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Infrared Central Park by Paolo
Pettigiani circa 2016, via wired
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It is not often that we get to hear scientists talking about the
language of smell, so let’s hear from Asifa Majid, a scientist who studies, among
other things, the language of smell as she talks to cognitive scientist Jon
Sutton about language and thought:
“For example, in English sweet (taste) can also be used to describe
people; i.e. a ‘gentle, kind or friendly’ person. But in Hebrew when sweet is
used metaphorically it refers to ‘inauthenticity’. A spicy person in English
might be considered ‘full of spirit’, but a spicy person in Hebrew would be
someone ‘intellectually competent’. If a young man in Guhu Samane (Papua New
Guinea) described a group of girls as sweet, the man could relate to them as
sisters, and approach them. But if the girls were described as bitter, that
would be because they are potential wife material (because they come from the
appropriate clan), and so the young man should be cautious and keep his
distance. These are all examples of how taste vocabulary can be used for traits
and characteristics of people. Metaphor is pervasive in language.”
- taken from The
Content of Minds in The Psychologist, July 2016
The entire language of smell is a proxy for other senses. All smells
are named for what they’re like, for
the experiences they evoke. To name a smell, to verbally explore what a thing
smells like, is to reveal something deep inside our minds and at the core of
our culture.
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