Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 4: Sexual Selection In ManEllis, Havelock
Science
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 4: Sexual Selection In Man
Ellis, Havelock
Sex; Sex (Psychology)
In New Ireland, Duffield remarks (_Journal of the Anthropological
Institute_, 1886, p. 118), the natives have a very keen sense of
smell; unusual odors are repulsive to them, and "carbolic acid
drove them wild."
The New Caledonians, according to Foley (_Bulletin de la Société
d'Anthropologie_, November 6, 1879), only like the smells of meat
and fish which are becoming "high," like _popoya_, which smells
of fowl manure, and _kava_, of rotten eggs. Fruits and vegetables
which are beginning to go bad seem the best to them, while the
fresh and natural odors which we prefer seem merely to say to
them: "We are not yet eatable." (A taste for putrefying food,
common among savages, by no means necessarily involves a distaste
for agreeable scents, and even among Europeans there is a
widespread taste for offensively smelling and putrid foods,
especially cheese and game.)
The natives of Torres Straits were carefully examined by Dr. C.S.
Myers with regard to their olfactory acuteness and olfactory
preferences. It was found that acuteness was, if anything,
slightly greater than among Europeans. This appeared to be
largely due to the careful attention they pay to odors. The
resemblances which they detected among different odorous
substances were frequently found to rest on real chemical
affinities. The odors they were observed to dislike most
frequently were asafoetida, valerianic acid, and civet, the last
being regarded as most repulsive of all on account of its
resemblance to fæcal odor, which these people regard with intense
disgust. Their favorite odors were musk, thyme, and especially
violet. (_Report of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to
Torres Straits_, vol. ii, Part II, 1903.)
In Australia Lumholtz (_Among Cannibals_, p. 115) found that the
blacks had a keener sense of smell than he possessed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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