “The Senses in Focus,” Area, 1993, 11–16; Philippe Rombaux et al.,

“Increased Olfactory Bulb Volume and Olfactory Function in Early Blind Subjects,” Neuroreport 21, no. 17

(2010): 1069–1073.

516 The idea came to me because a book club in Istanbul happened to be reading Perfume: The Story of a

Murderer by Patrick Süskind, heard about the exhibition and decided to visit as a group after their discussion.

Others possibilities include books by Orhan Pamuk, a selection of poetry, The Perfume Collector by Kathleen

Tessaro, and many others (see http://boisdejasmin.com/2005/10/nine_perfume_no.html). Movies could include

A Touch of Spice, Perfume, and The Scent of Mystery (the film originaly produced to work with smell-o-vision

in the 1960s).

157

Technological, Olfactory, and Design Problems

Certain scents were not close enough to the intended target aroma. For example, the smell of

burning coal was closer to a mangal (barbeque) smell than that of coal being burned to heat

buildings. Smell is very subjective, so for many of the scents, we would receive feedback

expressing both disagreement and agreement about the accuracy of the smells. For example,

some visitors felt the honey smell was too artificial, while others noted that the combination

of honey and sesame smells (situated next to each other) brought to mind sumptuous

weekend brunches with their families. Visitors’ experiences with lavender were intriguing;

many recognized the lavender in the context of lavender-scented cosmetic products. Several

visitors grew lavender, however, and felt that the scent provided in the exhibition was not

true to the plant.517

There was almost always at least one broken scent dispenser in the exhibition, but at

times as many as eight scent dispensers were problematic. The devices were not commercial

products bought for the exhibition, but rather constructed by the designers and although there

were tested before the exhibition, the constant use during the exhibition caused parts of wear

and tire. The clock timers frequently broke, which caused the perfumed smoke to be

produced continuously and could only be stopped by turning off the device until a new clock

timer was installed. Furthermore, it seems that the chemical properties of certain smells

affected the amount of smoke; smells like sesame oil almost never produced a strong, visible

stream of smoke. Visitors overall were very understanding, but it was certainly disappointing.

The design of the scent bar was not intuitive. Visitors were supposed to take a tester

stick, dip it into a small hole in the lid of a clear container, pull the stick back out after a

second, and then guess. Despite text instructions, many visitors required help from gallery

517 In fact, after a discussion with the perfumer heading the project at Gülçiçek, I discovered that the lavender he

created was based on the French lavender, which is the aroma that goes into most cosmetics, but is a different

variety form that which is commonly grown in Turkey and therefore could have a different smell.

158

staff about how to proceed. In particular, the hole was not clear and several visitors tried, and

sometimes succeeded, in pulling off the glued-on lids or even the whole container that was

glued to the table.518

Furthermore, which containers held “clean” and “dirty” tester sticks were not obvious,

even after labels were added. The size of the containers was also far too small given the level

of use.519 To reveal the answer, visitors were required to lift up the lid of a small box with a

“?” on it. Written on the inside was the name as well as an interesting fact about the scent.

This design was also not intuitive and some visitors read the answer by accident before

guessing the smell.

The content of the scent bar was different than the exhibition. Although interesting, it

perhaps tried to fulfill too many goals, which ultimately felt inconsistent. While I did not

receive any feedback from visitors noting this, I think that the scents themselves did not

follow a consistent theme or reason for inclusion. Furthermore, the interesting facts were not

very relevant to the message of the exhibition (and were barely read by most visitors). One of

the goals was to reinforce the smells within the exhibition. To that end, the scent bar included

the aromas of musk, ambergris, camphor, and agarwood.520 The interesting fact for musk,

ambergris, and agarwood pertained to where they are found, which were both relevant and

interesting, but the fact for camphor—that some ancient cultures used it as part of embalming

fluid, while others made desserts with it—was interesting, but not particularly relevant to the

narrative or theme. The fact associated with parsley was related to the knowledge of the

ingredients of the oldest known perfume, found through archaeological excavations in

518 Taking the lid of was really difficult; even when I refilled the containers I did so via the hole rather than

wrangle with the lid. Given the difficulty and amount of resistance, I’m quite surprised how many visitors

attempted to take the lid off.

519 Indeed, on busy days, the necessity of restocking clean tester sticks (which needed to be cut and/or torn out

of booklets) and emptying the trash container became a full-time job. Furthermore, the table needed to be

constantly tidied up, as visitors sometimes just left tester sticks laying around.

520 An additional problem with camphor is that almost no one recognized the name. Today, most people know it

as the smell of Vick’s VapoRub.

159

Cyprus.521 Coriander was included because people have such strong reactions to its smell.

Lavender, bergamot, baby powder, and grass were added because they are fairly common

scents and it was hoped that visitors would be able to recognize these easily. The scent of

gum mastic (sakız) was included because it only grows in Chios and Çeşme and is a unique

ingredient in Turkish and Greek cooking.522 The scent of peach was included because we had

a wonderful passage from Refik Halit Karay’s short story well known to many Istanbulites,

Şeftali Bahçeleri [Peach Orchards], that fell outside the exhibition storyline: “Upon returning,

this perfumed air easily entered his body whose appetite was growing as although the aroma

was flowing into his blood, and peachy, cool, delicious breath filled his lungs.”523

Whether the scattered smells at the scent bar affected the quality of the experience is

unclear. The randomness does conceptually reflect that myriad scents one encounters in daily

life. However, the scents could have been random but also being more on-topic for the

exhibition, perhaps replacing some of the more tangential smells, like baby powder and

coriander, with smells like rosewater, fish sandwiches, or wisteria.524

For any future iterations of this exhibition, I would recommend having a more formal

mechanism for visitors to not only share their stories and memories but hear them from

others. This could be accomplished by setting up a small video-camera or microphone that

would allow visitors to record themselves. Furthermore—although this would require fairly

consistent intervention and monitoring for content by gallery staff—the digital recordings

could be put somewhere in the exhibition so that visitors could access them.

521 Malcolm Moore, “Eau de BC: The Oldest Perfume in the World,” March 21, 2007, sec. World,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1546277/Eau-de-BC-the-oldest-perfume-in-the-world.html.

522 Currently, there are attempts to revitalize sakız production in Çeşme. For more information, see Berrin

Torolsan, “Man, Myth and Mastic,” Corncucopia, no. 55 (2017).

523 “Şimdi dönerlerken, iştihaya gelmiş olan derisinden bu güzel kokulu hava kolayca giriyor, sanki kanına bile

koku katıyor, ciğerlerini şeftalili serin bir nefis hava dolduruyordu.”

524 However, baby powder was the only smell consistently recognized by visitors; often it was one of the only

smells recognized correctly. Out of all the scents, the baby powder smell was the closest to the original.

160

I think the exhibition suffered at times due to mixed intentions. As it was originally

conceived, the exhibition was going to be place-based, focusing on the Spice Market and its

surrounding neighborhood of Eminönü, contextualized within Istanbul. The research projects

supporting this exhibition were also focused on the sensory aspects of urban heritage and

centered on the Spice Market. Then the exhibition concept expanded to focus more on history

and cover a much larger geographic range. It is very difficult to provide a cohesive narrative

that starts from Hittites and ends with the industrialization of scent in Istanbul. The exhibition

did provide a framework for the notion of lost and changing smells, which allowed us to

explore both historical and present-day smellscapes. However, the connections between these

“snapshots” of smellscapes, which jumped centuries, were vague. The historical sections

were thematic. While the Hittite smells were part of prayer ritual, the Greek and Roman

smells were sourced from famous writers; the Byzantine smellscapes focused both on royal

ceremonies and religion. Starting with the Spice Market table, then, the narrative became

stronger across the sections, as it flowed from Byzantine to Ottoman spice markets, important

olfactory economies in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey, and then the changing smells from

the Republican period to today.

There appeared to be two major mechanisms by which visitors came to their own

awareness of our message that smells are constantly changing and some are being lost.

Throughout the more historical sections, visitors were introduced to smells completely

foreign to them or only known by name, despite being native to Anatolia or significant

components of historical smellscapes. Visitors found these unknown smells intriguing—

laden, musk, ambergris, myrrh, frankincense, spikenard, styrax balsam (sığla reçenesi)—and

wanted to learn more about their history and why they have disappeared. The exhibition,

however, did not offer a complete answer to those questions. Answers were partially found in

the modernization section, which focused on the industrialization of scent and the loss of

161

many “natural” products. Through this narrative, which focused on a time of living memory,

visitors became more aware of how domestic spaces, especially, have changed. This focus on

industrialization answers the question of why certain historical smells of disappeared, as the

majority of the smells listed above are either incredibly expensive, difficult to obtain/rare, or

both, but this was not stated explicitly. Additionally, several of the smells have interesting

stories to tell, so I regret that I did not develop a method of enhancing the content.525

Exhibition Survey Discussion

The exhibition itself served as both a test and an analysis of this project’s ideas about sensory

heritage and how to present it. Using both quantitative and qualitative questions, I asked

visitors how this exhibition affected their perception of smells in their daily life and their

thoughts about the lost sensory heritage of Istanbul. A total of 493 surveys were completed

by visitors; a selection of them is printed in Appendix B.

“Scent and the City” invited visitors to become more aware of scent and its value as

heritage. Urbanization, industrialization, deforestation, and a massive population boom, along

with efforts of the municipality to attract tourists to the marketplaces and other attractions of

the city over the past few decades, have drastically altered Istanbul’s smellscapes. People's

memories of the past and impressions of the present fused into their intricate narratives of

disappearing and emerging scents. By tying scent to a particular locality, such as a

neighborhood in Istanbul, visitors could contextualize the scents and recall experiences from

their daily lives. Starting with a historical narrative about scent and its intersections with

place and bringing this narrative to the contemporary was intended to move visitors beyond

feeling only nostalgia for their city and its threatened scents to thinking critically about how

urbanization, modernization, and globalization are all forces which continue to change, and in

some cases, have the potential to eradicate the intangible heritage of Istanbul’s historical

525 Admittedly, there already was a mechanism for extra, interesting content—the scent bar—and as I discuss in

that section, I do not feel that those facts actually added to the exhibition in a meaningful way.

162

scentscapes. The responses in the visitor survey indicate that they certainly became more

aware of this sensory heritage and regretted how the changing smellscapes brought about a

loss or reduction of many beloved scents.

However, compared to the surveys and oral history interviews done in the field, the

exhibition visitor surveys were taken after they had been “primed” by visiting an exhibition

on exactly this topic. The scents and stories discussed by visitors all fell within the theme of

the exhibition, as opposed to the more spontaneous responses from the oral history fieldwork.

The word cloud generated from the question “What are the iconic smells of Istanbul”

includes almost all scents that were presented either on the map or in the exhibition. While

the high correlation probably validates much of the exhibition content, the fact that visitors

were primed to already be thinking about these scents cannot be ignored. Furthermore, as is

visualized in the word cloud (Figure 8), there was a strong thread of nature-related scents. As

described in the oral history section, the loss of nature is a significant part of Istanbul’s

sensory heritage and a heritage that is under threat.526

Figure 8: Word Cloud generated with wordle.net by Lauren Davis

526 Lorena Rios, “Making Room for Nature in Erdogan’s Istanbul,” CityLab, July 25, 2017,

https://www.citylab.com/equity/2017/07/making-room-for-nature-in-erdogans-istanbul/534678/; Peter Kenyon,

“18 Years After Turkey’s Deadly Quake, Safety Concerns Grow About The Next Big One,” NPR, September 7,

2017, http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/09/07/547608828/turkey.

163

However, it is important to note that the exhibition was open from April to June, the

time when the flowers mentioned below are in bloom. Based on Quercia et al.’s work on

crowd-sourcing sensory landscapes via online social media, we can presume that had the

exhibition been open year-round there might have been a significant variation in the map

according to seasons.527

The following graphs illustrate the demographic information of those surveyed

(Figures 9–12), as well as the answers to the five quantitative questions (Figures 13–17). At

the end of the exhibition, 95% of visitors either “strongly agreed” or “agreed” that scents are

part of heritage and should be protected. A similar amount, about 85% further agreed that

they had many scent-based memories (although whether this exhibition made them more

aware of those memories is unclear). A much smaller percentage, about 45%, felt that they

were strongly aware of the sensory landscape and only 25% felt they had an extremely good

sense of smell. This data illustrates that we do not live in a completely deodorized society

where we ignore the senses, but rather that smellscapes are changing and that people are

willing to engage more actively with the sensory environment.

Figure 9: Surveys by age group

527 Quercia, Aiello, and Schifanella, “The Emotional and Chromatic Layers of Urban Smells.”

1

45

192

92

35 29 12 8

79

children teens 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s 70s No

Answer

COMPLETED SURVEYS, BY

AGE GROUP

164

Figure 80: Surveys by gender

Figure 91: Surveys by nationality

Figure 102: Countries of non-Turkish surveys

125

286

2

80

Male Female Other No Answer

COMPLETED SURVEYS, BY

GENDER

371

35

87

Turkey Other Blank

COMPLETED SURVEYS, BY

NATIONALITY

10

1 1 1 1

4

1

4

1 1 1 1 1

3 2 1 1

Number of Responders

Country

RESPONDERS FROM COUNTRIES

OTHER THAN TURKEY

165

Figure 13: Survey Question 1

Figure 114: Survey Question 2

Strongly

Agree,

45.64%

Agree,

33.87%

Undecided

, 5.68%

Disagree,

5.68%

Strongly

Disagree,

4.67%

Before this exhibition, I was

already very mindful of smells

Strongly

Agree,

25.76%

Agree,

35.50%

Undecided

, 11.97%

Disagree,

11.97%

Strongly

Disagree,

3.45%

I have a good sense of smell

166

Figure 125: Survey Question 3

Figure 16: Survey Question 4

Strongly

Agree,

74.04%

Agree,

18.66%

Undecided

, 1.22%

Disagree,

1.22%

Strongly

Disagree,

2.43%

Scents are an important part of

culture and should be

protected

Strongly

Agree,

59.84%

Agree,

26.57%

Undecided,

2.84%

Disagree,

2.84%

Strongly

Disagree,

2.84%

I have many memories related to

scent

167

Figure 17: Survey Question 5

Conclusions and Recommendations

Drawing on stories and data from the oral history project we conducted during and following

the 2012 workshop, the exhibition encouraged the visitor to re-remember the Istanbul of past

years through personal and collective memories. By showing the impact of modernization

and globalization on the smellscapes of Istanbul, the exhibition succeeded in making visitors

aware of scent and its value as heritage. Urbanization, industrialization, deforestation, a

massive population boom, and an increase in tourists over the past few decades have

drastically altered Istanbul’s smellscapes. Peoples’ memories of the past and impressions of

the present fused into their intricate narratives of disappearing and emerging aromas. Starting

with a historical narrative and bringing it to the contemporary helped move visitors beyond

nostalgia for their city and think critically about how urbanization, modernization, and

globalization have changed and threatened urban heritage and smells.

The “Scent and the City” team worked hard to provide a meaningful and in-depth

content while also creating a unique sensory experience. With something so novel and

Strongly Agree,

59.23%

Agree, 28.40%

Undecided, 2.64%

Disagree, 2.64%

Strongly Disagree,

2.23%

After visiting this exhibition, I will pay more attention to

the smells around me

168

different from the average museum exhibition, a sensory component can easily turn into a

meaningless gimmick. However, there certainly were visitors who came in, smelled things,

and did not read a word of text. Does this still count as a meaningful experience? Put another

way, if we had had no text, would the exhibition’s story have been clear? I think there are two

approaches to answer this question. One is that perhaps the curator’s proposed narrative is not

the important story to tell in an exhibition. “Scent and the City” was intended to elicit

personal memories and emotions; that could happen while smelling any of the scents in the

exhibition. Even without a cohesive curatorial narrative, this type of sensory interaction

allowed visitors to develop their own meanings. The second answer to this question is that for

the later periods—the Spice Market, the Ottoman and Turkish olfactory products, and the

modernization section—the smells included are part of a larger collective memory. Every

smell may not elicit the same response in every person, but there are larger cultural

understandings attached to these smells among people who are familiar with Istanbul and

Turkey. Turkey is transitioning in many ways and the exhibition offered an alternative way to

explore the processes of modernization and urbanization in both personal and communal

ways. Ultimately, the exhibition was a success. It drew about 9,200 visitors over two months,

averaging about 191 people per day. The visitor survey and guestbooks indicate a large

amount of enthusiasm, interest, and personal connections felt by those whose visited.

We did not know how people would react to the smells or which would trigger a

connection, memory, or emotion. Although the exhibition provided a chronological narrative,

what people experienced, and potentially remembered, when smelling—the Proustian

effect—was very much out of our control. For example, the smell of honey in the Hittite

section triggered, for one woman, memories of her family’s traditional weekend brunch,

which included a treat of honey and clotted cream to spread on bread. Another, upon smelling

agarwood, was brought back to his childhood and the traditional animal sacrifices that took

169

place in his village during the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice. Overall, visitors welcomed the

opportunity to explore scents and history in a new way and appreciated a new perspective on

the city. One visitor noted that ‘it really caused me to think about my senses and even to

reconsider the smellscapes of Istanbul,’ while another, an urban planner wrote that she was

happy to see ‘this kind of intangible element was associated with the city.’”528

Among the goals of the exhibition, and one of its successes, was bringing people who

are not comfortable with traditional academic literary and visual approaches that are

frequently used in museums in Turkey. The ANAMED building is on one of the busiest

pedestrian avenues in Istanbul. The exhibition averaged about 200 visitors per day, which

was double the average visitor rate for previous exhibitions in the same space. One of the

reasons it was so popular was that there was not a lot of text to read. Information was

provided through the scents themselves, and this type of olfactory literacy is more successful.

The exhibition tried to create a narrative within the liminal space between text and the senses.

The exhibition context is a unique space in which the tension between text and experience,

with the right balance, can be turned into something playful yet meaningful.

528 Davis and Thys-Şenocak, “Heritage and Scent,” 14.

170

Chapter 4: Discussion and Conclusion

This dissertation project has employed various methodologies in order to research the

olfactory heritage of Istanbul. It is concerned with the smellscapes of the city, both past and

present, but, just as important, with how smell in Istanbul could and should be studied as

intangible heritage. There is no established methodology for sensory research; although

unfortunate, this lacuna allows for the possibility of more experimental research

methodologies and therefore can synthesize and provide a catalyst for various ways of

thinking and forms of knowledge which are often traditionally separated by strict

methodological and discipline-related boundaries. As discussed at length in the

methodologies section of Chapter 1, I, along with other researchers, tried several ways of

collecting data and stories, included more creative practitioner-based experimental work, oral

history and interviews, historical research, and mapping.

The creative practice methods employed in the workshop were particularly helpful

both in thinking about how to approach the subject with out-of-the-box thinking, but also

how the information could be shared and disseminated beyond the standard academic article.

The workshop and the creative methodologies ultimately served as a catalyst for this

dissertation research project and provided the foundation for “Scent and the City.” The two

weeks of field work in the Spice Market and Eminönü and its resulting creative outputs,

along with accompanying historical research, served as a starting point from which a more indepth

survey and oral history project could be created. It was only with these initial

impressions and the collected data of scents perceived in and around the Spice Market that I

could begin to study in greater depth the culture and meanings attached to this sensory

environment. In short, the “Urban Cultural Heritage and Creative Practice: Smellscapes of

Eminönü” workshop provided the necessary background research along with the wonderful

opportunity of having thirty-five other researchers ponder the same questions. Many of the

171

smells revealed during this research period would continue to be of importance and

ultimately be included in the exhibition, as visualized in the following word-cloud (Figure 18;

words mentioned more frequently appear as larger):

Figure 18: Word Cloud generated at wordle.net by Lauren Davis

This initial survey provided an idea of what sorts of places and smells are fruitful for research

and also hinted at what became a major narrative in both the historical research conducted for

this dissertation and in the accompanying “Sensorial Urbanism and Smellscapes” oral history

project: cleaning, sanitation, and the modernization of green spaces. However, a list of smells

is really just data; they still need to be researched and contextualized. It was this need to

understand the stories and values behind smells that led me to oral history.

Oral History: Green Spaces, Modernization, and Olfactory Economies

The oral history project provided an excellent method through which we could understand

and contextualize basic sensory data. One of the most incredible aspects of conducting a

sensory-led oral history project is that everyone has a story and that each of those stories

leads to others. However, as you cannot control the narration, sometimes oral history

172

interviews veer off from the topics you are interested in learning about. For example, many of

the oral history interviews provided wonderful olfactory descriptions of place, both in the

present and in the past. However, often these stories then moved out of Istanbul to the places

of childhood and summer vacations, which provide a comparison for Istanbul, but were not

directly related to the main research questions in my dissertation project.

One of the most encouraging aspects of the oral history interviews was the

commonalities between many people and perspectives. Although this was not a specifically

political research question, the stories told to me highlighted that smell, and all the senses, are

intimately related to, used by, and illustrative of complex power dynamics which are

manifested through forces such as globalization, industrialization, and urbanization. In our

article, “Heritage and Scent: Research and Exhibition of Istanbul’s Changing Smellscapes” in

the International Journal of Heritage Studies, Thys-Şenocak and I situate these stories within

these larger forces. The following discussion is adapted from and built upon that article: 529

Previous urban “sterilization” and development projects undertaken in Istanbul from

the 1940s through the 1990s, while not as comprehensive as the most recent restoration

project in Eminönü, have already altered the Spice Market’s smellscape and further

endangered this aspect of its intangible heritage.530 Observations about the changes to the

deteriorating scentscapes have been made by local residents, one of whom remembered that

Istanbul has lost “traditional plants and perfume.” With the “modernization” of spaces,

Istanbul has also lost many of the smells of its “historic structures.” Before the restoration

project began in Eminönü, the merchants we interviewed who have worked in and around the

529 Davis and Thys-Şenocak, 728–730. All oral history interviews will be available in the Koç University Oral

History and Memory Archive. The oral history interviews were also supplemented with comments from the

visitor surveys taken at “Scent and the City,” a selection of which is available in Appendix B. Davis and ThysŞenocak,

728–30.

530 Günay, Daver, and Resmer, Güzelleşen İstanbul [Istanbul as It Becomes Beautiful]; Çelik, The Remaking of

Istanbul; Kuban, “Eminönü-Bizans Dönemi, Osmanlı Dönemi, Eminönü Meydanı”; Tümay Çin,

“Transformation of a Public Space in Eminönü” (Middle East Technical University, 2006).

173

marketplace for several decades told us that the smellscape of Eminönü had already changed

drastically, particularly with the decrease of smells associated with nature—e.g. trees and

flowers, and organic garbage such as rotting fruits. Interviewees specifically remembered the

now-absent smell of certain trees and flowers in Eminönü such as linden, pine, poplar, and

roses. Although this is certainly also nostalgia for the visual, smell plays a major role in these

memories. It seems that many people would prefer that earlier smells (and sights) be reintroduced

into Eminönü and Istanbul in general. Indeed, now, when green spaces in Istanbul

are threatened, residents are willing to protest vehemently to preserve them, as evidenced by

the Gezi Park Protests that occurred in the summer of 2013.531

One visitor to our “Scent and the City” exhibition commented that “All the smells I

considered as good are gone. There is no smell of flowers or trees. Instead, I think, we have

the smell of asphalt and concrete. Even houses do not smell anymore.” Another visitor felt

that places no longer have distinctive smells, a reoccurring sentiment echoed by another

visitor: “Now closed shops, bakeries, pharmacies...they all had different smells. Now the city

is full of identical-smelling shopping malls” and “the smells associated with inner-city

production areas have disappeared.” The owner of a parking garage near the Spice Market

noted, “In the past, there was a wholesale market hall which sold fruits and vegetables mostly

and Eminönü used to smell of fruits and vegetable but now it does not smell because the

wholesale market hall was moved. I miss that smell.”

The smell of linden trees is frequently noted as one of the iconic smells of Istanbul,

and residents frequently commented on how it has been disappearing from the smellscapes of

Istanbul. In 2012, the Ministry of Forest and Water Affairs planted 100,000 linden saplings in

531 Murat Gül, John Dee, and Cahide Nur Cünük, “Istanbul’s Taksim Square and Gezi Park: The Place of Protest

and Ideology of Place,” Journal of Architecture and Urbanism 38, no. 1 (January 2, 2014): 63–72.

174

the industrial neighborhood of Pendik, which, they boasted, would “wrap” Istanbul in the

smell of linden (Figure 19).532

Figure 19: Opening ceremony of the linden planting in Pendik. The sign translates to "This smell will wrap Istanbul."

Not everyone interviewed longed for lost smells. One vendor recalled, “In the past it

used to smell worse because of garbage but now it does not smell too much, but of course I

did not miss that smell.” The more sanitized smellscape was not considered as entirely

negative, as many participants expressed gratitude towards cleaner streets and the removal of

lead from petrol. One person commented on the “awful headaches you used to get driving

around” due to the smell of lead. Perhaps most notably, the noxious smell of burning coal no

longer blankets the city. Others reported that they felt more cleaning and organization still

needs to be done, as many now consider “car exhaust” to be a symbolic smell of Istanbul,

along with the smell of sewage, which is overwhelming in certain parts of the city,

particularly in the hot summer months. Furthermore, the Spice Market sits on the banks of the

Golden Horn, a primary inlet of the Bosphorus. The Golden Horn used to be notorious for its

532 Pendik is an industrial center on the southern Anatolian outskirts of Istanbul. The likelihood of the smells of

the linden trees reaching downtown Istanbul is very small. Turkish Ministry of Forest and Water Affairs,

“Ihlamur Kokusu İstanbul’u Saracak [The Smell of Linden Will Wrap Istanbul],” Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Orman

ve Su İşleri Bakanlığı, December 7, 2012, http://www2.ormansu.gov.tr/osb/haberduyuru/guncelhaber/12-12-

07/Ihlamur_Kokusu_%C4%B0stanbul_u_Saracak.aspx?sflang=tr.

175

pollution and smell and underwent a massive cleaning project beginning in the 1980s.

Bedrettin Dalan, the mayor of Istanbul from 1984 to 1989 commented, “Istanbul is like a

palace, but the Golden Horn is like an open toilet in its best salon.”533 Interviewees echoed

this sentiment, with one noting, “When I was a child, the Golden Horn smelled like rotten

eggs. It was nice on the Bosphorus, where both sides smelled of flowers.” People agree that

the Golden Horn’s smell is far less noxious now than in previous decades. However, Istanbul

is surrounded by water on three sides and despite the cleaning campaigns undertaken by the

municipality, the increasing pollution of the Bosphorus has obscured its once iconic and

memorable smell—a salty-and-fresh sea air filled with hints of waterside greens, moss, and

fish—a scent which has been lost and was noted by many interviewees and exhibition

visitors. As one person lamented, “the smell of the sea in the past has disappeared. The smell

of sea [in Istanbul] no longer relieves or comforts people. In these days, I feel the dirtiness of

the sea.”

The disappearing greenery and smells associated with this loss can be contextualized

in a larger trajectory of environmental and economic change that is occurring within the

greater political and social dynamics of the Eminönü Spice Market and Istanbul in general.

The gradual replacement of organic storage and transportation materials in the marketplace,

especially jute (Figure 20), with plastic (Figure 21) reflects similar changes worldwide. As

jute is mainly produced in semi-tropical countries such as Bangladesh, Indian, Pakistan, and

Egypt, the displacement of jute that is occurring in the Spice Market and other marketplaces

around the world highlights the effect of global mercantile relations on local economies.534

Members of our research team learned by talking with local and long-time merchants that the

smellscape of the Spice Market greatly changed as pungent jute was replaced by the more

533 Henry Kamm, “Cleanup Is Reviving Istanbul’s Golden Horn,” The New York Times, June 1, 1986,

http://www.nytimes.com/1986/06/01/world/cleanup-is-reviving-istanbul-s-golden-horn.html.

534 Pat Cooke, “Jute Bag (Bangladesh),” Smellscapes of Eminönü |Documenting and Archiving the Olfactory

Heritage of Istanbul (Istanbul: Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations, June 20, 2012).

176

neutral scent of plastic, and they lamented the loss of such a distinctive representative smell.

They recalled that, in the past, load-bearers carrying jute bags used to walk through Eminönü

and the Spice Market, spreading the scent of jute in their paths, a transient but important

marker of market activity.

In the Spice Market, concerted efforts were made to meet European Union (EU)

standards regarding food safety and to appear more hygienic to tourists with the selection in

2010 of Istanbul as the European Capital of Culture. Many of the open spice stalls in the

market started to use plastic or glass covers to protect some of their vibrant and aromatic

displays of spices such as cardamom, peppers, saffron, and the multi-colored lokum, a

traditional sweet called “Turkish delight.

Figure 20: Peanuts still being sold in a jute bag. Source: Photograph by Emily Arauz, part of the Smellscapes of Eminönü

archive project.

177

Figure 21: Plastic bags ready for use in Eminönü. Photograph by Pat Cooke, part of the Smellscapes of Eminönü archive.

However, with the political changes since 2013, and the decreasing optimism about the

possibility of Turkey acquiring EU membership status, the plastic covers have begun to

disappear.535 Vendors, however, are no longer relying solely on their wares to stimulate the

customer’s olfaction. As in many other commercial zones of Istanbul, shops within the Spice

Market have begun to use artificial, or “constructed,” scent to attract customers. The scent of

Turkish coffee, for example, is spread by some merchants throughout the marketplace with

powerful fans. Additionally, “rosewater is added to the air-ventilation systems,” one seller

told us, while another noted that overall the smell of spices in the market has decreased

because “rent has gone up…. [and we] have to sell more expensive goods to sustain the

business.”

Although these phenomena are part of larger processes of urbanization, several

workers noted that whatever cleaning had been done at the Spice Market, it was usually “for

535 James Kanter, “European Parliament Votes to Suspend Talks With Turkey on E.U. Membership,” The New

York Times, November 24, 2016, sec. Europe, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/24/world/europe/europeanparliament-

turkey-eu-membership.html.

178

the tourists.” Furthermore, they explained, the smellscape is becoming “more artificial”

because of tourism, also noting that the “denseness of the spice smell is being lost.”

Industrialization, a massive population boom, and the economic (and political) power

of the construction sector have all contributed to a massive decrease in public green space in

Istanbul since the Ottoman Era.536 Aktaş’ analysis of the green spaces on Istanbul’s Historical

Peninsula shows that in particular it “suffered terrible environmental degradation” and notes

that the main goal of future heritage work should be to create a “harmonious layout” between

the buildings and spaces, as well as protect the “historic environment.”537

There are disparities in the budgets of municipalities regarding how much money is to

be spent on public green spaces, while at the same time the amount of green space is

decreasing. Efforts to remove and to bring green spaces back to Istanbul are both highly

politicized. The approaches to green spaces within the city are largely tied to ideas about

beauty rather than public health or notions of balancing the concrete and industrialization.538

Municipalities maintain the parks and green spaces within their regions; wealthier

municipalities often have more resources to devote to public beautification and leisure

projects.539 The purpose of these green spaces is not scent in particular, but the relative lack

of nature in dense urban environments makes the sounds, smells, and sights of green spaces

536 Tan Yigitcanlar and Melih Bulu, “Dubaization of Istanbul: Insights from the Knowledge-Based Urban

Development Journey of an Emerging Local Economy,” Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 47,

no. 1 (January 1, 2015): 89–107, https://doi.org/10.1068/a130209p; Zerrin Hoşgör and Reyhan Yigiter,

“Greenway Planning Context in Istanbul-Haliç: A Compulsory Intervention into the Historical Green Corridors

of Golden Horn,” Landscape Research 36, no. 3 (June 1, 2011): 342,

https://doi.org/10.1080/01426397.2011.555529; Ayda Eraydin et al., “Assessment of Urban Policies in Istanbul,

Turkey,” Divercities: Governing Urban Diversity (Faculty of Architecture, Middle East Technical University,

2014), https://www.urbandivercities.eu/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Urban-Policies-on-Diversity-in-

Istanbul.pdf.

537 Nilüfer Kart Aktaş, “The Change Analysis of the Green Spaces of the Historical Peninsula in Istanbul,

Turkey,” in Landscape Archaeology between Art and Science: From a Multi-to an Interdisciplinary Approach,

ed. Sjoerd Kluiving and Erika Guttmann-Bond, Landscape & Heritage Studies Proceedings (Amsterdam:

Amsterdam University Press, 2012), 95.

538 There are some notable exceptions, such as the walking and bicycle paths created along the Bosphorus’

Asian coastline and the creation of running tracks in a select few parks.

539 Some important historical parks are managed by the city rather than the municipality, such as Belgrade

Forest, Emirgan Park, Yıldız Park, and the gardens within the Topkapı Palace grounds.

179

both memorable and desired by many inhabitants.540 The Istanbul city government is

somewhat aware of the olfactory significance of nature; as mentioned previously, in 2012,

100,000 linden tree saplings were planted in Pendik to “wrap” Istanbul with their scent and

also, in 2013, the Topkapı Palace gardens were planted with flowers present during Ottoman

times.541 The flowers planted in the surrounding palace gardens included 10,000 roses, as at

times rosewater was distilled from roses grown in the park.

I present the concept of olfactory economies to denote those industries in which scent

is a crucial component of the final product and in which scent serves as an indicator of

quality. The four presented in “Scent and the City” and in the dissertation—Turkish coffee,

incense, cologne, and rose water and oil—are all integral components of the historical

smellscapes of the city, and especially the Spice Market neighborhood. These industries are

rather small parts, economically, of the large Turkish economy, when compared to industries

like construction. For example, in 2016, Turkish exports were valued at 139 billion USD; the

yearly export value for rose products varies between 7 and 12 million USD.542 At the same

time, these Turkish rose products, almost all of which were exported, make up around half of

the market share of worldwide rose products.543 Although the Turkish rose industry may not

be significant economically within the country, it holds an important economic value in terms

of identity and quality. The unique style and aroma of Turkish coffee in inscribed on the

UNESCO Intangible Heritage List. Cologne (koloyna) remains ubiquitous in Turkish daily

540 The stray animal population in Istanbul also affects the smells of green spaces; several parks around the

Nişantaşı district, for example, are particularly well-known for their cat populations (and their associated smells,

which people often classify as “bad”).

541 “Topkapı Gardens to Again Carry Fragrance of Ottomans,” Hürriyet Daily News, April 23, 2013,

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/topkapi-gardens-to-again-carry-fragrance-of-ottomans-45398; Turkish

Ministry of Forest and Water Affairs, “Ihlamur Kokusu İstanbul’u Saracak [The Smell of Linden Will Wrap

Istanbul].”

542 “Turkey Exports, Imports, and Trade Partners,” Observatory of Economic Complexity, accessed March 1,

2018, https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/tur/; F. H. Giray and M. C. Örmerci Kart, “Economics of

Rosa Damascena in Isparta, Turkey,” Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science 18, no. 5 (2012): 658–667.

543 Ayla Jean Yackley, “Turkish Rose Farmers Struggle to Keep Tradition Alive,” Reuters, July 2, 2015,

https://www.reuters.com/article/turkey-roses/turkish-rose-farmers-struggle-to-keep-tradition-aliveidUSL5N0ZF35L20150702.

180

life and incense, while not used as commonly as in the past, is still used and holds religious

significance. One of the key components of these olfactory economies is the unchanging

nature of their scents.544 This quality cannot be understated: these olfactory economies and

their associated scents span generations and are integral components of both creating and

accessing communal and individual memories.

Conclusion

There have been several majored critiques leveled at most olfactory studies: their inherent

justification (our deodorized world), their penchant for extremes, and the lack of diversity,

with most studies either focused on Europe or non-industrial rural societies. Roy Porter wrote

in the introduction to Corbin’s The Foul and the Fragrant that “today’s history comes

deodorized.”545 Since that pioneering work, the tone of most sensory studies has followed

suit: because our modern world is sanitized and deodorized we should study the more

sensuous past. All sensory studies (this dissertation included) use the “absence” and “loss” of

sensory experience in the present day to justify research on this topic. However, although our

spaces have changed and are more sanitized, but they are still sensory spaces. We study art

because it enchants us and because it provides visual clues into the societal values and

history. Smellscapes are also created by humans and they can enchant and disgust while also

providing clues into the values embedded in our societies and histories. The study of smell

does not need to be justified by its supposed “absence” in the modern era.

As this study is concerned with heritage and the impact of sensory studies on this

field, it does require, at least to some degree, the same justification that motivates other

heritage projects. Smellscapes are changing and we are losing an invaluable sensory past. As

544 The major exception to this unchanging nature is Turkish cologne; new scents are constantly being produced.

However, the “classic” scents, such as lemon and lavender, never go out of fashion and the scents of them are

not modified.

545 Roy Porter, “Introduction,” in The Foul and the Fragrant: Odor and the French Social Imagination, by A

Corbin (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988), v.

181

to the critique of extremes, this dissertation has strived to do the opposite; rather than

focusing on the extremes, it has looked at smells in everyday life in Istanbul, both in the past

and present. By studying a non-Western industrial society and city, this dissertation

complements the existing body of work on olfaction and culture.

Currently, cultural heritage practitioners and anthropologists are seeking ways to

“decolonize” cultural heritage. As discussed in the literature review in chapter 1, notions of

heritage have often been based on Western ideals, which often exalt aesthetic and

architectural values. These values are specifically based in the Enlightenment, which was,

without question, a period of time and a cultural understanding that prioritized sight.546

Attempts to decolonize cultural heritage has largely focused on working with indigenous

groups so that they have a greater say and ownership throughout the entire process.547

Methods of decolonization have also focused on recognizing heritages and values outside of

the tangible, material heritage. The official recognition of intangible heritage was a small step

in this direction. Unfortunately, there still tends to be a disparity and dichotomy between

“Western” material heritage and “Indigenous” intangible heritage. O’Keeffe argues that we

need to move beyond this division, noting that the “implication that the capacity to ‘read’

ancestral memory and locate identity in the non-monumentalized landscapes is the preserve

of indigenous non-western peoples (as documented by Morphy, 1995 and Santos-Granero,

546 Vila, “Introduction: Powers, Pleasures, and Perils of the Senses in the Enlightenment Era,” 1.

547 Julie Hollowell and George Nicholas, “Using Ethnographic Methods to Articulate Community-Based

Conceptions of Cultural Heritage Management,” Public Archaeology 8, no. 2–3 (August 1, 2009): 141–60,

https://doi.org/10.1179/175355309X457196; Shadreck Chirikure and Gilbert Pwiti, “Community Involvement

in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Management: An Assessment from Case Studies in Southern Africa and

Elsewhere,” Current Anthropology 49, no. 3 (June 1, 2008): 467–85, https://doi.org/10.1086/588496; Atalay,

“Indigenous Archaeology as Decolonizing Practice”; Claire Smith and H. Martin Wobst, Indigenous

Archaeologies: Decolonising Theory and Practice (Routledge, 2004); Ellen Hoobler, “‘To Take Their Heritage

in Their Hands’: Indigenous Self-Representation and Decolonization in the Community Museums of Oaxaca,

Mexico,” The American Indian Quarterly 30, no. 3 (September 6, 2006): 441–60,

https://doi.org/10.1353/aiq.2006.0024; Marie Battiste and James Youngblood (Sa’ke’j) Henderson, Protecting

Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage: A Global Challenge (UBC Press, 2000); Ferdinand de Jong and Michael

Rowlands, Reclaiming Heritage: Alternative Imaginaries of Memory in West Africa (Routledge, 2016);

Ladislaus M. Semali and Tutaleni I. Asino, “Decolonizing Cultural Heritage of Indigenous People and Their

Knowledge from Images in Global Films,” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 2, no. 2 (2013).

182

1998, for example) is a troubling one.”548 As explicated throughout the dissertation, scent and

a sensory approaches provide new avenues through which we can counter ocular-centrist

Enlightenment ideals that pervade in heritage and apply them worldwide. Through the

evocation of memory and emotion, scent is both intensely personal and communal. The

senses are their own languages, their own vernaculars; silent, yet all about stories and lived

experiences. This opportunity to for stories complements Appadurai’s argument that

decolonization should be approached as a “dialogue” with the past and “not a simple

dismantling.”549 Furthermore, scent and sensory heritages can help engage with and

communicate “difficult” and “uneasy” aspects of history, memory, emotion, and identity that

may not be part of the official heritage record. Decolonizing cultural heritage requires

acknowledging that there is not one official “Heritage” and that heritage can stem from many

sources of community, identity, and histories. Sham, building on Hall’s arguments that

multicultural heritage involves complexity and interconnectedness, states that the

decolonization process within cultural heritage requires a critical engagement with both

“cultural hybridization and cosmopolitanism.”550

By acknowledging the sensory, and scent in particular, in our heritage conversations,

we can deepen this necessary critical engagement and move beyond the Western ideals that

frame many heritage discussions. Furthermore, evoking scent and the other senses in cultural

heritage practice as a universal and underlying heritage and lived experience can help

dismantle many of the binary codes that appear in Western understandings of the modern

world that divide the world by religion, socio-economic status, and concepts of modernity.551

548 Tadhg O’Keeffe, “Landscape and Memory: Historiography, Theory, Methodology,” in Heritage, Memory

and the Politics of Identity: New Perspectives on the Cultural Landscape, ed. Niamh Moore and Yvonne

Whelan (Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2012), 6.

549 Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (Minneapolis: University of

Minnesota Press, 1996), 89.

550 Desmond Hok-Man Sham, “Heritage as Resistance : Preservation and Decolonization in Southeast Asian

Cities” (Goldsmiths, University of London, 2015), 203, http://research.gold.ac.uk/12308/.

551 Naoki Sakai, Translation and Subjectivity: On “Japan” and Cultural Nationalism (Minneapolis: University

of Minnesota Press, 1997), 154 as cited in Desmond Hok-Man Sham, “Heritage as Resistance : Preservation and

183

Reinarz notes in the conclusion to his book that most olfactory studies have been

focused on extremes and often present these extremes in a binary-fashion.552 Good versus bad.

The foul versus the fragrant. In real, daily life, we encounter extremes, but these extremes are

tempered and the experience is one which is nuanced and subtle. The data gathered from the

interviews, oral-history, and exhibition surveys conducted for this dissertation do not support

such a divided bifurcated approach to our assessment of scent. Those interviewed did not use

essentialist superlatives such as the “best” or “worst” smells. This polarity and hedonic

connotation are rather poetic and evocative and as such often get added by researchers and

writers during the interpretive process. In fact, those interviewed both in the oral history

project and at “Scent and the City” expressed nostalgia and a bit of sadness for almost all the

lost smells of Istanbul and their pasts, even those considered “bad.”553 What we would

classify as an incredibly noxious smell—e.g. the smell of the leather factories in the

neighborhood of Zeytinburnu—visitors who spoke about them acknowledged the general

unpleasant smell, but their observations were coupled with nostalgic memories that included

the scent (such as driving past the factories to go on a family picnic) and these helped to

moderate the opinions shared about these negative smells. Many exhibition visitors

approached the “goat” smell with hesitation, yet upon smelling were reminded of visiting

friends and family in villages, or their own upbringing in on, and these more-pleasant

memories tempered the more cerebral “goats must smell bad” belief.

In the beginning of 2018, the exhibition “Scent and the City” will travel to the

Erimtan Museum in Ankara, Turkey. The exhibition will be slightly modified to

accommodate the new location. In particular, the map will be changed from Istanbul to

Decolonization in Southeast Asian Cities” (Goldsmiths, University of London, 2015), 21,

http://research.gold.ac.uk/12308/.

552 Reinarz, Past Scents, 210.

553 Among everyone I talked to and surveyed, nobody missed the smell of the Golden Horn, which discussed in

Chapter 2, was constantly considered one of the worst-smelling parts of Istanbul until it was cleaned in the

1990s.

184

Ankara and the text will be changed so to help visitors reflect upon both their immediate

surroundings and that of Istanbul (which, it can be presumed, the large majority have visited).

We hope that the exhibition will continue to travel, perhaps to places outside of Turkey. The

potential journey of such an exhibition, one that is built on the significant link between smell,

memory, and emotion, begs the questions of how the exhibition would function and how

visitors would relate to it. Although visitors may not have ever visited Istanbul, the scents

themselves would serve as an introduction to the city and also be part of a shared experience,

as many of the scents would still be recognizable and significant to visitors in different

contexts.

More in-depth questions arise when considering how Turkish expatriates and the

larger Turkish diaspora community might interact with the exhibition. Memory is an

important aspect of such communities, even when the younger generations may have only

visited Turkey but never lived there. This question cannot be discussed without introducing

the issue of nostalgia. Would “Scent and the City” induce nostalgia in visitors of Turkish

origin? In Istanbul and Ankara, the exhibition was intentionally curated so as not to be a

simple ode to the past, but rather a critical reflection on the rich sensory past and present of

the region. Some visitors, however, certainly felt nostalgia while experiencing the exhibition.

If removed from that context and instead presented to a diaspora community in which

memory of “home” is an important aspect of identity, it might be hard to avoid feelings of

nostalgia. The concept of nostalgia is rather controversial within heritage studies; it has been

maligned for many years as “facilitating a reactionary heritage politics, or for providing the

emotive encouragement for what some critics have defined as ‘bogus’ or ‘fake’ history.”554

554 Gary Campbell, Laurajane Smith, and Margaret Wetherell, “Nostalgia and Heritage: Potentials,

Mobilisations and Effects,” International Journal of Heritage Studies 23, no. 7 (August 9, 2017): 609,

https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2017.1324558.

185

Within the context of modern Turkey, nostalgia for the past is further complicated by

a very intentional campaign by the government to restore the grandeur and strength of the

Ottoman Empire. This campaign has been dubbed “neo-Ottomanism” by both supporters and

detractors is based on a “modern but nostalgic and traditionalist re-interpretation of the

Ottoman legacy.”555 This ideology formed the basis for Turkish foreign policy in the past

decade. It has also disseminated into the cultural sphere, with a seemingly never-ending

supply and demand of Ottoman-era television shows and movies and the desire to reclaim the

Ottoman (and often Islamic) identity of spaces, which has resulted in controversial

construction plans.556

Despite the negative connotations often associated with nostalgia, and with current

Turkish nostalgia, new studies on cultural heritage and nostalgia are suggesting that we need

to consider nostalgia as what it is: an emotion. Smith and Campbell argue that nostalgia can

be “sincere, authentic, enabling, present and future centred and capable of positively

addressing trauma” and “an explicit process that critically engages and navigates ways of

positively addressing social change.”557 In the context of the exhibition being displayed in a

city with a large Turkish diaspora, we need to acknowledge that nostalgia will be an emotion

some visitors will experience. However, rather than viewing that as a negative consequence,

nostalgia could be interpreted as an emotional response to the exhibition, one that could help

facilitate reflection of changes, both good and bad, over time (a theme already highlighted in

555 Efe Can Gürcan and Efe Peker, “Turkeyis Gezi Park Demonstrations of 2013: A Marxian Analysis of the

Political Moment,” Socialism and Democracy 28, no. 1 (2014): 75–76; Yılmaz Çolak, “Ottomanism vs.

Kemalism: Collective Memory and Cultural Pluralism in 1990s Turkey,” Middle Eastern Studies 42, no. 4

(2006): 587–602.

556 Josh Carney, “Re-Creating History and Recreating Publics: The Success and Failure of Recent Ottoman

Costume Dramas in Turkish Media,” European Journal of Turkish Studies 19 (2014): 1–25; Gül, Dee, and

Cünük, “Istanbul’s Taksim Square and Gezi Park: The Place of Protest and Ideology of Place”; Gürcan and

Peker, “Turkeyis Gezi Park Demonstrations of 2013: A Marxian Analysis of the Political Moment”; Ebru

Soytemel, “‘Belonging’ in the Gentrified Golden Horn/Halic Neighborhoods in Istanbul,” Urban Geography 36,

no. 1 (2015): 64–89.

557 Laurajane Smith and Gary Campbell, “‘Nostalgia for the Future’: Memory, Nostalgia and the Politics of

Class,” International Journal of Heritage Studies 23, no. 7 (August 9, 2017): 612, 614,

https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2017.1321034.

186

the exhibition). These new approaches to nostalgia view it is motivating, active, embodied,

and a way to determine “authenticity,” “genuineness,” and “sincerity.”558 With newer

considerations of nostalgia in mind, what opportunities are presented when scent as

intangible heritage is presented to a multi-generational diaspora community? How would the

dynamics of emotion and memory develop, especially as the feeling of nostalgia could make

the experience more emotional? What would the response of these communities be to the

narrative of change, as many of them may not have lived in Turkey in recent years?

There are still many unanswered questions and opportunities for future research

within sensory studies and cultural heritage. The underlying question, however, is a quite

basic one: what does it mean to protect olfactory heritage and values and how can we do so?

The acknowledgment of the role of senses in lived experiences is a start, as is helping people

recognize and remember. Smells can be researched, cataloged, and even archived, to an

extent. Verbeek coins olfactory heritage as “volatile heritage,” noting that it is invisible,

uncontrollable, and elusive, and that we do not yet have the technology to conserve

completely and diffuse historical smells.559 We can save the names of smells and even the

chemical signature of smells (if they can be captured via headspace technology). We can

record people’s impressions and memories. However, olfactory heritage is more than the

names of the smells themselves; it is the emotional connections, individual and communal

memories, values, and processes that constitute and embody all intangible heritage.560 As

Davis and Thys-Şenocak assert, protecting olfactory heritage necessitates “not only

contemplating and preserving the sensory outputs of a place, but also the inputs, values, and

people that structure and support them.”561 This dissertation offers that by harnessing

558 Campbell, Smith, and Wetherell, “Nostalgia and Heritage,” 609.

559 Caro Verbeek, “Scented Colours: The Role of Olfaction in Futurism and Olfactory (Re-) Constructions,” in

Sensory Arts and Design, ed. Ian Heywood (New York: Bloomsbury, 2017), 115–117.

560 Nicolas Adell et al., Between Imagined Communities and Communities of Practice - Participation, Territory

and the Making of Heritage (Universitätsverlag Göttingen, 2015), 9, http://www.oapen.org/record/610380.

561 Davis and Thys-Şenocak, “Heritage and Scent,” 737.

187

communal and individual memory we can expand our notion of the sense of place to include

embodied, sensory heritage, which, as May notes, extends “beyond the boundaries of

residence to include the wider sense of belonging.”562 Istanbul’s Spice Market, already

considered a cultural heritage site, is open to being understood as collectively “belonging” to

the Turkish people, and particularly by the communities that live and work in its environs. As

documented in this dissertation, the process of globalization has drastically changed the Spice

Market and its olfactory identity, processes which Hough argues deprives regional landscapes

of their unique features.563 Ultimately, we need include the olfactory and sensory experience

as part of heritage discourse. It needs to be talked about and considered as places undergo

change and as communities consider their heritage.

It is my hope that the methodologies and framework used in my fieldwork, exhibition,

and this dissertation can be utilized by other scholars who wish to explore the sensory worlds

of cities. Furthermore, I encourage all scholars to think not just about information that can be

collected, but how the narratives and values that make something significant can be shared

beyond academia. The success of “Scent and the City” as both an experimental smell-based

exhibition and as a method for collecting sharing research is encouraging. As museums

become more aware of the values of embodied approaches there should many more

opportunities for collaboration. Ultimately, there is much to be gained as cultural heritage

begins to expand its understanding of what constitutes the “intangible.” As this dissertation

suggests, it must include smellscapes, as well as the other senses, and the spirit of

embodiment.

562 Jon May, “Of Nomads and Vagrants: Single Homelessness and Narratives of Home as Place,” Environment

and Planning D: Society and Space 18, no. 6 (December 1, 2000): 748, https://doi.org/10.1068/d203t.

563 Michael Hough, Out of Place: Restoring Identity to the Regional Landscape (New Haven: Yale University

Press, 1990).

188

Bibliography

“About.” Urban Cultural Heritage & Creative Practice (blog), November 3, 2011.

https://urbanheritages.wordpress.com/about/.

Ackerman, Diane. A Natural History of the Senses. New York: Vintage, 1991.

Adams, M. D., G. Moore, T. J. Cox, B. Croxford, M. Refaee, and S. J. Sharples. “The 24-

Hour City: Residents’ Sensorial Experiences.” The Senses and Society 2, no. 2 (July

1, 2007): 201–16.

Adell, Nicolas, Regina F. Bendix, Chiara Bortolotto, and Markus Tauschek. Between

Imagined Communities and Communities of Practice - Participation, Territory and

the Making of Heritage. Universitätsverlag Göttingen, 2015.

http://www.oapen.org/record/610380.

Aggleton, John P., and Louise Waskett. “The Ability of Odours to Serve as State-Dependent

Cues for Real-World Memories: Can Viking Smells Aid the Recall of Viking

Experiences?” British Journal of Psychology 90 (1999): 1–7.

Akasoy, Anna, and Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim. “Along The Musk Routes: Exchanges Between Tibet

and The Islamic World.” Asian Medicine 3, no. 2 (June 1, 2007): 217–40.

https://doi.org/10.1163/157342008X307857.

Aktaş, Nilüfer Kart. “The Change Analysis of the Green Spaces of the Historical Peninsula in

Istanbul, Turkey.” In Landscape Archaeology between Art and Science: From a

Multi-to an Interdisciplinary Approach, edited by Sjoerd Kluiving and Erika

Guttmann-Bond, 81–96. Landscape & Heritage Studies Proceedings. Amsterdam:

Amsterdam University Press, 2012.

Allam, Delaunay-El, Robert Soussignan, Bruno Patris, Luc Marlier, Benoist Schaal, and

others. “Long-Lasting Memory for an Odor Acquired at the Mother’s Breast.”

Developmental Science 13, no. 6 (2010): 849–863.

Allen, Kate. “Stop and Smell the Romans: Odor in Roman Literature.” PhD Dissertation,

University of Michigan, 2015.

Ambrose, Timothy, and Crispin Paine. “Museum Basics.” In Museum Basics, 2nd ed.

London: Routledge, 2006.

Amicis, Edmondo de. Constantinople. Translated by Stephen Parkin. Reprint edition. Alma

Classics, 2013.

“ANAMED.” Accessed September 17, 2017. https://anamed.ku.edu.tr/en.

ANAMED. SERGİ: Koku ve Şehir | EXHIBITION: Scent and the City, Advisors. Istanbul,

2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFuzmQ68pvw.

———. SERGİ: Koku ve Şehir | EXHIBITION: Scent and the City, Curator and Designers.

Istanbul, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQvzQ0w8HVY&t=.

“Anamed—#KokuveŞehir.” Facebook. Accessed September 18, 2017.

https://www.facebook.com/Anamed.kocuni/videos/1749473888601451/.

Appadurai, Arjun. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis:

University of Minnesota Press, 1996.

Arizpe, Lourdes, and Cristina Amescua, eds. Anthropological Perspectives on Intangible

Cultural Heritage. SpringerBriefs in Environment, Security, Developement and Peace

6. New York: Springer, 2013.

Arnold, David. The Age of Discovery, 1400-1600. Psychology Press, 2002.

Arshamian, Artin, Emilia Iannilli, Johannes C. Gerber, Johan Willander, Jonas Persson, Han-

Seok Seo, Thomas Hummel, and Maria Larsson. “The Functional Neuroanatomy of

Odor Evoked Autobiographical Memories Cued by Odors and Words.”

Neuropsychologia 51, no. 1 (January 1, 2013): 123–31.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.10.023.

189

Atalay, Sonya. “Indigenous Archaeology as Decolonizing Practice.” The American Indian

Quarterly 30, no. 3 (2006): 280–310. https://doi.org/10.1353/aiq.2006.0015.

“Atelier Rebul.” Atelier Rebul. Accessed September 18, 2017. https://atelierrebul.com.tr/.

Atkins, Richard Kenneth. “Toward an Objective Phenomenological Vocabulary: How Seeing

a Scarlet Red Is like Hearing a Trumpet’s Blare.” Phenomenology and the Cognitive

Sciences 12, no. 4 (December 1, 2013): 837–58. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-012-

9288-5.

Augé, Marc. A Sense for the Other: The Timeliness and Relevance of Anthropology. Stanford

University Press, 1998.

Axel, Richard. “The Molecular Logic of Smell.” Scientific American 273, no. 4 (1995): 154–

159.

Bacon, Francis. The Essayes Or Counsels, Civill and Morall. Edited by Michael Kiernan.

Clarendon Press, 1985.

Baer, Marc David. “The Great Fire of 1660 and the Islamization of Christian and Jewish

Space in Istanbul.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 36, no. 2 (May

2004): 159–81. https://doi.org/10.1017/S002074380436201X.

Baltussen, Han. “Ancient Philosophers on the Senses of Smell.” In Smell and the Ancient

Senses, edited by Mark Bradley, 30–45. New York: Routledge, 2015.

Barbara, Anna, and Anthony Perliss. Invisible Architecture: Experiencing Places through the

Sense of Smell. Milan: Skira-Berenice, 2006.

Barkat-Defradas, Melissa, and Elisabeth Motte-Florac. Words for Odours: Language Skills

and Cultural Insights. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016.

Barnes, D S. The Great Stink of Paris and the Nineteenth-Century Struggle against Filth and

Germs. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006.

Bartosiewicz, László. “‘There’s Something Rotten in the State...’: Bad Smells In Antiquity.”

European Journal of Archaeology 6, no. 2 (August 2003): 175–95.

https://doi.org/10.1177/146195710362004.

Battiste, Marie, and James Youngblood (Sa’ke’j) Henderson. Protecting Indigenous

Knowledge and Heritage: A Global Challenge. UBC Press, 2000.

Baykan, Ayşegül, Zerrin İren Boynudelik, Burak Sevingen, and Belkıs Uluoğlu. Büyük

Valide Han: Tarihi Belleğimiz İçinde. Istanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, 2015.

Baykan, Ayşegül, Zerrin İren Boynudelik, Belkıs Uluoğlu, and Burak Sevingen.

“Contestations over a Living Heritage Site: The Case of Büyük Valide Han.” In

Orienting Istanbul: Cultural Capital of Europe?, edited by Deniz Göktürk, Levent

Soysal, and Ipek Tureli, 71–87. New York: Routledge, 2010.

Baykan, Ayşegül, Zerrin İren Boynudelik, Belkıs Uluoğlu, Burak Sevingen, and Orton

Akıncı. “Buyuk Valide Han: A Study of Place-Making in Istanbul,” 2017.

http://buyukvalidehan.yildiz.edu.tr/index_eng.html.

BBC Earth Lab. How Do You Smell? | Greg Foot, n.d.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbusJuQ44PA.

Beauchamp, Gary K., and Julie A. Mennella. “Early Flavor Learning and Its Impact on Later

Feeding Behavior.” Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition 48 (2009):

S25–S30.

Bedford, Leslie. “Storytelling: The Real Work of Museums.” Curator: The Museum Journal

44, no. 1 (January 1, 2001): 27–34. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2151-

6952.2001.tb00027.x.

Beek, Walter E. A. van. “Dirty Smith : Smell as a Social Frontier among the Kapsiki / Higi of

North Cameroon and North-Eastern Nigeria.” Africa: Journal of the International

African Institute 62, no. 1 (1992): 38–58.

190

Bembibre, Cecilia, and Matija Strlič. “Smell of Heritage: A Framework for the Identification,

Analysis and Archival of Historic Odours.” Heritage Science 5 (April 7, 2017): 2.

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40494-016-0114-1.

Benjamin, Walter. Illuminations. Random House, 2015.

Bennett, Tony. The Birth of the Museum: History, Theory, Politics. Routledge, 1995.

Betts, Eleanor. Senses of the Empire: Multisensory Approaches to Roman Culture. Taylor &

Francis, 2017.

Big Think. Unlocking the Mysterious Connection Between Taste, Smell, and Memory, n.d.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-TTHK40u4w.

Bilgin, İhsan, Günkut Akın, Burak Boysan, Sibel Bozdoğan, Murat Güvenç, Tansel

Korkmaz, and Eda Yücesoy, eds. İstanbul 1910–2010 Kent, Yapılı Çevre ve Mimarlık

Kültürü Sergisi: City, Built Environment and Architectural Culture Exhibition.

Istanbul: Istanbul Bilgi University Publications, 2010.

Bilsel, Cânâ. “'Les Transformations d’Istanbul’: Henri Prost’s Planning of Istanbul (1936-

1951).” A|Z ITU Journal of the Faculty of Architecture 8, no. 1 (2011): 100–116.

Black, Graham. The Engaging Museum: Developing Museums for Visitor Involvement.

Psychology Press, 2005.

Block, Eric. “What’s That Smell? A Controversial Theory of Olfaction Deemed

Implausible.” The Conversation. Accessed August 6, 2017.

http://theconversation.com/whats-that-smell-a-controversial-theory-of-olfactiondeemed-

implausible-42449.

Block, Eric, Seogjoo Jang, Hiroaki Matsunami, Sivakumar Sekharan, Bérénice Dethier,

Mehmed Z. Ertem, Sivaji Gundala, et al. “Implausibility of the Vibrational Theory of

Olfaction.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112, no. 21 (May 26,

2015): E2766–74. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1503054112.

Bordegoni, Monica, Marina Carulli, Yuan Shi, and Daniele Ruscio. “Investigating the Effects

of Odour Integration in Reading and Learning Experiences.” Interaction Design and

Architecture(s) Journal, no. 32 (2017): 104–25.

Boswell, Rosabelle. “Scents of Identity: Fragrance as Heritage in Zanzibar.” Journal of

Contemporary African Studies 26, no. 3 (July 2008): 295–311.

https://doi.org/10.1080/02589000802332507.

Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Harvard

University Press, 1984.

Bourgeois, A. E., and Joanne O. Bourgeois. “Theories of Olfaction: A Review.” Revista

Interamericana de Psicologia/Interamerican Journal of Psychology 4, no. 1 (1967).

https://journal.sipsych.org/index.php/IJP/article/view/575.

Bousfield, J. “The World Seen As a Color Chart.” In Classifications in Their Social Context,

edited by RF Ellen and D Reason, 195–220. London: Academic, n.d.

Boyar, Ebru, and Kate Fleet. A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul. Cambridge University

Press, 2010.

Bozdogan, Sibel. Modernism and Nation Building: Turkish Architectural Culture in the Early

Republic. University of Washington Press, 2001.

———. “Reading Ottoman Architecture Through Modernist Lenses: Nationalist

Historiography And The ‘New Architecture’ In The Early Republic,” November 26,

2007, 199–222. https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004163201.i-310.33.

Bradley, Mark, ed. Smell and the Ancient Senses. London: Routledge, 2014.

Bremner, Elizabeth A., Joel D. Mainland, Rehan M. Khan, and Noam Sobel. “The Prevalence

of Androstenone Anosmia.” Chemical Senses 28, no. 5 (June 1, 2003): 423–32.

https://doi.org/10.1093/chemse/28.5.423.

191

Breu, Marlene R. “The Role of Scents and the Body in Turkey.” In Dress Sense: Emotional

and Sensory Experiences of the Body and Clothes, edited by Donald Clay Johnson

and Helen Bradley Foster. Berg Publishers, 2007.

Brewster, Stephen, David McGookin, and Christopher Miller. “Olfoto: Designing a Smell-

Based Interaction.” In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in

Computing Systems, 653–662. ACM, 2006.

http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1124869.

Brown, Michael F. Who Owns Native Culture? Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004.

Buchan, William. Domestic Medicine: Or, A Treatise on the Prevention and Cure of Diseases

by Regimen and Simple Medicines: With an Appendix, Containing a Dispensatory for

the Use of Private Practitioners. A. Strahan; T. Cadell ... ; and J. Balfour, and W.

Creech, at Edinburgh., 1790.

Buchanan, Tony W. “Retrieval of Emotional Memories.” Psychological Bulletin 133, no. 5

(2007): 761.

Buck, L., and R. Axel. “A Novel Multigene Family May Encode Odorant Receptors: A

Molecular Basis for Odor Recognition.” Cell 65, no. 1 (April 5, 1991): 175–87.

Buck, Linda B. “Unraveling the Sense of Smell (Nobel Lecture).” Angewandte Chemie

International Edition 44, no. 38 (2005): 6128–6140.

Bull, Michael. “Thinking about Sound, Proximity, and Distance in Western Experience: The

Case of Odysseus’s Walkman.” In Hearing Cultures: Essays on Sound, Listening and

Modernity, edited by Veit Erlmann, 173–190. Bloomsbury, 2004.

Bulut, Mehmet. Ottoman-Dutch Economic Relations in the Early Modern Period 1571-1699.

Uitgeverij Verloren, 2001.

Burenhult, Niclas, and Asifa Majid. “Olfaction in Aslian Ideology and Language.” The

Senses and Society 6, no. 1 (2011): 19–29.

Burke, Andrew. “"Do You Smell Fumes? ": Health, Hygiene, and Suburban Life.” ESC:

English Studies in Canada 32, no. 4 (June 20, 2008): 147–68.

https://doi.org/10.1353/esc.0.0004.

Burr, Chandler. The Emperor of Scent: A Story of Perfume, Obsession, and the Last Mystery

of the Senses. Random House Publishing Group, 2003.

Bushdid, C., M. O. Magnasco, L. B. Vosshall, and A. Keller. “Humans Can Discriminate

More than 1 Trillion Olfactory Stimuli.” Science 343, no. 6177 (March 21, 2014):

1370–72. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1249168.

Busse, Daniela, Philipp Kudella, Nana-Maria Grüning, Günter Gisselmann, Sonja Ständer,

Thomas Luger, Frank Jacobsen, et al. “A Synthetic Sandalwood Odorant Induces

Wound-Healing Processes in Human Keratinocytes via the Olfactory Receptor

OR2AT4.” Journal of Investigative Dermatology 134, no. 11 (November 1, 2014):

2823–32. https://doi.org/10.1038/jid.2014.273.

Campbell, Gary, Laurajane Smith, and Margaret Wetherell. “Nostalgia and Heritage:

Potentials, Mobilisations and Effects.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 23,

no. 7 (August 9, 2017): 609–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2017.1324558.

Campbell, William W. Pocket Guide and Toolkit to Dejong’s Neurologic Examination.

Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2007.

Campen, Cretien van. The Proust Effect: The Senses as Doorways to Lost Memories.

Translated by Julian Ross. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.

http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199685875.001.000

1/acprof-9780199685875.

Carney, Josh. “Re-Creating History and Recreating Publics: The Success and Failure of

Recent Ottoman Costume Dramas in Turkish Media.” European Journal of Turkish

Studies 19 (2014): 1–25.

192

Casale, Giancarlo. “The Ottoman Administration of the Spice Trade in the Sixteenth-Century

Red Sea and Persian Gulf.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient

49, no. 2 (2006): 170–98. https://doi.org/10.2307/25165138.

Caseau, Béatrice. “Christian Bodies: The Senses and Early Byzantine Christianity.” In Desire

and Denial in Byzantium: Papers from the Thirty-First Spring Symposium of

Byzantine Studies, Brighton, March 1997, edited by Liz James, 101–110. 6.

Aldershot: Ashgate Variorum, 1999.

———. “Incense and Fragrances: From House to Church: A Study of the Introduction of

Incense into Early Byzantine Christian Churches.” In Material Culture and Well-

Being in Byzantium (400–1453), edited by Michael Grünbart, Ewald Kislinger, Anna

Muthesius, and Dionysios Ch. Stathakopoulos, 75–92. Vienna: Österreichische

Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2007.

Castel, Cécilia, Xavier Fernandez, and Jean-Jacques Filippi. “Perfumes in Mediterranean

Antiquity.” Flavour and Fragrance Journal, no. June (2009): 326–34.

https://doi.org/10.1002/ffj.

Çelik, Zeynep. The Remaking of Istanbul: Portrait of an Ottoman City in the Nineteenth

Century. University of California Press, 1986.

Chalke, H. D., J. R. Dewhurst, and C. W. Ward. “Loss of Sense of Smell in Old People: A

Possible Contributory Factor in Accidental Poisoning from Town Gas.” Public Health

72, no. 6 (September 1958): 223–30.

Chaudhury, Dipesh, Laura Manella, Adolfo Arellanos, Olga Escanilla, Thomas A. Cleland,

and Christiane Linster. “Olfactory Bulb Habituation to Odor Stimuli.” Behavioral

Neuroscience 124, no. 4 (August 2010): 490–99. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020293.

Chess, A., L. Buck, M. M. Dowling, R. Axel, and J. Ngai. “Molecular Biology of Smell:

Expression of the Multigene Family Encoding Putative Odorant Receptors.” In Cold

Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology, 57:505–516. Cold Spring Harbor

Laboratory Press, 1992. http://symposium.cshlp.org/content/57/505.extract.

Chirikure, Shadreck, and Gilbert Pwiti. “Community Involvement in Archaeology and

Cultural Heritage Management: An Assessment from Case Studies in Southern Africa

and Elsewhere.” Current Anthropology 49, no. 3 (June 1, 2008): 467–85.

https://doi.org/10.1086/588496.

Chronis, Athinodoros. “Constructing Heritage at the Gettysburg Storyscape.” Annals of

Tourism Research 32, no. 2 (2005): 387–407.

———. “Heritage of the Senses: Collective Remembering as an Embodied Praxis.” Tourist

Studies 6, no. 3 (December 1, 2006): 267–96.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1468797607076674.

Chrysostom, Saint John. On Wealth and Poverty. St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1984.

Çin, Tümay. “Transformation of a Public Space in Eminönü.” MSc, Middle East Technical

University, 2006.

Ciolfi, Luigina. “Embodiment and Place Experienced in Heritage Technology Design.” In

The International Handbook of Museum Studies: Museum Media, 419–46. Hoboken,

NJ: Wiley, 2015.

Classen, Constance. “Foundations for an Anthropology of the Senses.” International Social

Science Journal 49, no. 153 (1997): 401–412.

———. “Museum Manners: The Sensory Life of the Early Museum.” Journal of Social

History 40, no. 4 (July 1, 2007): 895–914.

———. “The Odor of the Other: Olfactory Symbolism and Cultural Categories.” Ethos 20,

no. 2 (1992): 133–66.

193

———. “The Witch’s Senses: Sensory Ideologies and Transgressive Femininities from the

Renaissance to Modernity.” In Empire of the Senses, edited by David Howes, 70–84.

Berg Publishers Oxford, UK, 2005.

———. Worlds of Sense: Exploring the Senses in History and Across Cultures. Routledge,

1993.

Classen, Constance, and David Howes. “The Museum as Sensescape: Western Sensibilities

and Indigenous Artifacts.” In Sensible Objects: Colonialism, Museums and Material

Culture, edited by Elizabeth Edwards, Chris Gosden, and Ruth Phillips, 199–222.

Oxford: Berg, 2006.

Classen, Constance, David Howes, and Anthony Synnott. Aroma: The Cultural History of

Smell. London: Routledge, 1994.

Clayton. “What Men Should Smell Like.” What Men Should Smell Like. Accessed

September 15, 2017. http://whatmenshouldsmelllike.com.

Clements, Ashley. “Divine Secrets and Presence.” In Smell and the Ancient Senses, edited by

Mark Bradley, 46–59. London: Routledge, 2014.

Coble, Theresa G., David Smaldone, Catherine McCarthy, and Tammy Roberson.

“Transforming History, Creating a Legacy: An Evaluation of Exhibit Effectiveness at

Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site.” Little Rock, Arkansas:

National Park Service, September 2010.

Cohen, Colleen Ballerino. “Olfactory Constitution of the Postmodern Body: Nature

Challenged, Nature Adorned.” In Tattoo, Torture, Mutilation, and Adornment: The

Denaturalization of the Body in Culture and Text, edited by Frances E. Mascia-Lees

and P. Sharpe, 48–78. SUNY Press, 1992.

Çolak, Yılmaz. “Ottomanism vs. Kemalism: Collective Memory and Cultural Pluralism in

1990s Turkey.” Middle Eastern Studies 42, no. 4 (2006): 587–602.

Coleman, Simon, and Bob Simpson. “Glossary of Terms.” Discover Anthropology. Accessed

September 6, 2017. https://www.discoveranthropology.org.uk/aboutanthropology/

glossaryofterms.html.

Condillac, E. B. de. Treatise on the Sensations. Translated by G. Carr. Los Angeles:

University of Southern California Press, 1930.

Cooke, Pat. “Jute Bag (Bangladesh).” Smellscapes of Eminönü |Documenting and Archiving

the Olfactory Heritage of Istanbul. Istanbul: Koç University Research Center for

Anatolian Civilizations, June 20, 2012.

Coppin, Géraldine, Eva Pool, Sylvain Delplanque, Bastiaan Oud, Christian Margot, David

Sander, and Jay J. Van Bavel. “Swiss Identity Smells like Chocolate: Social Identity

Shapes Olfactory Judgments.” Scientific Reports 6 (October 11, 2016).

https://doi.org/10.1038/srep34979.

Coppin, Géraldine, and David Sander. “The Flexibility of Chemosensory Preferences.” In

Neuroscience of Preference and Choice, 257–75. Elsevier, 2012.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-381431-9.00021-8.

Corbin, A. The Foul and the Fragrant: Odor and the French Social Imagination. Cambridge:

Harvard University Press, 1988.

Crampton, Linda. “Frankincense, Myrrh and Amber: Tree Resin Facts and Uses.” Owlcation.

Accessed September 4, 2017. https://owlcation.com/stem/Frankincense-Myrrh-

Amber-and-Other-Plant-Resins.

Crew, S., and J. Sims. “Locating Authenticity: Fragments of a Dialogue.” In Exhibiting

Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display, edited by Ivan Karp and

Steven Lavine, 159–75. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institute Press, 1991.

194

Crosby, Jill Flanders. “They Brought the Essence of Africa—Social Memory, Sensational

Heritage, and Embodied Practices in Perico and Agramonte, Cuba.” Congress on

Research in Dance 2012 (April 2012): 63–69. https://doi.org/10.1017/cor.2012.9.

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. “Implications of a Systems Perspective for the Study of

Creativity.” In Handbook of Creativity, edited by Robert J. Sternberg, 313–35.

Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Curren, Jane. “Characterization of Odor Nuisance.” PhD Dissertation, University of

California, Los Angeles, 2012. http://www.wcsawma.org/wpcontent/

uploads/2012/11/JMC-dissertation.pdf.

Dalby, Andrew. Tastes of Byzantium: The Cuisine of a Legendary Empire. I.B.Tauris, 2010.

Dalton, Pamela, Charles J. Wysocki, Michael J. Brody, and Henry J. Lawley. “The Influence

of Cognitive Bias on the Perceived Odor, Irritation and Health Symptoms from

Chemical Exposure.” International Archives of Occupational and Environmental

Health 69, no. 6 (1997): 407–417.

Damala, A., T. Schuchert, I. Rodriguez, J. Moragues, K. Gilleade, and N. Stojanovic.

“Exploring the Affective Museum Visiting Experience: Adaptive Augmented Reality

(A2R) and Cultural Heritage.” International Journal of Heritage in the Digital Era 2,

no. 1 (March 1, 2013): 117–42. https://doi.org/10.1260/2047-4970.2.1.117.

Damala, Areti, Merel van der Vaart, Loraine Clarke, Eva Hornecker, Gabriela Avram, Hub

Kockelkorn, and Ian Ruthven. “Evaluating Tangible and Multisensory Museum

Visiting Experiences: Lessons Learned from the MeSch Project.” Los Angeles, 2016.

http://mw2016.museumsandtheweb.com/paper/evaluating-tangible-and-multisensorymuseum-

visiting-experiences-lessons-learned-from-the-mesch-project/.

Danesi, Marcel. “Semiotics of Media and Culture.” In The Routledge Companion to

Semiotics, edited by Paul Cobley, 135–49. New York: Routledge, 2010.

Danks, Michael, Marc Goodchild, Karina Rodriguez-Echavarria, David B. Arnold, and

Richard Griffiths. “Interactive Storytelling and Gaming Environments for Museums:

The Interactive Storytelling Exhibition Project.” In Technologies for E-Learning and

Digital Entertainment, 104–15. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer, Berlin,

Heidelberg, 2007. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-73011-8_13.

Dark, K. R. “The New Post Office Site in Istanbul and the North-Eastern Harbour of

Byzantine Constantinople.” International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 33, no. 2

(October 1, 2004): 315–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-9270.2004.00026.x.

Darwin, Charles. The Works of Charles Darwin: The Descent of Man, and Selection in

Relation to Sex. NYU Press, 1989.

Davis, Lauren, and Lucienne Thys-Şenocak. “Heritage and Scent: Research and Exhibition of

Istanbul’s Changing Smellscapes.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 23, no. 8

(September 14, 2017): 723–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2017.1317646.

De Sousa, Hilário. “Changes in the Language of Perception in Cantonese.” The Senses and

Society 6, no. 1 (2011): 38–47.

“Definition of Research—Arts and Humanities Research Council.” Accessed August 30,

2017.

http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/funding/research/researchfundingguide/introduction/definition

ofresearch/.

Delaney, Carol. The Seed and the Soil: Gender and Cosmology in Turkish Village Society.

University of California Press, 1991.

Demattè, M Luisa, Daniel Sanabria, Rachel Sugarman, and Charles Spence. “Cross-Modal

Interactions between Olfaction and Touch.” Chemical Senses 31 (May 2006): 291–

300. https://doi.org/10.1093/chemse/bjj031.

195

Desor, J. A., and Gary K. Beauchamp. “The Human Capacity to Transmit Olfactory

Information.” Perception & Psychophysics 16, no. 3 (May 1, 1974): 551–56.

https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03198586.

Diaconu, Mădălina. “Mapping Urban Smellscapes.” In Senses and the City: An

Interdisciplinary Approach to Urban Sensescapes, edited by Mădălina Diaconu, Eva

Heuberger, Ruth Mateus-Berr, and Lukas Marcel Vosicky, 223–38. LIT Verlag

Münster, 2011.

Dimmig, Ashley. “Synaesthetic Silks: The Multi-Sensory Experientiality of Ottoman

Imperial Textiles.” Master’s Thesis, Koç University, 2012.

Distel, Hans, and Robyn Hudson. “Judgement of Odor Intensity Is Influenced by Subjects’

Knowledge of the Odor Source.” Chemical Senses 26, no. 3 (2001): 247–251.

Djordjevic, Jelena, Marilyn Jones-Gotman, Kathy De Sousa, and Howard Chertkow.

“Olfaction in Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease.”

Neurobiology of Aging 29, no. 5 (2008): 693–706.

Dobson, Mary J. Contours of Death and Disease in Early Modern England. Cambridge

University Press, 2003.

Doty, Richard L., and Vidyulata Kamath. “The Influences of Age on Olfaction: A Review.”

In Applied Olfactory Cognition, edited by Gesualdo M. Zucco, Benoist Schaal, Mats

Olsson, and Ilona Croy, 213–32. Frontiers Research Topics. Frontiers Media SA,

2014.

Drobnick, Jim, ed. The Smell Culture Reader. New York: Berg, 2006.

———. “Towards an Olfactory Art History: The Mingled, Fatal, and Rejuvenating Perfumes

of Paul Gaugin.” Senses and Society 7, no. 2 (2012): 196–208.

Drotner, Kirsten, and Kim Christian Schrøder. Museum Communication and Social Media:

The Connected Museum. Vol. 6. Routledge, 2014.

Dudley, Sandra H. “Museum Materialities: Objects, Sense and Feeling.” Museum

Materialities: Objects, Engagements, Interpretations, 2010, 1–17.

Egan, Timothy. “Tacoma Journal; On Good Days, the Smell Can Hardly Be Noticed.” The

New York Times, April 6, 1988. http://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/06/us/tacomajournal-

on-good-days-the-smell-can-hardly-be-noticed.html.

Eichenbaum, Howard. “How Does the Brain Organize Memories?” Science 277, no. 5324

(July 18, 1997): 330–32. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.277.5324.330.

Elad, Amikam. Medieval Jerusalem and Islamic Worship: Holy Places, Ceremonies,

Pilgrimage. Brill, 1995.

Engen, T. The Perception of Odors. Vol. 709. Academic Press New York, 1982.

Engen, Trygg. Odor Sensation and Memory. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1991.

———. The Perception of Odors. Elsevier, 2012.

Eraydin, Ayda, Özge Yersen, Nazda Güngördü, and İsmail Demirbağ. “Assessment of Urban

Policies in Istanbul, Turkey.” Divercities: Governing Urban Diversity. Faculty of

Architecture, Middle East Technical University, 2014.

https://www.urbandivercities.eu/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Urban-Policies-on-

Diversity-in-Istanbul.pdf.

Ergin, Nina. “Ottoman Royal Women’s Spaces: The Acoustic Dimension.” Journal of

Women’s History 26, no. 1 (2014): 89–111. https://doi.org/10.1353/jowh.2014.0003.

———. “The Fragrance of the Divine: Ottoman Incense Burners and Their Context.” The Art

Bulletin 96, no. 1 (March 2014): 70–97.

———. “The Soundscape of Sixteenth-Century Istanbul Mosques: Architecture and Qur’an

Recital.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 67, no. 2 (2008): 204–221.

Erwine, Barbara. Creating Sensory Spaces: The Architecture of the Invisible. Taylor &

Francis, 2016.

196

Evans, Suzanne. “The Scent of a Martyr.” Numen 49, no. 2 (2002): 193–211.

Everett, S. “Beyond the Visual Gaze?: The Pursuit of an Embodied Experience through Food

Tourism.” Tourist Studies 8, no. 3 (December 2008): 337–58.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1468797608100594.

Fahmy, Khaled. “An Olfactory Tale of Two Cities: Cairo in the Nineteenth Century.” In

Historians in Cairo: Essays in Honor of George Scanlon, edited by Jill Edwards,

155–187. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2002.

Faroqhi, Suraiya. “Coffee and Spices: Official Ottoman Reactions to the Egyptian Trade in

the Later Sixteenth Century.” Wiener Zeitschrift Für Die Kunde Des Morgenlandes

76 (1986): 87–93.

———. Travel and Artisans in the Ottoman Empire: Employment and Mobility in the Early

Modern Era. I.B.Tauris, 2014.

Feld, Steven. Sound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics, and Song in Kaluli Expression.

Duke University Press, 2012.

Ferdenzi, Camille, Johan Poncelet, Catherine Rouby, and Moustafa Bensafi. “Repeated

Exposure to Odors Induces Affective Habituation of Perception and Sniffing.”

Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 8 (2014): 119.

https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00119.

Ferrer, Isidro, Paula Garcia-Esparcia, Margarita Carmona, Eva Carro, Eleonora Aronica,

Gabor G. Kovacs, Alice Grison, and Stefano Gustincich. “Olfactory Receptors in

Non-Chemosensory Organs: The Nervous System in Health and Disease.” Frontiers

in Aging Neuroscience 8 (2016). https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2016.00163.

Feydeau, Elisabeth de. A Scented Palace: The Secret History of Marie Antoinette’s Perfumer.

I.B.Tauris, 2006.

“Fiesta of the Patios in Cordova.” UNESCO. Accessed August 17, 2017.

https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/fiesta-of-the-patios-in-cordova-00846.

Foroni, Francesco, and Gün R Semin. “Language That Puts You in Touch With Your Bodily

Feelings: The Multimodal Responsiveness of Affective Expressions.” Psychological

Science 20, no. 8 (August 2009): 974–80. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-

9280.2009.02400.x.

Foster, Harriet. “Evaluation Toolkit for Museum Practioners.” Norwich: East of England

Museum Hub, 2008. http://visitors.org.uk/wpcontent/

uploads/2014/08/ShareSE_Evaltoolkit.pdf.

Fox, Kate. “The Smell Report.” Social Issues Research Centre, 2006.

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6c00/45a251ff506739be2fab1f0693785d47a357.pdf.

France-Presse, Agence. “Chanel Threatens to Close Perfumery over High-Speed Rail Plans.”

The Guardian, December 1, 2016, sec. Fashion.

http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2016/dec/01/chanel-no5-threatens-close-grasseperfumery-

high-speed-rail-plans.

Freedman, Paul. “The Medieval Spice Trade.” In The Oxford Handbook of Food History,

edited by Jeffrey M. Pilcher, 324–40. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.

Frisby, David, and Mike Featherstone, eds. Simmel on Culture: Selected Writings. London:

SAGE, 1997.

Frolova, Victoria. “The Secret of Scent or Adventures in Provence.” Bois de Jasmin.

Accessed September 1, 2017. https://boisdejasmin.com/2016/12/the-secret-of-scentor-

adventures-in-provence.html.

Frumin, Idan, Ofer Perl, Yaara Endevelt-Shapira, Ami Eisen, Neetai Eshel, Iris Heller, Maya

Shemesh, et al. “A Social Chemosignaling Function for Human Handshaking.” ELife

4 (March 3, 2015): e05154. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.05154.

197

Frye, R. E. “Nasal Patency and the Aerodynamics of Nasal Airflow: Measurement by

Rhinomanometry and Acoustic Rhinometry, and the Influence of Pharmacological

Agents.” In Handbook of Olfaction and Gustation, edited by Richard L. Doty, 2nd

ed., 439–60. New York: Marcel Dekker, 2003.

Gardner, Howard. Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Basic books, 1985.

Geithe, Christiane, Jonas Protze, Franziska Kreuchwig, Gerd Krause, and Dietmar

Krautwurst. “Structural Determinants of a Conserved Enantiomer-Selective Carvone

Binding Pocket in the Human Odorant Receptor OR1A1.” Cellular and Molecular

Life Sciences, June 27, 2017, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-017-2576-z.

Gerkin, Richard C., and Jason B. Castro. “The Number of Olfactory Stimuli That Humans

Can Discriminate Is Still Unknown.” ELife 4 (July 7, 2015): e08127.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.08127.

Geurts, Kathryn Linn. Culture and the Senses: Bodily Ways of Knowing in an African

Community. University of California Press, 2002.

Gilbert, A. N., R. Martin, and S. E. Kemp. “Cross-Modal Correspondence between Vision

and Olfaction: The Color of Smells.” The American Journal of Psychology 109, no. 3

(1996): 335–51.

Giray, F. H., and M. C. Örmerci Kart. “Economics of Rosa Damascena in Isparta, Turkey.”

Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science 18, no. 5 (2012): 658–667.

Goddard, Cliff, and Anna Wierzbicka. “Cultural Scripts: What Are They and What Are They

Good For.” Intercultural Pragmatics 1, no. 2 (2004): 153–166.

Goffman, Daniel. Izmir and the Levantine World, 1550–1650. University of Washington

Press, 1990.

Gokciğdem, Elif M. “Five Ways Museums Can Increase Empathy in the World.” Greater

Good Magazine, January 9, 2017.

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/five_ways_museums_can_increase_emp

athy_in_the_world.

———, ed. “Introduction.” In Fostering Empathy Through Museums, xix–xxxii. Rowman &

Littlefield, 2016.

Goldstein, E. Bruce. Encyclopedia of Perception. SAGE, 2010.

Gompertz, Will. “Too Famous to See?” BBC News, May 21, 2013, sec. Entertainment &

Arts. http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-22595987.

Gottfried, Jay A., Adam P. R. Smith, Michael D. Rugg, and Raymond J. Dolan.

“Remembrance of Odors Past.” Neuron 42, no. 4 (May 27, 2004): 687–95.

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0896-6273(04)00270-3.

Grabar, Oleg. “The Shared Culture of Objects.” In Byzantine Court Culture from 829 to

1204, 115–29. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 1997.

Greene, Jennifer C. “Is Mixed Methods Social Inquiry a Distinctive Methodology?” Journal

of Mixed Methods Research 2, no. 1 (January 1, 2008): 7–22.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1558689807309969.

Greenwald, A. G., D. E. McGhee, and J. L. Schwartz. “Measuring Individual Differences in

Implicit Cognition: The Implicit Association Test.” Journal of Personality and Social

Psychology 74, no. 6 (June 1998): 1464–80.

Grigg, T. “Health & Hygiene in Nineteenth Century England in Museums Victoria

Collections.” Museums Victoria Collections, 2008.

https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/articles/1615.

Groom, N. New Perfume Handbook. Springer Science & Business Media, 1997.

GSM Project. “Actively Engaging Museum Visitors & Why It Matters,” September 26, 2016.

https://gsmproject.com/en/journal/article/actively-engaging-museum-visitors-andwhy-

it-matters/.

198

Guérer, Annick Le. “Olfaction and Cognition: A Philosophical and Psychoanalytical View.”

In Olfaction, Taste, and Cognition, edited by Catherine Rouby, Benoist Schaal,

Danièle Dubois, Rémi Gervais, and A. Holley, 3–15. Cambridge University Press,

2002.

———. Scent: The Mysterious and Essential Powers of Smell. Turtle Bay Books, A Division

of Random House, 1992.

Gül, Murat, John Dee, and Cahide Nur Cünük. “Istanbul’s Taksim Square and Gezi Park: The

Place of Protest and Ideology of Place.” Journal of Architecture and Urbanism 38, no.

1 (January 2, 2014): 63–72.

“Gülsha.” Gülsha. Accessed September 17, 2017. http://www.gulsha.com.tr/?lang=en.

Günay, Safa, Abidin Daver, and Mazhar Resmer, eds. Güzelleşen İstanbul [Istanbul as It

Becomes Beautiful]. Istanbul: İstanbul Belediye Matbaası, 1943.

Gürcan, Efe Can, and Efe Peker. “Turkeyis Gezi Park Demonstrations of 2013: A Marxian

Analysis of the Political Moment.” Socialism and Democracy 28, no. 1 (2014): 70–

89.

Haas, Volkert. “Abteilung Die Text Aus Boğazköy.” In Corpus Der Hurritischen

Sprachdenkmäler, edited by Volkert Haas, Mirjo Salvini, Ilse Wegner, and Gernot

Wilhelm. Rome: Multigrafica Editrice, 1984.

Haddad, Rafi, Abebe Medhanie, Yehudah Roth, David Harel, and Noam Sobel. “Predicting

Odor Pleasantness with an Electronic Nose.” PLoS Computational Biology 6, no. 4

(2010): e1000740.

Hafstein, Vladimar. “Intangible Heritage as a List.” In Intangible Heritage, edited by

Laurajane Smith and Natsuko Akagawa, 93–111. New York: Routledge, 2009.

Hamilton, Edith, and Huntington Cairns, eds. The Collected Dialogues of Plato. Princeton

University Press, 1961. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1c84fb0.

Hamilton, Paula. “Oral History and the Senses.” In The Oral History Reader, edited by

Robert Perks and Alistair Thomson, 3rd ed., 104–16. New York: Routledge, 2016.

Harrison, Rodney. Understanding the Politics of Heritage. Manchester: Manchester

University Press, 2010.

Harvey, Susan Ashbrook. “Olfactory Knowing; Signs of Smell in the Vitae of Simeon

Stylites.” edited by G.J. Reinink and A.C. Klugkist, 23–34. Leuven, 1999.

———. “On Holy Stench: When the Odor of Sanctity Sickens.” Studia Patristica 35 (2001):

90–101.

———. Scenting Salvation: Ancient Christianity and the Olfactory Imagination. Univ of

California Press, 2015.

Hedrick, Tera Lee, and Nina Ergin. “A Shared Culture of Heavenly Fragrance: A

Comparison of Late Byzantine and Ottoman Incense Burners and Censing Practices in

Religious Contexts.” Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 331–354, 69 (2015).

Heidegger, Martin. “The Origin of the Work of Art.” In Basic Writrings, 143–87. London:

Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978.

Henning, Hans. Der Geruch. Leipzig: Barth, 1916.

Henshaw, Victoria. Urban Smellscapes: Understanding and Designing City Smell

Environments. Routledge, 2013.

Herz, R S, and J von Clef. “The Influence of Verbal Labeling on the Perception of Odors:

Evidence for Olfactory Illusions?” PERCEPTION-LONDON- 30, no. 3 (2001): 381–

92.

Herz, Rachel. “Odor-Evoked Memory.” In The Oxford Handbook of Social Neuroscience,

edited by Jean Decety and John T. Cacioppo, 269. Oxford: Oxford University Press,

2011.

199

———. The Scent of Desire: Discovering Our Enigmatic Sense of Smell. DIANE Publishing

Company, 2010.

Herz, Rachel S. “Are Odors the Best Cues to Memory? A Cross-Modal Comparison of

Associative Memory Stimulia.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 855, no.

1 (1998): 670–674.

———. “Odor-Associative Learning and Emotion: Effects on Perception and Behavior.”

Chemical Senses 30, no. suppl 1 (January 1, 2005): i250–51.

https://doi.org/10.1093/chemse/bjh209.

Herz, Rachel S, James Eliassen, Sophia Beland, and Timothy Souza. “Neuroimaging

Evidence for the Emotional Potency of Odor-Evoked Memory.” Neuropsychologia

42, no. 3 (January 2004): 371–78.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2003.08.009.

Herz, Rachel S., and Trygg Engen. “Odor Memory: Review and Analysis.” Psychonomic

Bulletin & Review 3, no. 3 (1996): 300–313.

Herzfeld, Michael. Anthropology: Theoretical Practice in Culture and Society. Wiley, 2001.

Hewison, Robert. The Heritage Industry: Britain in a Climate of Decline. Methuen London,

1987.

Hockey, John, and Jacquelyn Allen-Collinson. “The Sensorium at Work: The Sensory

Phenomenology of the Working Body.” The Sociological Review 57, no. 2 (2009):

217–239.

Hoffer, Peter Charles. Sensory Worlds in Early America. JHU Press, 2005.

Hoffmann, Beata. “Scent in Science and Culture.” History of the Human Sciences 26, no. 5

(October 2013): 31–47. https://doi.org/10.1177/0952695113508120.

Hollowell, Julie, and George Nicholas. “Using Ethnographic Methods to Articulate

Community-Based Conceptions of Cultural Heritage Management.” Public

Archaeology 8, no. 2–3 (August 1, 2009): 141–60.

https://doi.org/10.1179/175355309X457196.

Hombert, Jean Marie. “Terminologie Des Odeurs Dans Quelques Langues Du Gabon.”

Pholia 7 (1992): 61–65.

“Home : Oxford English Dictionary.” Accessed August 17, 2017. http://www.oed.com/.

Hoobler, Ellen. “‘To Take Their Heritage in Their Hands’: Indigenous Self-Representation

and Decolonization in the Community Museums of Oaxaca, Mexico.” The American

Indian Quarterly 30, no. 3 (September 6, 2006): 441–60.

https://doi.org/10.1353/aiq.2006.0024.

Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean. “Changing Values in the Art Museum: Rethinking Communication

and Learning.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 6, no. 1 (January 1, 2000):

9–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/135272500363715.

Hopkins, Jessica. “Sensory Informants: A Guide to Mapping Ephemeral Data.” M.F.A.,

Northeastern University, 2016.

https://search.proquest.com/docview/1791170334/abstract/CD6D7C912F064A65PQ/

1.

Hoşgör, Zerrin, and Reyhan Yigiter. “Greenway Planning Context in Istanbul-Haliç: A

Compulsory Intervention into the Historical Green Corridors of Golden Horn.”

Landscape Research 36, no. 3 (June 1, 2011): 341–61.

https://doi.org/10.1080/01426397.2011.555529.

Hough, Michael. Out of Place: Restoring Identity to the Regional Landscape. New Haven:

Yale University Press, 1990.

Howard, Peter. Heritage: Management, Interpretation, Identity. New York: Continuum,

2003.

200

Howes, David. “Architecture of the Senses.” In Sense of the City Exhibition Catalogue,

Canadian Centre for Architecture. Montreal, 2005. http://www.davidhowes.

com/DH-research-sampler-arch-senses.htm.

———, ed. Empire of the Senses. Berg Publishers Oxford, UK, 2005.

http://www.academia.edu/download/35357782/Empire_of_the_Senses.pdf.

———. Sensual Relations: Engaging the Senses in Culture and Social Theory. University of

Michigan Press, 2010.

———. The Varieties of Sensory Experience: A Sourcebook in the Anthropology of the

Senses. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991.

Hummel, Thomas, Basile N. Landis, and Karl-Bernd Hüttenbrink. “Smell and Taste

Disorders.” GMS Current Topics in Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery 10

(April 26, 2012). https://doi.org/10.3205/cto000077.

Humphries, Courtney. “A Whiff of History.” Boston.Com, July 17, 2017.

http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2011/07/17/a_whiff_of_history/.

ICOMOS International Cultural Tourism Committee. “ICOMOS, International Cultural

Tourism Charter: Principles And Guidelines For Managing Tourism At Places Of

Cultural And Heritage Significance,” 2002.

Impey, Oliver, and Arthur Macgregor, eds. The Origins of Museums: The Cabinet of

Curiosities in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Europe. Ashmolean Museum,

2017.

“In Any Ethnographic Research, Who Can Understand the Culture...” ResearchGate, 2015.

https://www.researchgate.net/post/In_any_ethnographic_research_who_can_understa

nd_the_culture_better.

Ingold, Tim. “Reply to David Howes.” Social Anthropology 19, no. 3 (2011): 323–327.

———. “Worlds of Sense and Sensing the World: A Response to Sarah Pink and David

Howes.” Social Anthropology 19, no. 3 (2011): 313–17.

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8676.2011.00163.x.

Ingold, Tim, and David Howes. “Worlds of Sense and Sensing the World.” Social

Anthropology 19, no. 3 (2011): 313–31.

“Istanbul Population,” July 28, 2017. http://worldpopulationreview.com/worldcities/

istanbul-population/.

Jackson, Deborah Davis. “Scents of Place: The Dysplacement of a First Nations Community

in Canada.” American Anthropologist 113, no. 4 (December 1, 2011): 606–18.

Jehl, C., J. P. Royet, and A. Holley. “Role of Verbal Encoding in Shortand Long-Term Odor

Recognition.” Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics 59, no. 1 (1997): 100–110.

Jenner, Mark S. R. “Follow Your Nose? Smell, Smelling, and Their Histories.” The American

Historical Review 116, no. 2 (January 2011): 335–51.

“Jennifer Pluznick: You Smell with Your Body, Not Just Your Nose | TED Talk |

TED.Com.” Accessed August 6, 2017.

https://www.ted.com/talks/jennifer_pluznick_you_smell_with_your_body_not_just_y

our_nose.

Jong, Ferdinand de, and Michael Rowlands. Reclaiming Heritage: Alternative Imaginaries of

Memory in West Africa. Routledge, 2016.

Jönsson, Fredrik U., and Richard J. Stevenson. “Odor Knowledge, Odor Naming and the ‘Tip

of the Nose’ Experience.” In Tip-of-the-Tongue States and Related Phenomena,

edited by Bennett L. Schwartz and Alan S. Brown, 305–26. New York: Cambridge

University Press, 2014.

Jütte, Robert. A History of the Senses: From Antiquity to Cyberspace. Cambridge, UK:

Polity, 2004.

201

———. “The Sense of Smell in Historical Perspective.” In Sensory Perception: Mind and

Matter, edited by Friedrich G. Barth, Patrizia Giampieri-Deutsch, and Hans-Dieter

Klein, 313–32. Springer Science & Business Media, 2012.

Kadohisa, Mikiko. “Effects of Odor on Emotion, with Implications.” Front Syst Neurosci 7,

no. 66 (n.d.).

Kaiser, Roman. “Headspace: An Interview with Roman Kaiser.” Future Anterior 13, no. 2

(May 16, 2017): 1–9.

Kambaskovic, Danijela, and Charles T. Wolfe. “The Senses in Philosophy and Science: From

the Nobility of Sight to the Materialism of Touch.” In A Cultural History of the

Senses: In the Renaissance, edited by J. P. Toner, Richard Newhauser, Herman

Roodenburg, Anne C. Vila, Constance Classen, and David Howes, 107–26.

Bloomsbury Academic, 2014.

Kamm, Henry. “Cleanup Is Reviving Istanbul’s Golden Horn.” The New York Times, June 1,

1986. http://www.nytimes.com/1986/06/01/world/cleanup-is-reviving-istanbul-sgolden-

horn.html.

Kant, Immanuel. Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View. Springer Science &

Business Media, 2012.

Kanter, James. “European Parliament Votes to Suspend Talks With Turkey on E.U.

Membership.” The New York Times, November 24, 2016, sec. Europe.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/24/world/europe/european-parliament-turkey-eumembership.

html.

Karaosmanoğlu, Defne. “Eating the Past: Multiple Spaces, Multiple Times — Performing

`Ottomanness’ in Istanbul.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 12, no. 4 (July

1, 2009): 339–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877909104242.

Keller, Andreas, and Leslie B. Vosshall. “A Psychophysical Test of the Vibration Theory of

Olfaction.” Nature Neuroscience 7, no. 4 (April 2004): 337–38.

https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1215.

Kelly, Lynda. “Dinosaur Unearthed Summative Evaluation Report.” Sydney, Australia:

Australian Museum, 2006. https://australianmuseum.net.au/document/dinosaurunearthed-

summative-evaluation-report.

Kenderdine, Sarah. “Embodiment, Entanglement, and Immersion in Digital Cultural

Heritage.” In A New Companion to Digital Humanities, edited by Susan Schreibman,

Ray Siemens, and John Unsworth, 22–41. Chichester: Wiley, 2016.

Kenny, Nicolas. The Feel of the City: Experiences of Urban Transformation. University of

Toronto Press, 2014.

Kenyon, Peter. “18 Years After Turkey’s Deadly Quake, Safety Concerns Grow About The

Next Big One.” NPR, September 7, 2017.

http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/09/07/547608828/turkey.

Keskitalo, Kaisu, Antti Knaapila, Mikko Kallela, Aarno Palotie, Maija Wessman, Sampo

Sammalisto, Leena Peltonen, Hely Tuorila, and Markus Perola. “Sweet Taste

Preferences Are Partly Genetically Determined: Identification of a Trait Locus on

Chromosome 16.” The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 86, no. 1 (2007): 55–

63.

Kezer, Zeynep. “Contesting Urban Space in Early Republican Ankara.” Journal of

Architectural Education 52, no. 1 (September 1, 1998): 11–19.

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1531-314X.1998.tb00251.x.

Khan, Rehan M., Chung-Hay Luk, Adeen Flinker, Amit Aggarwal, Hadas Lapid, Rafi

Haddad, and Noam Sobel. “Predicting Odor Pleasantness from Odorant Structure:

Pleasantness as a Reflection of the Physical World.” Journal of Neuroscience 27, no.

37 (2007): 10015–10023.

202

Kidd, Jenny. “With New Eyes I See: Embodiment, Empathy and Silence in Digital Heritage

Interpretation.” International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2017, 1–13.

https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2017.1341946.

Kiechle, Melanie. “Navigating by Nose: Fresh Air, Stench Nuisance, and the Urban

Environment, 1840–1880.” Journal of Urban History 42, no. 4 (2016): 753–71.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0096144214566981.

———. “Preserving the Unpleasant: Sources, Methods, and Conjectures for Odors at

Historic Sites.” Future Anterior 13, no. 2 (2016): 22–32.

King, Anya. “The Importance of Imported Aromatics in Arabic Culture: Illustrations from

Pre‐Islamic and Early Islamic Poetry.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 67, no. 3 (July

1, 2008): 175–89. https://doi.org/10.1086/591746.

Kino, Carol. “‘The Art of Scent’ at the Museum of Arts and Design.” The New York Times,

November 15, 2012, sec. Art & Design.

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/16/arts/design/the-art-of-scent-at-the-museum-ofarts-

and-design.html.

Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. “Intangible Heritage as Metacultural Production.” Museum

International 56, no. 1–2 (2004): 52–65.

Knutson, Jesse Ross. “Book Review: James Mchugh, Sandalwood and Carrion: Smell in

Indian Religion and Culture.” The Indian Economic & Social History Review 52, no.

3 (July 1, 2015): 393–95. https://doi.org/10.1177/0019464615590533.

Koenen, Mieke. “Lucretius’ Olfactory Theory in De Rerum Natura IV.” In Lucretius and His

Intellectual Background, edited by K. A. Algra, M. H. Koenen, and P. H. Schrijvers,

163–77. North-Holland, NY: Koninklijke Nederlandse Adademie van

Wetenschappen, 1997.

Koloski-Ostrow, Ann Olga. “Finding Social Meaning in the Public Latrines of Pompeii.” De

Haan y Jansen (Eds.), 1996, 79–86.

———. Water Use and Hydraulics in the Roman City:[Annual Meeting of the

Archaeological Institute of America Called" Water Use in the Ancient City", New

York City, December 1996]. Kendall/Hunt Publ., 2001.

Koloski-Ostrow, Ann Olga, N. De Haan, G. De Kleijn, and S. Piras. “Water in the Roman

Town: New Research from Cura Aquarum and the Frontinus Society.” Journal of

Roman Archaeology 10 (1997): 181–191.

Koole, Simeon. “Past Scents: Historical Perspectives on Smell.” Social History 40, no. 3

(July 3, 2015): 385–87. https://doi.org/10.1080/03071022.2015.1044209.

Kuban, Doğan. “Eminönü-Bizans Dönemi, Osmanlı Dönemi, Eminönü Meydanı.” Dünden

Bugüne İstanbul Ansiklopedisi 3 (1993): 158–63.

Küçükkalay, A. Mesud, and Numan Elibol. “Ottoman Imports in the Eighteenth Century:

Smyrna (1771–72).” Middle Eastern Studies 42, no. 5 (September 1, 2006): 723–40.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00263200600827842.

Kuipers, Joel C. “Matters of Taste in Weyéwa.” Anthropological Linguistics 35, no. 1/4

(1993): 538–55. https://doi.org/10.2307/30028268.

“Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi Mahdumları.” Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi Mahdumları.

Accessed September 18, 2017. http://www.mehmetefendi.com/eng/pages/index.html.

Laks, André. “Soul, Sensation, and Thought.” In The Cambridge Companion to Early Greek

Philosophy, edited by A. A. Long, 250–70. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,

1999.

Lanham-New, Susan A., Ian A. MacDonald, and Helen M. Roche. Nutrition and Metabolism.

John Wiley & Sons, 2011.

Law, Lisa. “Home Cooking: Filipino Women and Geographies of the Senses in Hong Kong.”

Ecumene 8, no. 3 (2001): 264–283.

203

Lawless, Harry T., and Hildegarde Heymann. Sensory Evaluation of Food: Principles and

Practices. Springer Science & Business Media, 2013.

Leahy, Helen Rees. “Incorporating the Period Eye.” The Senses and Society 9, no. 3

(November 1, 2014): 284–95. https://doi.org/10.2752/174589314X14023847039836.

Leder, Drew. “A Tale of Two Bodies: The Cartesian Corpse and the Lived Body.” In The

Body in Medical Thought and Practice, edited by Drew Leder, 17–36. Springer

Science & Business Media, 2013.

Lee, Robert J., Jennifer M. Kofonow, Philip L. Rosen, Adam P. Siebert, Bei Chen, Laurel

Doghramji, Guoxiang Xiong, et al. “Bitter and Sweet Taste Receptors Regulate

Human Upper Respiratory Innate Immunity.” The Journal of Clinical Investigation

124, no. 3 (March 3, 2014): 1393–1405. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI72094.

Levinson, Stephen C., and Asifa Majid. “Differential Ineffability and the Senses.” Mind &

Language 29, no. 4 (2014): 407–427.

Lévi-Strauss, Claude. Mythologiques: The Raw and the Cooked. University of Chicago Press,

1983.

Levitan, Carmel, Jiana Ren, Andy Woods, Sanne Boesveldt, Jason Chan, Kirsten McKenzie,

Michael Dodson, Jai Levin, Xiang Ru Leong, and Jasper Van den Bosch. “What

Color Is That Smell? Cross-Cultural Color-Odor Associations.” Proceedings of the

Cognitive Science Society 36, no. 36 (January 1, 2014).

http://escholarship.org/uc/item/8dk5829j.

Lewis, Geoffrey D. “History of Museums.” Encyclopedia Britannica, September 25, 2000.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-museums-398827.

Low, Kelvin E Y. Scents and Scent-Sibilities: A Sociocultural Inquiry of Smells in Everyday

Life Experiences. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009.

Low, Kelvin E. Y. “The Sensuous City: Sensory Methodologies in Urban Ethnographic

Research.” Ethnography 16, no. 3 (September 1, 2015): 295–312.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1466138114552938.

Lowenthal, David. The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History. Cambridge University

Press, 1998.

Luijpen, Wilhelmus. Phenomenology and Humanism: A Primer in Existential

Phenomenology. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1966.

Luke, Christina, Christopher H. Roosevelt, and Catherine B. Scott. “Yörük Legacies: Space,

Scent, and Sediment Geochemistry.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology

21, no. 1 (March 1, 2017): 152–77. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-016-0345-6.

MacKenzie, Dan. Aromatics and the Soul: A Study of Smells. W. Heinemann, 1923.

Macpherson, Hannah. “Articulating Blind Touch: Thinking through the Feet.” The Senses

and Society 4, no. 2 (2009): 179–193.

Majid, Asifa, and Niclas Burenhult. “Odors Are Expressible in Language, as Long as You

Speak the Right Language.” Cognition 130, no. 2 (February 2014): 266–70.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2013.11.004.

Martin, Alexander M. “Sewage and the City : Filth , Smell, and Representations of Urban

Life in Moscow, 1770-1880.” Russian Review 67, no. 2 (2008): 243–74.

Martin, Angela. “Embodiment and Healing,” 2016. embodimentandhealing.com.

Massey, Douglas S., and Nancy A. Denton. American Apartheid: Segregation and the

Making of the Underclass. Harvard University Press, 1993.

Mattila, Anna S, and Jochen Wirtz. “Congruency of Scent and Music as a Driver of In-Store

Evaluations and Behavior.” Journal of Retailing 77, no. 2 (June 1, 2001): 273–89.

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-4359(01)00042-2.

204

Mauzi, Robert. L’idée de Bonheur Dans La Littérature et La Pense Francaises Au XVIIIe

Siecle [The Idea of Happiness in French Literature and Thought in the XVIIIth

Century]. Paris: A. Colin, 1960.

May, Jon. “Of Nomads and Vagrants: Single Homelessness and Narratives of Home as

Place.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 18, no. 6 (December 1,

2000): 737–59. https://doi.org/10.1068/d203t.

McHugh, James. Sandalwood and Carrion: Smell in Indian Religion and Culture. New York:

Oxford University Press, 2012.

McIntyre, P. “Creative Practice as Research: ‘Testing Out’ the Systems Model of Creativity

through Practitioner Based Enquiry.” In Speculation and Innovation: Applying

Practice Led Research in the Creative Industries, edited by N. Bourke, D. Mafe

Haseman, and R. Vella. Queensland University of Technology, 2006.

McKenzie, Dan. Aromatics and the Soul: A Study of Smells. London: William Heinemann

Ltd, 1923.

McLean, K. “Mapping Urban Ephemerals: Contemporary Practices of Visualising the

Invisible and the Transitory.” In Routledge Handbook of Mapping and Cartography,

edited by P. Vujakovic and A. Kent. Routledge, 2017.

http://create.canterbury.ac.uk/14373/.

———. “Polyrhythmia of the Smellwalk: Mapping Multi-Scalar Temporalities,” n.d.

https://create.canterbury.ac.uk/id/eprint/15636.

McLean, Kate. “Development of the Smellwalk - Methodologies & Tools.” Blog. Sensory

Maps (blog), April 29, 2016. http://sensorymaps.blogspot.com/2016/04/developmentof-

smellwalk-methodologies.html.

———. “Emotion, Location and the Senses: A Virtual Dérive Smell Map of Paris.” In

Proceedings of the 8th International Design and Emotion Conference, London, edited

by J. Brassert, P. Hekkert, G. Ludden, M. Malspass, and J. McDonnell. London:

Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, 2012.

———. “Ex-Formation as a Method for Mapping Smellscapes.” Communication Design 3,

no. 2 (July 3, 2015): 173–86. https://doi.org/10.1080/20557132.2015.1163081.

———. “Smellmap: Amsterdam–Olfactory Art & Smell Visualisation.” In VISAP’14

Art+Interpretation. Paris, France, 2014.

———. “Un-Freezing the Map,” 128, 2017.

McLuhan, M. “Acoustic Space.” In Media Research: Technology, Art, Communication,

edited by Michael A. Moos, 39–44. Amsterdam: G & B Arts, 1997.

McLuhan, M., and Quentin Fiore. “Medium Is the Message: An Inventory of Effects.” Corte

Madera: Ginko Press Inc., 2001.

Meier, Allison. “Researchers Bury Their Noses in Books to Sniff Out the Morgan Library’s

Original Smell.” Hyperallergic, February 28, 2017.

https://hyperallergic.com/360698/smelling-the-old-books-of-the-morgan-library/.

Meier, Brian P., Simone Schnall, Norbert Schwarz, and John A. Bargh. “Embodiment in

Social Psychology.” Topics in Cognitive Science 4, no. 4 (October 1, 2012): 705–16.

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1756-8765.2012.01212.x.

Mennella, Julie A., M. Yanina Pepino, and Danielle R. Reed. “Genetic and Environmental

Determinants of Bitter Perception and Sweet Preferences.” Pediatrics 115, no. 2

(2005): e216–e222.

Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. Phenomenology of Perception. Routledge, 2013.

Merriam, Sharan B., Juanita Johnson-Bailey, Ming-Yeh Lee, Youngwha Kee, Gabo Ntseane,

and Mazanah Muhamad. “Power and Positionality: Negotiating Insider/Outsider

Status within and across Cultures.” International Journal of Lifelong Education 20,

no. 5 (September 1, 2001): 405–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/02601370120490.

205

Merton, Robert K. “Insiders and Outsiders: A Chapter in the Sociology of Knowledge.”

American Journal of Sociology 78, no. 1 (1972): 9–47.

https://doi.org/10.2307/2776569.

“MG International Fragrance Company.” MG International. Accessed September 17, 2017.

http://www.gulcicek.com.

Mieszkowski, Peter, and Edwin S. Mills. “The Causes of Metropolitan Suburbanization.” The

Journal of Economic Perspectives 7, no. 3 (1993): 135–47.

https://doi.org/10.2307/2138447.

Modlin, E. Arnold, Derek H. Alderman, and Glenn W. Gentry. “Tour Guides as Creators of

Empathy: The Role of Affective Inequality in Marginalizing the Enslaved at

Plantation House Museums.” Tourist Studies 11, no. 1 (April 1, 2011): 3–19.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1468797611412007.

Moore, Malcolm. “Eau de BC: The Oldest Perfume in the World,” March 21, 2007, sec.

World. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1546277/Eau-de-BC-the-oldestperfume-

in-the-world.html.

Muthyala, Rajeev S., Deepali Butani, Michelle Nelson, and Kiet Tran. “Testing the

Vibrational Theory of Olfaction: A Bio-Organic Chemistry Laboratory Experiment

Using Hooke’s Law and Chirality.” Journal of Chemical Education, June 23, 2017.

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.6b00991.

Nabhan, Gary Paul. Cumin, Camels, and Caravans: A Spice Odyssey. Univ of California

Press, 2014.

Natarajan, Niranjana, and Jennifer L. Pluznick. “Olfaction in the Kidney: ‘Smelling’ Gut

Microbial Metabolites.” Experimental Physiology 101, no. 4 (April 1, 2016): 478–81.

https://doi.org/10.1113/EP085285.

National Association for Museum Exhibition. “Standards.” American Alliance of Museums.

Accessed December 30, 2016. http://name-aam.org/about/who-we-are/standards.

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. “Quick Statistics About

Taste and Smell.” NIDCD, 2010. https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/quickstatistics-

taste-smell.

Naumova, Alevtina. “‘Touching’ the Past: Investigating Lived Experiences of Heritage in

Living History Museums.” International Journal of the Inclusive Museum 7 (2015).

http://www.academia.edu/download/37753546/touching_the_past.pdf.

Necipoğlu, Gülru. “Framing the Gaze in Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Palaces.” Ars

Orientalis 23 (January 1, 1993): 303–42.

Ninkovic, Pavle. “In Search of the Period Eye: Contributions from Neuroscience.” MA

Thesis, Birbeck, University of London, 2010.

Obrist, Marianna, Alexandre N. Tuch, and Kasper Hornbaek. “Opportunities for Odor:

Experiences with Smell and Implications for Technology.” In Proceedings of the

32nd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2843–2852.

ACM, 2014. http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2557008.

“Odorama: Scent as Storyteller.” Evensi. Accessed September 15, 2017.

https://www.evensi.nl/odorama-scent-as-storyteller-stichting-mediamatic/197267127.

O’Keeffe, Tadhg. “Landscape and Memory: Historiography, Theory, Methodology.” In

Heritage, Memory and the Politics of Identity: New Perspectives on the Cultural

Landscape, edited by Niamh Moore and Yvonne Whelan, 3–18. Ashgate Publishing,

Ltd., 2012.

Olofsson, Jonas K., Robert S. Hurley, Nicholas E. Bowman, Xiaojun Bao, M.-Marsel

Mesulam, and Jay A. Gottfried. “A Designated Odor–Language Integration System in

the Human Brain.” The Journal of Neuroscience 34, no. 45 (November 5, 2014):

14864–73. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2247-14.2014.

206

O’Meara, Carolyn, and Asifa Majid. “How Changing Lifestyles Impact Seri Smellscapes and

Smell Language.” Anthropological Linguistics 58, no. 2 (2016): 107–31.

https://doi.org/10.1353/anl.2016.0024.

“Osmodrama: Every Breath a New Smell.” Osmodrama. Accessed September 15, 2017.

https://osmodrama.com.

Ostrom, Lizzie. “Odette Toilette.” Odette Toilette: Purveyor of Olfactory Adventures, 2016.

http://www.odettetoilette.com/.

“OUR HISTORY | Historical Process.” Tarihi Mısır Çarşı. Accessed August 30, 2017.

http://www.misircarsisi.org.tr/sayfalar.asp?LanguageID=2&cid=236&id=252.

Ozan, Vedat. “Kokucuk.” Kokucuk. Accessed September 17, 2017.

http://www.kokucuk.com/.

———. Kokular Kitabı. 3rd ed. Istanbul: Everest Yayınları, 2016.

———. Kokular Kitabı II: Parfümler. Istanbul: Everest Yayınları, 2015.

———. Kokular Kitabı III: Kültürler. Istanbul: Everest Yayınları, 2017.

Pallasmaa, Juhani. The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses. Wiley, 2005.

Paoli, M., D. Münch, A. Haase, E. Skoulakis, L. Turin, and C. G. Galizia. “Minute Impurities

Contribute Significantly to Olfactory Receptor Ligand Studies: Tales from Testing the

Vibration Theory.” ENeuro, June 5, 2017, ENEURO.0070-17.2017.

https://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0070-17.2017.

Paoli, Marco, Andrea Anesi, Renzo Antolini, Graziano Guella, Giorgio Vallortigara, and

Albrecht Haase. “Differential Odour Coding of Isotopomers in the Honeybee Brain.”

Scientific Reports 6 (February 22, 2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/srep21893.

Parr, Joy. “Notes for a More Sensuous History of Twentieth-Century Canada: The Timely,

the Tacit, and the Material Body.” Canadian Historical Review 82, no. 4 (2001): 720–

745.

Parry, Ross. Museums in a Digital Age. Routledge, 2010.

Patnaik, Pradyot. Handbook of Environmental Analysis: Chemical Pollutants in Air, Water,

Soil, and Solid Wastes. CRC Press, 2002.

Pawlowska, Kamilla. “The Smells of Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey: Time and Space of

Human Activity.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 36 (2014): 1–11.

Pearson, Michael Naylor. Merchants and Rulers in Gujarat: The Response to the Portuguese

in the Sixteenth Century. University of California Press, 1976.

Penz, Francois. “Museums as Laboratories of Change: The Case for the Moving Image.” In

Film, Art, New Media: Museum Without Walls?, edited by Angela Dalle Vacche,

278–300. Houndsmills, NY: Palgrave MacMillan, 2012.

Pichavant, Christophe, Thomas J. Burkholder, and Grace K. Pavlath. “Decrease of Myofiber

Branching via Muscle-Specific Expression of the Olfactory Receptor MOR23 in

Dystrophic Muscle Leads to Protection against Mechanical Stress.” Skeletal Muscle 6

(January 21, 2016): 2. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13395-016-0077-7.

Pickert, Kate. “Inside the Sriracha Factory Causing A Stink In California.” Time. Accessed

September 2, 2017. http://time.com/12539/sriracha-factory-california-pictures/.

Pink, Sarah. “An Urban Tour: The Sensory Sociality of Ethnographic Place-Making.”

Ethnography 9, no. 2 (2008): 175–96. https://doi.org/10.2307/24116022.

———. Doing Sensory Ethnography. Los Angeles; London: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2009.

Pink, Sarah, and David Howes. “The Future of Sensory Anthropology/the Anthropology of

the Senses.” Social Anthropology 18, no. 3 (2010): 331–40.

Plant, E. Ashby, Janet Shibley Hyde, Dacher Keltner, and Patricia G. Devine. “The Gender

Stereotyping of Emotions.” Psychology of Women Quarterly 24, no. 1 (March 1,

2000): 81–92. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2000.tb01024.x.

207

Pluznick, Jennifer L., Ryan J. Protzko, Haykanush Gevorgyan, Zita Peterlin, Arnold Sipos,

Jinah Han, Isabelle Brunet, et al. “Olfactory Receptor Responding to Gut Microbiota-

Derived Signals Plays a Role in Renin Secretion and Blood Pressure Regulation.”

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110, no. 11 (March 12, 2013):

4410–15. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1215927110.

Pocock, Douglas. “The Senses in Focus.” Area, 1993, 11–16.

Polanyi, Michael. The Tacit Dimension. Garden City: Anchor Books, 1967.

Poncelet, Johan, Fanny Rinck, Fanny Bourgeat, Benoist Schaal, Catherine Rouby, Moustafa

Bensafi, and Thomas Hummel. “The Effect of Early Experience on Odor Perception

in Humans: Psychological and Physiological Correlates.” Behavioural Brain

Research 208, no. 2 (2010): 458–465.

“Population and Demographic Structure.” Accessed August 30, 2017.

http://www.ibb.gov.tr/sites/ks/en-US/0-Exploring-The-

City/Location/Pages/PopulationandDemographicStructure.aspx.

Porteous, J. Douglas. “Smellscape.” Progress in Physical Geography 9, no. 3 (1985): 356–

78. https://doi.org/10.1177/030913338500900303.

———. “Smellscape.” In The Smell Culture Reader, edited by Jim Drobnick, 89–106. New

York: Berg, 2006.

Porter, Roy. “Introduction.” In The Foul and the Fragrant: Odor and the French Social

Imagination, by A Corbin. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988.

Prosser, Jon. “The Darker Side of Visual Research.” NCRM Working Paper. Realities,

Morgan Centre, Manchester, UK, no. 9 (2008). http://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/534/.

Prost, Henri. “İstanbul.” Arkitekt 5–6 (1948): 110–12.

Proust, Marcel. In Search of Lost Time: Swann’s Way. Translated by C. K. Scott Moncrieff

and Terence Kilmartin. 2nd ed. New York: The Modern Library, 1992.

Provencio, Ignacio, Ignacio R. Rodriguez, Guisen Jiang, William Pär Hayes, Ernesto F.

Moreira, and Mark D. Rollag. “A Novel Human Opsin in the Inner Retina.” Journal

of Neuroscience 20, no. 2 (January 15, 2000): 600–605.

Quercia, Daniele. “Chatty, Happy, and Smelly Maps.” In Proceedings of the 24th

International Conference on World Wide Web, 741–741. WWW ’15 Companion.

New York, NY, USA: ACM, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1145/2740908.2741717.

Quercia, Daniele, Luca Maria Aiello, and Rossano Schifanella. “The Emotional and

Chromatic Layers of Urban Smells.” Proceedings of the Tenth International

Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2016), May 21, 2016.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1605.06721.

Quercia, Daniele, Rossano Schifanella, Luca Maria Aiello, and Kate McLean. “Smelly Maps:

The Digital Life of Urban Smellscapes.” ArXiv:1505.06851 [Cs], May 26, 2015.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1505.06851.

Rabin, Michael D., and William S. Cain. “Odor Recognition: Familiarity, Identifiability, and

Encoding Consistency.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory,

and Cognition 10, no. 2 (1984): 316.

Rahmanto, Haris. “Eating with All Your Senses: How Digital Technology Can Enhance the

Eating Experience.” Accessed March 8, 2017.

https://research.rabobank.com/far/en/sectors/consumer-foods/Eating-with-all-yoursenses-

how-digital-technology-can-enhance-the-eating-experience.html.

Ranasinghe, Nimesha, Kasun Karunanayaka, Adrian David Cheok, Owen Noel Newton

Fernando, Hideaki Nii, and Ponnampalam Gopalakrishnakone. “Digital Taste and

Smell Communication.” In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Body

Area Networks, 78–84. ICST (Institute for Computer Sciences, Social-Informatics and

Telecommunications Engineering), 2011. http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2318795.

208

Rawes, Peg. “Sonic Envelopes.” The Senses and Society 3, no. 1 (2008): 61–78.

Reardon, Sara. “The Pentagon’s Gamble on Brain Implants, Bionic Limbs and Combat

Exoskeletons.” Nature News 522, no. 7555 (June 11, 2015): 142.

https://doi.org/10.1038/522142a.

Reinarz, Jonathan. Past Scents: Historical Perspectives on Smell. University of Illinois Press,

2014.

Ressler, Kerry J., Susan L. Sullivan, and Linda B. Buck. “A Molecular Dissection of Spatial

Patterning in the Olfactory System.” Current Opinion in Neurobiology 4, no. 4

(1994): 588–596.

Ricci, Alessandra. “Interpreting Heritage: Byzantine-Period Archaeological Areas and Parks

in Istanbul.” In MIRAS 2—Heritage in Context: Conservation and Site Management

within Natural, Urban and Social Frameworks, edited by Martin Bachmann, Çiğdem

Maner, Seçil Tezer, and Duygu Göçmen, 333–82. Istanbul: Ege Yayınları, 2014.

Rich, Dr Jennifer. “Acoustics on Display.” Science Museum Group Journal 7, no. 07 (2017).

https://doi.org/10.15180/170706.

Rinaldi, Andrea. “The Scent of Life. The Exquisite Complexity of the Sense of Smell in

Animals and Humans.” EMBO Reports 8, no. 7 (July 2007): 629–33.

https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.embor.7401029.

Rios, Lorena. “Making Room for Nature in Erdogan’s Istanbul.” CityLab, July 25, 2017.

https://www.citylab.com/equity/2017/07/making-room-for-nature-in-erdogansistanbul/

534678/.

Rockman et al. “Brain: The Inside Story.” New York, NY: American Museum of Natural

History, June 2011.

https://www.amnh.org/content/download/2033/.../evaluation_exhibition_brain.pdf.

Rombaux, Philippe, Caroline Huart, Anne G. De Volder, Isabel Cuevas, Laurent Renier,

Thierry Duprez, and Cecile Grandin. “Increased Olfactory Bulb Volume and

Olfactory Function in Early Blind Subjects.” Neuroreport 21, no. 17 (2010): 1069–

1073.

Ruggles, D F, and H Silverman, eds. Intangible Heritage Embodied. New York: Springer,

2009.

Rusted, Brian. “Writing the Red Trench: Performance, Visual Culture, and Emplaced

Writing.” In Performance Studies in Canada, edited by Laura Levin and Marlis

Schweitzer, 340–57. McGill-Queen’s Press - MQUP, 2017.

Said, Edward W. Orientalism. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2014.

Saive, Anne-Lise, Jean-Pierre Royet, and Jane Plailly. “A Review on the Neural Bases of

Episodic Odor Memory: From Laboratory-Based to Autobiographical Approaches.”

Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 8 (2014).

https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00240.

Sakai, Naoki. Translation and Subjectivity: On “Japan” and Cultural Nationalism.

Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997.

San Roque, Lila, Kobin H. Kendrick, Elisabeth Norcliffe, Penelope Brown, Rebecca Defina,

Mark Dingemanse, Tyko Dirksmeyer, et al. “Vision Verbs Dominate in Conversation

across Cultures, but the Ranking of Non-Visual Verbs Varies.” Cognitive Linguistics

26, no. 1 (2015): 31–60.

Santos, Daniel V., Evan R. Reiter, Laurence J. DiNardo, and Richard M. Costanzo.

“Hazardous Events Associated with Impaired Olfactory Function.” Archives of

Otolaryngology—Head & Neck Surgery 130, no. 3 (March 2004): 317–19.

https://doi.org/10.1001/archotol.130.3.317.

Sarukkai, Sundar. “The ‘Other’ in Anthropology and Philosophy.” Economic and Political

Weekly 32, no. 24 (1997): 1406–9. https://doi.org/10.2307/4405512.

209

Scent and Chemistry. “Scent and Chemistry—Posts.” Accessed August 31, 2017.

https://www.facebook.com/ScentChemistry/posts/1846611915365814:0.

Scent Culture Institute. “Scent Culture News.” Accessed September 15, 2017.

https://scentculture.news/.

Schaal, Benoist, Luc Marlier, and Robert Soussignan. “Human Foetuses Learn Odours from

Their Pregnant Mother’s Diet.” Chemical Senses 25, no. 6 (2000): 729–737.

Schaal, Benoist, Robert Soussignan, and Luc Marlier. “Olfactory Cognition at the Start of

Life: The Perinatal Shaping of Selective Odor Responsiveness.” Olfaction, Taste, and

Cognition, 2002, 421–440.

Schiffman, Susan S, and Jennifer Zervakis. “Taste and Smell Perception in the Elderly: Effect

of Medications and Disease.” Advances in Food and Nutrition Research 44 (January

1, 2002): 247–346. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1043-4526(02)44006-5.

Schubert, Thomas W., and Gün R. Semin. “Embodiment as a Unifying Perspective for

Psychology.” European Journal of Social Psychology 39, no. 7 (December 1, 2009):

1135–41. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.670.

Şehsuvaroğlu, Y. H. İstanbul’dan Sesler ve Renkler. Istanbul: Türkiye Sinai Kalkınma

Bankası, 1999.

Sela, Lee, and Noam Sobel. “Human Olfaction: A Constant State of Change-Blindness.”

Experimental Brain Research 205, no. 1 (August 2010): 13–29.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-010-2348-6.

Semali, Ladislaus M., and Tutaleni I. Asino. “Decolonizing Cultural Heritage of Indigenous

People and Their Knowledge from Images in Global Films.” Decolonization:

Indigeneity, Education & Society 2, no. 2 (2013).

Semin, Gün R., and Margarida V. Garrido. “A Systemic Approach to Impression Formation:

From Verbal to Multimodal Processes.” Social Thinking and Interpersonal Behavior,

2012, 81–100.

Sennett, Richard. Flesh and Stone: The Body and the City in Western Civilization. New York:

WW Norton & Company, 1994.

“Sensorium 360°: Contemporary Art and the Sensed World.” Singapore Art & Gallery Guide

| Art Events & Exhibitions in Singapore, September 21, 2014.

http://sagg.info/sensorium-360-contemporary-art-and-the-sensed-world/.

Seremetakis, C. Nadia. The Senses Still: Perception and Memory as Material Culture in

Modernity. Oxford: Westview Press, 1994.

Serrell, Beverly. Exhibit Labels: An Interpretive Approach. Rowman Altamira, 1996.

Sham, Desmond Hok-Man. “Heritage as Resistance : Preservation and Decolonization in

Southeast Asian Cities.” Doctoral, Goldsmiths, University of London, 2015.

http://research.gold.ac.uk/12308/.

Sheng, Chieh-Wen, and Ming-Chia Chen. “A Study of Experience Expectations of Museum

Visitors.” Tourism Management 33, no. 1 (February 1, 2012): 53–60.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2011.01.023.

Shepard, Glenn. “Pharmacognosy and the Senses in Two Amazonian Societies.” Ph.D.

Dissertation, Medical Anthropology Program, University of California, Berkeley.,

1999.

https://www.academia.edu/12613580/Pharmacognosy_and_the_Senses_in_Two_Ama

zonian_Societies.

Silva, Luís, and Paula Mota Santos. “Ethnographies of Heritage and Power.” International

Journal of Heritage Studies 18, no. 5 (2012): 437–43.

https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2011.633541.

Simmel, Georg. Soziologie: Untersuchungen über die Formen der Vergesellschaftung.

Suhrkamp, 1992.

210

Simon, Nina. “Audience Demographics and the Census: Do We Have a Match?” Museum 2.0

(blog), February 4, 2015. http://museumtwo.blogspot.com.tr/2015/02/audiencedemographics-

and-census-do-we.html.

Sinatra, Nina. “The Science of Smell.” The Tech Online. Accessed August 31, 2017.

http://tech.mit.edu/V130/N21/sinatra.html.

Sliwa, Martyna, and Kathleen Riach. “Making Scents of Transition: Smellscapes and the

Everyday in ‘Old’ and ‘New’ Urban Poland.” Urban Studies 49, no. 1 (January 2012):

23–41. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098011399596.

“Smell.” Helsinki City Museum. Accessed September 17, 2017.

http://www.helsinginkaupunginmuseo.fi/en/exhibitions/smell/.

“Smell Synonyms, Smell Antonyms | Thesaurus.Com.” Accessed September 4, 2017.

http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/smell.

Smith, Claire, and H. Martin Wobst. Indigenous Archaeologies: Decolonising Theory and

Practice. Routledge, 2004.

Smith, Laurajane. Uses of Heritage. London; New York: Routledge, 2006.

Smith, Laurajane, and Gary Campbell. “‘Nostalgia for the Future’: Memory, Nostalgia and

the Politics of Class.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 23, no. 7 (August 9,

2017): 612–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2017.1321034.

Smith, Mark M. “Making Sense of Social History.” Journal of Social History 37, no. 1

(2003): 165–86.

———. “Producing Sense, Consuming Sense, Making Sense: Perils and Prospects for

Sensory History.” Journal of Social History 40, no. 4 (2007): 841–58.

———. Sensory History. New York: Berg, 2007.

———. The Smell of Battle, the Taste of Siege: A Sensory History of the Civil War. Oxford

University Press, 2014.

Smith, Mark Michael. Sensing the Past: Seeing, Hearing, Smelling, Tasting, and Touching in

History. University of California Press, 2007.

Solomon, Miriam. “On Smell and Scientific Practice.” Science 313, no. 5788 (August 11,

2006): 763–64. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1131937.

Soussignan, Robert, Benoist Schaal, Luc Marlier, and Tao Jiang. “Facial and Autonomic

Responses to Biological and Artificial Olfactory Stimuli in Human Neonates: Re-

Examining Early Hedonic Discrimination of Odors.” Physiology & Behavior 62, no. 4

(October 1997): 745–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0031-9384(97)00187-X.

Soytemel, Ebru. “‘Belonging’ in the Gentrified Golden Horn/Halic Neighborhoods in

Istanbul.” Urban Geography 36, no. 1 (2015): 64–89.

Spehr, Marc, Günter Gisselmann, Alexandra Poplawski, Jeffrey A. Riffell, Christian H.

Wetzel, Richard K. Zimmer, and Hanns Hatt. “Identification of a Testicular Odorant

Receptor Mediating Human Sperm Chemotaxis.” Science 299, no. 5615 (March 28,

2003): 2054–58. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1080376.

Sperber, Dan. Rethinking Symbolism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975.

Spritmuseum. “About the Museum.” Spritmuseum. Accessed July 15, 2016.

https://spritmuseum.se/en/about-spritmuseum/.

Starbuck, Edwin Diller. “The Intimate Senses as Sources of Wisdom.” The Journal of

Religion 1, no. 2 (1921): 129–45. https://doi.org/10.2307/1195667.

Steiner, Jacob E. “Human Facial Expressions in Response to Taste and Smell Stimulation.”

Advances in Child Development and Behavior 13 (1979): 257–295.

Sterner, Carl S. “A Brief History of Miasmic Theory.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 22

(1948): 747.

211

Stevens, Joseph C., William S. Cain, David E. Weinstein, and John B. Pierce. “Aging Impairs

the Ability to Detect Gas Odor.” Fire Technology 23, no. 3 (August 1, 1987): 198–

204. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01036936.

Stevenson, Richard J., and Tuki Attuquayefio. “Human Olfactory Consciousness and

Cognition: Its Unusual Features May Not Result from Unusual Functions but from

Limited Neocortical Processing Resources.” Frontiers in Psychology 4 (November 1,

2013). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00819.

Stoller, Paul. Sensuous Scholarship. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997.

———. The Taste of Ethnographic Things: The Senses in Anthropology. University of

Pennsylvania Press, 1989.

Sullivan, Graeme. Art Practice as Research: Inquiry in the Visual Arts. SAGE, 2005.

Sullivan, Regina M., Donald A. Wilson, Nadine Ravel, and Anne-Marie Mouly. Olfactory

Memory Networks: From Emotional Learning to Social Behaviors. Frontiers Media

SA, 2015.

Sutton, David E. “Food and the Senses.” Annual Review of Anthropology 39 (2010): 209–

223.

Sutton, David Evan. Remembrance of Repasts: An Anthropology of Food and Memory. Berg,

2001.

Synnott, A. “A Sociology of Smell.” Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue Canadienne de

Sociologie 28, no. 4 (1991): 437–59.

Synnott, Anthony. “Puzzling over the Senses: From Plato to Marx.” In The Varieties of

Sensory Experience: A Sourcebook in the Anthropology of the Senses, edited by

David Howes, Anthropological horizons:61–78. Toronto: University of Toronto

Press, 1991.

Tansuğ, Sabiha, Charlotte A. Jirousek, and Serim Denel. “The Turkish Culture of Flowers.”

In The Fabric of Life: Cultural Transformation in Turkish Society, edited by Ronald

Marchese, 249–74. Binghamton, NY: Global Academic Publishing, 2005.

TED-Ed. How Do We Smell? By Rose Eveleth, 2013.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snJnO6OpjCs.

Terracciano, Alda, Mariza Dima, Marina Carulli, and Monica Bordegoni. “Mapping Memory

Routes: A Multisensory Interface for Sensorial Urbanism and Critical Heritage

Studies.” In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human

Factors in Computing Systems, 353–356. CHI EA ’17. New York, NY, USA: ACM,

2017. https://doi.org/10.1145/3027063.3052958.

Thomas, Martin. “The Rush to Record: Transmitting the Sound of Aboriginal Culture.”

Journal of Australian Studies 31, no. 90 (2007): 107–121.

Thurlkill, Mary. “Odors of Sanctity : Distinctions of the Holy in Early Christianity and

Islam.” Comperative Islamic Studies 2, no. 2007 (2007): 133–44.

https://doi.org/10.1558/cis.v3i2.133.

———. Sacred Scents in Early Christianity and Islam. Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.

Thys-Şenocak, Lucienne. Ottoman Women Builders: The Architectural Patronage of Hadice

Turhan Sultan. Ashgate, 2006.

Tilley, Christopher. “Introduction: Identity, Place, Landscape and Heritage.” Journal of

Material Culture 11, no. 1–2 (July 1, 2006): 7–32.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183506062990.

Tokatli, Nebahat, and Yonca Boyaci. “The Changing Morphology of Commercial Activity in

Istanbul.” Cities 16, no. 3 (June 1, 1999): 181–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0264-

2751(99)00015-3.

Tonkiss, Fran. “Aural Postcards: Sound, Memory and the City.” In The Auditory Culture

Reader, edited by Michael Bull and Les Back, 2nd ed., 303–309. Bloomsbury, 2003.

212

“Topkapı Gardens to Again Carry Fragrance of Ottomans.” Hürriyet Daily News, April 23,

2013. http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/topkapi-gardens-to-again-carry-fragranceof-

ottomans-45398.

Torolsan, Berrin. “Man, Myth and Mastic.” Corncucopia, no. 55 (2017).

Tortell, R., D. P. Luigi, A. Dozois, S. Bouchard, Jacquelyn Ford Morie, and D. Ilan. “The

Effects of Scent and Game Play Experience on Memory of a Virtual Environment.”

Virtual Reality 11, no. 1 (2007): 61–68.

Tuan, Yi-Fu. Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. E. Arnold, 1977.

Tufvesson, Sylvia. “Analogy-Making in the Semai Sensory World.” The Senses and Society

6, no. 1 (2011): 86–95.

Turin, Luca. “A Spectroscopic Mechanism for Primary Olfactory Reception.” Chemical

Senses 21, no. 6 (December 1, 1996): 773–91.

https://doi.org/10.1093/chemse/21.6.773.

———. The Secret of Scent: Adventures in Perfume and the Science of Smell. HarperCollins,

2007.

“Turkey Exports, Imports, and Trade Partners.” Observatory of Economic Complexity.

Accessed March 1, 2018. https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/tur/.

Turkish Ministry of Forest and Water Affairs. “Ihlamur Kokusu İstanbul’u Saracak [The

Smell of Linden Will Wrap Istanbul].” Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Orman ve Su İşleri

Bakanlığı, December 7, 2012.

http://www2.ormansu.gov.tr/osb/haberduyuru/guncelhaber/12-12-

07/Ihlamur_Kokusu_%C4%B0stanbul_u_Saracak.aspx?sflang=tr.

Turner, Victor Witter. Process, Performance, and Pilgrimage: A Study in Comparative

Symbology. Concept Publishing Company, 1979.

Urry, John. Consuming Places. Taylor & Francis, 1995.

———. “How Societies Remember the Past.” In Theorizing Museums: Representing Identity

and Diversity in a Changing World, edited by Sharon Macdonald and Gordon Fyfe,

45–65. Cambridge: Blackwell, 1996.

———. The Tourist Gaze Leisure and Travel in Contemporary Societies. London; Newbury

Park: Sage Publications, 1990.

———. “The Tourist Gaze ‘Revisited.’” American Behavioral Scientist 36, no. 2 (November

1, 1992): 172–86. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764292036002005.

Uzun, Beyza. “Ottoman Olfactory Traditions in a Palatial Space: Incense Burners in the

Topkapı Palace.” MA Thesis, Koç University, 2015.

Vaivade, Anita. “Person and Property: Conceptualising Intangible Cultural Heritage in Law.”

Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics 4, no. 1 (2010): 25–36.

Verbeek, Caro. “Scented Colours: The Role of Olfaction in Futurism and Olfactory (Re-)

Constructions.” In Sensory Arts and Design, edited by Ian Heywood, 107–120. New

York: Bloomsbury, 2017.

Veronesi, Francesca. “Curating the Sensorial: Digital Mediation and Social Engagement with

Place, Objects and Intangible Heritage.” In Collecting the Contemporary: Recording

the Present for the Future, edited by Owain Rhys and Zelda Baveystock, 484–513.

Edinburgh: MuseumsEtc, 2014.

http://www.academia.edu/20056677/Curating_the_sensorial_digital_mediation_and_s

ocial_engagement_with_place_objects_and_intangible_heritage.

Vigo, Matteo. “The Use of (Perfumed) Oil in Hittite Rituals with Particular Emphasis on

Funerary Practices.” Journal of Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Archaeology,

Consumption of perfumed oil in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East: funerary

rituals and other case studies, 1 (2014): 25–38.

213

Vila, Anne C. “Introduction: Powers, Pleasures, and Perils of the Senses in the Enlightenment

Era.” In A Cultural History of the Senses: In the Age of Enlightenment, edited by J. P.

Toner, Richard Newhauser, Herman Roodenburg, Anne C. Vila, Constance Classen,

and David Howes. Bloomsbury Academic, 2014.

Vilaplana, Alejandra, and Toshimasa Yamanaka. “Effect of Smell in Space Perception.”

International Journal of Affective Engineering 14, no. 3 (2015): 175–82.

https://doi.org/10.5057/ijae.IJAE-D-15-00010.

Vosshall, Leslie B. “Laying a Controversial Smell Theory to Rest.” Proceedings of the

National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 112, no. 21 (May 26,

2015): 6525–26. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1507103112.

Wada, Anna. “Smellscapes of Eminönü,” 2016. http://annawada.wix.com/smellscapes.

Wakefield, John C. “Emotional Feelings as a Form of Evidence: A Case Study of Visceral

Evidentiality in Mormon Culture.” In Interdisciplinary Studies in Pragmatics, Culture

and Society, edited by Alessandro Capone and Jacob L. Mey, 899–924. Perspectives

in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology 4. Springer, 2015.

Walhimer, Mark. “Museum Exhibition Design, Part VI.” Museum Planner (blog), July 10,

2012. https://museumplanner.org/museum-exhibition-design-part-vi/.

Waskul, Dennis D., and Phillip Vannini. “Smell , Odor , and Somatic Work : Sense-Making

and Sensory Management.” Social Psychology Quarterly 71, no. 1 (2008): 53–71.

Waskul, Dennis, and Phillip Vannini. “Introduction.” In Body/Embodiment: Symbolic

Interaction and the Sociology of the Body, edited by Dennis Waskul and Phillip

Vannini, 1–18. Routledge, 2016.

Weaver, Stephanie. Creating Great Visitor Experiences: A Guide For Museums, Parks, Zoos,

Gardens, and Libraries. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press, 2007.

Wellington, Ben. “Mapping New York’s Noisiest Neighborhoods.” The New Yorker, January

17, 2015. http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/mapping-new-york-noisecomplaints.

“What Sensory Receptors Do Outside of Sense Organs.” The Scientist. Accessed August 5,

2017. http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/46831/title/What-

Sensory-Receptors-Do-Outside-of-Sense-Organs/.

White, Shane, and Graham J. White. The Sounds of Slavery: Discovering African American

History Through Songs, Sermons, and Speech. Beacon Press, 2005.

Willie, Charles V. “On Merton’s ‘Insiders and Outsiders.’” American Journal of Sociology

78, no. 5 (1973): 1269–72. https://doi.org/10.2307/2776636.

Winter, Tim. Post-Conflict Heritage, Postcolonial Tourism: Tourism, Politics and

Development at Angkor. Vol. 21. Routledge, 2007.

Witcomb, Andrea. “Interactivity: Thinking Beyond.” In A Companion to Museum Studies,

edited by Sharon MacDonald, 353–61. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.

———. “The Materiality of Virtual Technologies: A New Approach to Thinking about the

Impact of Multimedia in Museums.” In Theorizing Digital Cultural Heritage: A

Critical Discourse, edited by Fiona Cameron and Sarah Kenderdine, 35–48. Media in

Transition series. Cambridge and London: MIT Press, 2007.

Wnuk, Ewelina, and Asifa Majid. “Revisiting the Limits of Language: The Odor Lexicon of

Maniq.” Cognition 131, no. 1 (April 2014): 125–38.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2013.12.008.

Wolf, Steffen, Lian Gelis, Steffen Dörrich, Hanns Hatt, and Philip Kraft. “Evidence for a

Shape-Based Recognition of Odorants in Vivo in the Human Nose from an Analysis

of the Molecular Mechanism of Lily-of-the-Valley Odorants Detection in the Lilial

and Bourgeonal Family Using the C/Si/Ge/Sn Switch Strategy.” PLOS ONE 12, no. 8

(August 1, 2017): e0182147. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0182147.

214

Wood, Elizabeth, and Kiersten Latham. “The Thickness of Things: Exploring the Curriculum

of Museums through Phenomenological Touch.” Journal of Curriculum Theorizing,

January 1, 2011, 51–65.

Yackley, Ayla Jean. “Turkish Rose Farmers Struggle to Keep Tradition Alive.” Reuters, July

2, 2015. https://www.reuters.com/article/turkey-roses/turkish-rose-farmers-struggleto-

keep-tradition-alive-idUSL5N0ZF35L20150702.

yello brick. “About.” yello brick, 2017. http://yellobrick.co.uk/.

Yelmi, Pinar. “Protecting Contemporary Cultural Soundscapes as Intangible Cultural

Heritage: Sounds of Istanbul.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 22, no. 4

(April 20, 2016): 302–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2016.1138237.

Yentürk, Nejat. “Osmanlı Parfümleri | Ottoman Perfumes.” In Kutsal Dumandan Sihirli

Damlaya : Parfüm |Sacred Incense to Fragrant Elixir: Perfume, edited by Şennur

Şentürk, translated by Priscilla Mary Işın, 65*99. Istanbul: Yapı Kredi Kültür Sanat

Yayınları, 2005.

Yeshurun, Yaara, Hadas Lapid, Yadin Dudai, and Noam Sobel. “The Privileged Brain

Representation of First Olfactory Associations.” Current Biology 19, no. 21

(November 17, 2009): 1869–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2009.09.066.

Yigitcanlar, Tan, and Melih Bulu. “Dubaization of Istanbul: Insights from the Knowledge-

Based Urban Development Journey of an Emerging Local Economy.” Environment

and Planning A: Economy and Space 47, no. 1 (January 1, 2015): 89–107.

https://doi.org/10.1068/a130209p.

Zak. Empathy, Neurochemistry, and the Dramatic Arc: Paul Zak at the Future of

StoryTelling 2012, n.d. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1a7tiA1Qzo.

Zardini, Mirko, ed. Sense of the City: An Alternate Approach to Urbanism. Montréal, QC:

Lars Müller Publishers, 2005.

Zohar, Amar, and Efraim Lev. “Trends in the Use of Perfumes and Incense in the Near East

after the Muslim Conquests.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 23, no. 1 (2013):

11–30.

Zwemer, Samuel Marinus, and Margaret Clarke Zwemer. “The Rose and Islam.” The Muslim

World 31, no. 4 (October 1, 1941): 360–70. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-

1913.1941.tb00950.x.

Appendix A: Exhibition Images, Objects, and Text

Figure 1: The ground floor of the ANAMED building. The areas labelled "sergileme" are the exhibition spaces.

Figure 2: The banners advertising the exhibition. Photograph copyright Koç University Research Centre for Anatolian

Civilizations.

215

Figure 3: Window advertisements. Photograph copyright Koç University Research Centre for Anatolian Civilizations.

Figure 4: Lobby of the exhibition. Photograph copyright Koç University Research Centre for Anatolian Civilizations.

216

Figure 5: Interactive Map. Photo courtesy Michael Manross.

Figure 6: Photograph of the science section text and graphic. Photograph copyright Koç University Research Centre for

Anatolian Civilizations.

217

Figure 7: The main hall. Photograph copyright Koç University Research Centre for Anatolian Civilizations.

Figure 5: The inside of the scent machine, which held the piezoelectric motor, water, and drops of the scented oil.

218

Figure 6: The scent machine. The power adaptor is on the left, the water and scent container in the middle, the charcoal filter

and fan on the right, and the clock timer in the back.

Figure 7: The pipes which channeled the smoke from the machines to the visitor. The machine is hidden in the table, underneath

the pipes.

219

Figure 8: Smoke flowing from the pipes.

Figure 9: A coffeehouse scene. Chester Beatty Library, Ottoman Album 439, fol. 96.

220

Figure 10: Interactive map at the entrance of ‘ Scent and the City.’ Photograph by Lauren Nicole Davis.

Figure 11: Visitors guessing scents and socializing at the scent bar. Photograph by Michael Manross.

221

“Scent and the City” Objects and Labels

Kahve soğutucusu / soğudanlığı, 19. yy.

sonu,

Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi

Koleksiyonu

Kavrulan kahve çekirdekleri, ağaçtan

elle yontularak yapılmış kahve boşaltma

oluğu bulunan soğutucuya aktarılırdı.

Kazıma tekniği ile üstüne desenler

işlenen benzersiz soğutucular Türk ağaç

işçiliğinin en güzel örneklerini oluşturur.

Coffee cooling bin, late 19th c.

Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi Collection

The roasted beans were transferred into

hand carved wooden cooling bins that

featured an opening for pouring out the

coffee. The matchless cooling bins were

decorated with carved motifs and are

one of the finest examples of Turkish

woodwork.

Kahve dibeği, 19. yy.

Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi

Koleksiyonu

Öğütülmeye, diğer bir deyişle çekilmeye

hazır kahve çekirdekleri dibek veya

havanlarda dövülür ya da değirmenlerde

çekilirdi. Dibek; ağaç, mermer veya taş

malzemeden elle yontma tekniği ile,

havan ise bronz döküm olarak üretilirdi.

Coffee mortar, 19th c.

Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi Collection

The beans were then ground either with

a “havan” (mortar) or in a “dibek” (large

mill). “Dibek” were handmade from

wood, marble or stone; “havan” were

made from cast bronze.

222

Kavurma tavası, 18. yy.

Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi

Koleksiyonu

Kavurma işleminde tava ve tambur

olmak üzere iki çeşit kavurucu

kullanılırdı. Tavalar sıcak demirden

dövme tekniğiyle elde üretilir, nadiren

pişmiş topraktan olanlarına da

rastlanırdı. Uzun saplı kavurucuların

bazıları katlanabilir saplıydı. Bazı büyük

tavalar ise, ateşe kolay sürülmeleri için

tekerlekli imal edilmişti. Yine

bazılarının, üzerlerine zincirle bağlanmış

kavurma kaşığı da vardı. Kavurma

işlemi ocak ya da mangal üstünde

yapılırdı.

Roasting pan, 18th c.

Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi Collection

Two types of roasters were used, a

“tava” (pan) or a “tambur” (cauldron).

The pans were made either from beaten

iron or, more rarely, from fired clay. The

pans had long handles, some of which

could be folded. Some of the large pans

were mounted on wheels to make it

easier to pass them over the fire. Others

had roasting spoons attached to the pans

by a chain. Roasting was performed

over a stove or grill.

Osmanlı pazarı için Bohemya imalatı

billur gülabdanlar, 19. yy.

Rüksan ve Mehmet Ürgüplü

Koleksiyonu

Bohemia crystal rosewater sprinklers,

produced for the Ottoman Market, 19th

c.

Rüksan and Mehmet Ürgüplü Collection

223

Gümüş buhurdan,19. yy. sonu- 20. yy.

başı

Rüksan ve Mehmet Ürgüplü

Koleksiyonu

Silver incense burner, late 19th c.- early

20th c.

Rüksan and Mehmet Ürgüplü Collection

Tavus kuşu figürlü gümüş gülabdan, 19.

yy.

Rüksan ve Mehmet Ürgüplü

Koleksiyonu

Silver rosewater sprinkler, 19th c.

Rüksan and Mehmet Ürgüplü Collection

224

Billur gülabdan, 18. yy.

Rüksan ve Mehmet Ürgüplü

Koleksiyonu

Crystal rosewater sprinkler, 18th c.

Rüksan and Mehmet Ürgüplü Collection

Tombak gülabdan, 19. yy.

Rüksan ve Mehmet Ürgüplü

Koleksiyonu

Tombak (gold plated copper) rosewater

sprinkler, 19th c.

Rüksan and Mehmet Ürgüplü Collection

225

Tombak buhurdan, 18. yy.

Rüksan ve Mehmet Ürgüplü

Koleksiyonu

Tombak (gold plated copper) incense

burner, 18th c.

Rüksan and Mehmet Ürgüplü Collection

Gümüş zarflı fincan, Kuznetsov marka

Rus porseleni, 19. yy. sonu

Sümer Ayer Koleksiyonu

Cup with silver cup holder, Kuznetsov

Russian porcelain, end of 19th c.

Sümer Ayer Collection

Gümüş tabaklı porselen fincan, Japon

porseleni Satsuma stili, moriage (slip)

tekniğinde bezeli, 19. yy. sonu

Gümüş tabak Sultan II. Abdülhamid

tuğralı (1876-1909)

Sümer Ayer Koleksiyonu

Porcelain cup with silver saucer,

Japanese porcelain in Satsuma style,

decorated with moriage (slip) technique,

end of 19th c.

Silver saucer with the seal of

Abdülhamid II (1876-1909)

Sümer Ayer Collection

226

Viyana stili porselen fincan, Ackermann

& Fritze marka, Almanya 1920-30’lar

Sümer Ayer Koleksiyonu

Fincanın içinden detay

Fransız ressam F.Boucher’in (1703-

1770) “Europa’nın Kaçırılışı” konulu

mitolojik resmi. Beyaz boğa kılığına

giren Zeus, sırtına oturan güzel

Europa’yı Girit Adası’na kaçırır.

Resimde Eros ve onlara hizmet eden

Horalardan biri de görülüyor.

Porcelain Cup, Ackermann & Fritze,

Viennese style, Germany 1920s-30s

Sümer Ayer Collection

Detail from the inside of the cup

French painter F.Boucher’s (1703-1770)

mythological painting “The Rape of

Europa”. Taking on the form of a white

bull, Zeus abducts the beautiful Europa

sitting on his back to Crete. Eros and

one of the Horae who served them are

also depicted in the picture.

Gerold & Co. marka Tettau-Bavaria

porselen fincan, Almanya 1937-1949,

Sümer Ayer Koleksiyonu

Gerold & Co. Tettau-Bavaria porcelain

cup, Germany 1937-1949,

Sümer Ayer Collection

227

Ahmet Farukî imalatı süsen çiçeği

lavantasına ait şişe, 19. yy.

Aybala ve Nejat Yentürk Koleksiyonu

Iris extract perfume bottle produced by

Ahmet Farukî, 19th c.

Aybala and Nejat Yentürk Collection

Osmanlı Dönemi’nin ilk yerli parfüm

üreticisi Ahmet Farukî Parfümeri

Fabrikası’na ait antetli kağıt ve zarf, 19.

yy.

Aybala ve Nejat Yentürk Koleksiyonu

The corporate letterhead and envelope

of the Ahmet Farukî Perfume Factory,

the first manufacturer of perfumes in the

Ottoman era, 19th c.

Aybala and Nejat Yentürk Collection

Billur Beykoz şişeler, 19. yy.

Aybala ve Nejat Yentürk Koleksiyonu

Crystal perfume bottles, Beykoz, 19th c.

Aybala and Nejat Yentürk Collection

228

Billur Beykoz kokulu yağ şişeleri, 19.

yy.

Aybala ve Nejat Yentürk Koleksiyonu

Beykoz perfume bottles, 19th c.

Işıl and Mehmet Akgül Collection

Kokulu kartlar (12 adet)

Aybala ve Nejat Yentürk Koleksiyonu

Osmanlı ve erken Cumhuriyet

döneminde parfümlerin tanıtımı için

kullanılmış kokulu kart örnekleri

Parfümlerin tanıtımı için kullanılabilecek

en uygun ve ucuz malzeme olan,

Avrupa’dan gelen kokulu kartların

Osmanlı dönemindeki kullanımı ise

1890’larda başlamıştır. Kokulu kartlar,

hem yerli üreticiler hem de Avrupa’dan

ithal edilen parfümleri satışa sunan

Osmanlı esnafı tarafından kullanılmıştır.

Scent cards

Aybala and Nejat Yentürk Collection

Examples of scent cards used for the

promotion of perfumes during the

Ottoman era and early years of the

Republic.

The use of scent cards, whıch came from

Europe and were one of the most

convenient and inexpensive ways of

promoting perfumes, began in the 1890s.

Scent cards were used by Ottoman

tradesmen who were selling prefumes

both produced by domestic

manufacturers and imported from

Europe.

229

Eau de cologne Reouf, Batı tarzında

yerli üretim kolonya örneği, 20. yy.

başı,

Aybala ve Nejat Yentürk Koleksiyonu

Eau de cologne Reouf, a domestically

manufactured western style cologne,

beginning of 20th century,

Aybala and Nejat Yentürk Collection

Hasan Limon Çiçekleri, Batı tarzında

yerli üretim kolonya örneği, 1930’lar,

Aybala ve Nejat Yentürk Koleksiyonu

Hasan Citrus Flowers, a domestically

manufactured Western style cologne,

1930s,

Aybala and Nejat Yentürk Collection

Pertev Kolonya Suyu, Batı tarzında yerli

üretim kolonya örneği, 1930’lar,

Aybala ve Nejat Yentürk Koleksiyonu

Pertev Eau de Cologne, a domestically

manufactured Western style cologne,

1930s,

Aybala and Nejat Yentürk Collection

230

Aris Sabun ve Itriyat Fabrikası Üretimi,

bin çiçek esansı ile kokulandırılmış,

kestane renkli kozmatik, İstanbul, 20. yy.

başları,

Aybala ve Nejat Yentürk Koleksiyonu

Siyah macun görünümündeki,misk ve

amber içeren bu pahalı parfümler saç, kaş

veya bıyık üzerine sürülerek

kullanılıyordu. 20. yüzyılın başına kadar

seyyar esans satıcılarının çantalarında

bulunabilen ve bu dönemde sadece

erkeklerin bıyıklarına sürerek

kullandıkları kalemis ya da kalemis yağı,

gerçekte gâliye-i misk’in halk arasında

söylenişinden başka bir şey değildi. 20.

yüzyıla gelindiğinde ise erkeklerin

bıyıklarına sürerek kullandıkları bu

kokulu macunlara kozmatik denilmiştir.

Aris Soap and Perfume Factory Product,

chestnut colored cosmetic, scented with

the essences of a thousand flowers,

İstanbul, beginning of 20th c.,

Aybala and Nejat Yentürk Collection

These expensive perfumes, which

included musk and amber, were in the

shape of a black paste and were used on

hair, eyebrows or mustache. The

‘kalemis’ or ‘kalemis balm’ that could be

found in the bag of any peddler of

essences until the beginning of the 20th

century, which was mainly used by men

on their mustaches during this period,

was actually nothing other than a

common mispronunciation of ‘gâliye-i

misk’ (fragrance of musk). In the 20th

century these fragrant pastes that men

used on their mustaches were called

kozmatiks.

231

Opalin Beykoz şişeler, 19. yy.

Aybala ve Nejat Yentürk Koleksiyonu

Opaline Beykoz bottles, 19th c.

Aybala and Nejat Yentürk Collection

Rebul Lavanda Suyu için kullanılan ilk

kolonya şişesi, 1936

Atelier Rebul Koleksiyonu

The first cologne bottle of Rebul

Levender eau de cologne, 1936

Atelier Rebul Collection

232

“Scent and the City” Exhibition Wall Text

INTRODUCTION

Of our five senses—sight, sound, touch, taste and smell—the sense of smell is the least understood and

often the most disregarded. Layers of scent are all around us, yet we have difficulty identifying and

differentiating among the smells that permeate our lives. Our relationship with scent is complex. We often

work hard to cover up or destroy “natural” scents by perfuming our bodies or sterilizing our surroundings.

However, scents connect us with some of our deepest and earliest memories, taking us back to a

childhood home, a family meal, a neighbor’s garden.

Turkey has a rich olfactory history. While some historical scents continue to perfume our contemporary

world, many scents of the past are disappearing and will soon become examples of lost intangible

heritage. In the outdoor “smellscapes” of Istanbul, traditional flora and fauna are being replaced with the

scents of concrete and asphalt. In Istanbul’s interior spaces, the smells of plastic are edging out the

pungent odor of jute. Citrus and floral scents manufactured in laboratories have replaced the aromatic rose

water once offered to the weary traveler. Musk and ambergris, which once perfumed the words of prayer

in the mosques and other holy places of this city, have all but vanished.

As our world changes, so do the scents within it. This exhibition invites you to awaken your sense—and

your memories—of smell, and to discover the past and present smellscapes of Istanbul and Anatolia.

SCIENCE, SMELL, MEMORY, AND EMOTIONS

How are smell, memory, and emotions related?

The sense of smell is processed in the brain in a unique way. While touch, taste, sound, and visual

information first go to a center in the brain called the thalamus, most olfactory data goes directly to the

emotional center of the brain, the amygdala, and then to the brain’s memory center, the hippocampus.

This pathway closely links the sense of smell with our emotions and the memory center in our brain and

helps to explain why we have such strong memories associated with odors, even from early childhood.

How do we detect smells?

As we breathe, air is trapped by the mucus in an area of our noses called the olfactory (nasal) epithelium.

This air passes to about 20 million odor receptors and each smell activates a different combination of

receptors in the nose. These receptors then send data via nerve pulses to another area in the nose called

the olfactory bulb, which transmits the data to the brain.

Are we born liking certain smells or do we learn later in life what is a “good” or “bad” smell?

We don’t all agree on what smells good and what smells bad. Except for some poisons and odors related

to disease, there is no scientific basis for categorizing odors as good or bad. We learn these preferences

and biases after we are born, from our family, friends, experiences, and culture.

A FRAGRANT HISTORY

The smells of the past are not always easy to identify or quantify. We can never experience all the scents

that perfumed a place or accurately reconstruct every component of a lost smellscape. We can, however,

try to experience aspects of these past olfactory worlds by looking at the rituals, ceremonies, and customs

of different cultures and the writings and memories of people.

233

Scents were used by the Hittites, especially in prayers, funerary and healing rituals, to create an ambience

that would attract the gods. One of the most expensive ingredients in the Hittite world was a perfumed

“fine oil.” Though its composition is unknown, there are many theories, including the possibility that the

oil was infused with wine. This “fine oil” symbolized purification and was used during festivals, on

divine statutes in temples, and to anoint the commanding officer (as well as his horses, chariots, and

weapons) before battles. It was given as a gift of anointment amongst monarchs and is mentioned in royal

letters from Assyria, Cyprus, Egypt, and Anatolia. Ancient Greek storytellers and historians often

included evocative descriptions of scent to enrich their tales about faraway lands and peoples. Greek

philosophers pondered the senses, categorizing and ranking them by the role they played in the bodily

experience. Smell was considered important, but was thought to be one of the “base” senses. Roman

nobles used many plants to perfume their bodies, homes and public spaces. At feasts Romans would

adorn themselves with flowers and scented waxes. Saffron from Cilicia (the coastal region around

Mersin) was prized by the Romans; the Roman writer and naturalist Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE) noted

that good saffron should be so pungent as to “sting” the eyes and face.

FROM THE BYZANTINES TO THE OTTOMANS

Because of the strong associations with pagan rituals, some early Byzantine Christian leaders condemned

the use of incense in religious ceremonies and even the personal use of perfume. However, scent,

especially through incense and perfumed oils, became an essential part of church rituals by the 5th

century. Byzantine nobles adored perfume and public appearances of royalty were perfumed using a

variety of plants and flowers. The Empress Zoe (1042-55) set up a perfume workshop in her bedroom and

had her servants trained in the art of blending scents. The 10th century Byzantine Book of Ceremonies

records that the people of Constantinople were required to cover the streets with pine chips, ivy leaves,

bay leaves, myrtle leaves, and rosemary sprigs during royal processions.

Constantinople was the convergence point for exotic herbs and spices coming from as far away as the

West Pacific. Byzantine spice merchants prospered by selling these goods locally but also exported them

abroad. The Book of the Eparch, written during Leo VI’s reign (886-912), notes that spice shop locations

were regulated so that “aroma may waft upwards to the icon [of Christ] and…the Royal Palace.” The

Ottoman Spice Market, built in the 17th century by Hatice Turhan Sultan as part of her Yeni Valide

Mosque Complex, served as a major economic hub and trading center of Istanbul. Here the burhucıs

bought musk, ambergris, rosewater, camphor, exotic woods and resins to perfume the mosques, harems,

tombs, and other divine spaces of Istanbul and the Ottoman Empire.

OLFACTORY PRODUCTS FROM THE OTTOMANS TO TODAY

Coffee

Turkish coffee culture dates back to the 16th century. Today, the preparation and drinking of coffee

remains an important element of Turkish culture. In 2013, Turkish coffee was inscribed on UNESCO’s

Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The application notes that coffee

made the “Turkish” way “is softer, more aromatic and more concentrated than other types of coffee. It is

easy to distinguish from other coffees with its aroma…” Particularly around Eminönü, shops selling

freshly roasted and ground coffee beans attract crowds of people who bring bags of the beans (and their

scent) back into their homes. Though the techniques of grinding and roasting the beans have changed in

the past centuries, the smell remains the same.

Freshly ground Turkish coffee provided by Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi. Objects from the Kurukahveci

Mehmet Efendi Collection and the Sümer Ayer Collection.

234

Incense

Archival records for Ottoman mosques indicate that buhurcıs were paid to scent the sacred spaces of the

empire, such as tombs and mosques. Incense burners and elaborately decorated censers were regularly

filled by buhurcıs with a variety of aromatics such as oud (agarwood), ambergris, and musk in order to

perfume the words of prayer. Another job of buhurcıs was to prepare fragrances and incense for the royal

palace. A recipe book for confections, fragrances, medicines, and incense, the Register of the Helvahane

and Pharmacy, written in 1608, was used in the Ottoman palace throughout the 17th and 18th centuries to

create sensorial delights and pharmaceutical remedies from a variety of ingredients including sugar,

mastic, hyacinth, camphor, ambergris, and musk.

Incense water provided by Fulya Yahya. Objects from the Rüksan and Mehmet Ürgüplü Collection and

the Aybala and Nejat Yentürk Collection.

Roses

Roses have always played an important role in Islamic, Turkic, and Turkish history. The 11th century

texts Kutadgu Bilig and Divânu Lügati't-Türk mention both rosewater and rose syrups. Rosewater and

rose oil were among the most valuable presents sent to Mecca each year by the Ottoman sultans. Sultan

Mehmet the Conqueror supposedly ordered the Hagia Sophia to be cleaned with rosewater before it was

used as a mosque. Additionally, the 17th century Ottoman writer Evliya Çelebi notes that after an

earthquake Murat IV ordered the Gül (Rose) Mosque to be repaired and then cleaned with rosewater.

After much experimentation, the Ottomans found that the Damask rose grows best around Isparta. For

more than 200 years local villagers there have woken early during the month-long harvest in late spring to

pick the roses before the dew evaporates.

Rose water and oil provided by Gülsha. Objects from the Aybala and Nejat Yentürk Collection and the

Rüksan and Mehmet Ürgüplü Collection.

European eau de cologne reached the Ottoman lands during the reign of Sultan Abdülhamit II (1876 –

1909) and became instantly popular. Jean Cesar Reboul and Ahmet Faruki were among the first cologne

producers in the Ottoman Empire. Faruki was awarded the Ottoman Osmanî Order and Medal for

Industry and promoted local products as a way to help the empire’s economy. Rebul opened in 1895 in

Rumelihan under the name Grande Pharmacie Parisienne and was a landmark on Istiklal Caddesi for over

a century. Cologne has been a significant part of Turkish culture and daily life rituals throughout the 20th

century. Replacing the Ottoman tradition of rosewater, cologne is now offered to guests in the home,

restaurants, and even the bus. However, the significance of this Republican-era household staple is

changing in the 21st century as the international fragrance industry permeates the scent market.

Lavender Cologne provided by Atelier Rebul. Objects from the Aybala and Nejat Yentürk Collection and

Atelier Rebul.

CHANGINGS SMELLSCAPES: URBANIZATION AND MODERNIZATION

What does Istanbul smell like to you now? Do you remember what it smelled like in the past?

Even though the number of linden trees has decreased in the past decades, spring in Istanbul is still

associated with the sweet smell of linden blossoms. The disappearance of smells of nature has

increasingly defined our urban landscapes, making the earthy scents of rural areas—trees, grass, and

fruits—even more nostalgic. The indoor smells of Istanbul have also changed with modernization.

Traditional household aromas, including cologne, rakı, tea, and coffee defined the smells of the

235

Republican era home. Many of the standard cleaning scents such as bleach, musk, vinegar, rose water,

and the ever-present naphthalene of moth-balls, have been replaced. A clean house in Turkey is often

described as “mis gibi” but rather than smelling of Ottoman era musk, today the smell of clean homes

everywhere increasingly reflects the standardization of industrial scents.