Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T02:12:43.032Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Introduction: How the Senses Are Good to Think With

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2023

Kelvin E. Y. Low
Affiliation:
National University of Singapore
Get access

Summary

What does an anthropology of the senses entail? How can one reconstruct writings and knowledge about Asia through the lens of the senses using anthropological analysis? What part do the senses play in everyday life in Asia across a variety of historical and contemporary contexts – stretching from the pre- to postcolonial and including the transnational? How are the senses connected to a range of everyday life domains that comprise religion, morality, foodways, music, linguistic practices, local–foreign interactions, and the migratory and economic movements of social actors and commodities? How might one develop theoretical argumentation and delineate interdisciplinary and comparative possibilities to analyse sensory cultures? The introductory chapter opens the book by putting forward these core queries that set the stage for subsequent chapters. Apart from charting the field of sensory anthropology, I explain why and how a sensory history of Asia that attends to a wide and non-exhaustive range of sensory cultures is important. I engage with current anthropological scholarship and others that focus in the main on Western cultures or non-industrial societies. I show how this book takes on theoretical, comparative and contextual commitments as key inquiries in articulating the social life of the senses in Asia.

Type
Chapter
Information
Sensory Anthropology
Culture and Experience in Asia
, pp. 1 - 16
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×