A Cultural History of the Senses Contributor(s): Toner, Jerry P. (Editor), Classen, Constance (Editor), Vila, Anne C. (Editor) |
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ISBN: 0857853384 ISBN-13: 9780857853387 Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic OUR PRICE: $640.50 Product Type: Hardcover Published: December 2014 * Not available - Not in print at this time * |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - History | Civilization - History | Social History |
Dewey: 152.1 |
Series: Cultural Histories |
Physical Information: 4" H x 7" W x 9.9" (9.35 lbs) 6 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: What did the past sound like, taste like, smell like? How did it look and feel? How did people make sense of the world through their senses? These are questions which are increasingly capturing the interest of historians. A Cultural History of the Senses delves into the sensory foundations of Western civilization, taking a comprehensive period-by-period approach, which provides a broad understanding of the life of the senses from antiquity to the modern day. The volumes treat such topics as the sensory markers of gender and class, the aesthetic dimensions of material culture, religious sensibilities, the medical uses of the senses and their representation in art and literature. These investigations bring out the sensations and values which defined experience in a particular era and shaped the world view of the time. With contributions from such prominent scholars as Peter Burke, Alain Corbin, Anthony Wallace-Hadrill and Chris Woolgar, A Cultural History of the Senses sets the stage for a vital new way of understanding the past. |
Contributor Bio(s): Howes, David: - DAVID HOWES is Professor of Anthropology at Concordia University and the general editor of the Sensory Formations series from Berg. He is the author of Sensual Relations: Engaging the Senses in Culture and Social Theory, co-author (with Constance Classen and Anthony Synnott) of Aroma: The Cultural History of Smell, and editor of Empire of the Senses: The Sensual Culture Reader, among other works.Classen, Constance: - Constance Classen is Visiting Scholar at McGill University, Canada and director of an interdisciplinary project on art, museums, and the senses. She is the editor of The Book of Touch (Berg, 2005), and the author of, among other works, Worlds of Sense: Exploring the Senses in History and Across Cultures (1993) and The Color of Angels: Cosmology, Gender and the Aesthetic Imagination (1998), as well as The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch (2012). |