Book contents
- Sensory Anthropology
- Sensory Anthropology
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: How the Senses Are Good to Think With
- Part I Perspectives and Precepts
- 1 Sensory Models and Modalities
- 2 Sensory Moral Economies
- Part II Responses and Restitutions
- Conclusion: Thinking through the Senses
- Notes
- References
- Index
2 - Sensory Moral Economies
from Part I - Perspectives and Precepts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 March 2023
- Sensory Anthropology
- Sensory Anthropology
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: How the Senses Are Good to Think With
- Part I Perspectives and Precepts
- 1 Sensory Models and Modalities
- 2 Sensory Moral Economies
- Part II Responses and Restitutions
- Conclusion: Thinking through the Senses
- Notes
- References
- Index
Summary
The connections between senses and morality are located in politics, religion, music, food, and other practices and metaphors of consumption. Such associations point to desired or positive values that are demonstrated through particular sensory behaviour. These together form social structures that reflect propriety and moral decorum. The governance of good behaviour and subscription to moral codes similarly extend to the metaphysical world of spirits through a variety of corporeal and cognitive modalities. Building upon the phenomenological anthropology of morality, I show how the senses serve as intermediaries of moral binaries. Cases are drawn from myths, legends, folktales, poetry, and ethnographies. Overall, varying sociocultural associations of the different senses with morality, virtue, and disposition present a type of sensory attunement to apprehend moral economies and social structures. I argue that sensory moral economies are, in effect, the product of specific sensory action. Social actors are expected to perform particular ways of being that actualise alignment with ideal, righteous states or dispositions mediated through the senses. The outcome of such sense acts is a combination of immaterial interests and moral sentiments. As sociocultural arbiters, the senses bring to light the moral organisation of society.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Sensory AnthropologyCulture and Experience in Asia, pp. 53 - 76Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023