Worlds of Sense by Constance Classen
"Worlds of Sense" is an historical and cross-cultural study of the senses and the ways in which different cultures "make sense" of the world. In the West we think in terms of visual models such as "world view". The Ongee of the Andaman Islands live in a world ordered by smell and the Tzotzil of Mexico hold that temperature is the basic force of the cosmos. What different modes of consciousness are created by treating smell or touch as a fundamental way of knowing? How does the sensory order of a culture relate to its social order? Is there a natural order of the senses? By asking such searching questions of different cultures, Constance Classen aims to illustrate that the differences in sensory perception can be striking. "Worlds of Sense" argues that perception cannot be treated as a purely physical act but that the list, hierarchy and ordering of the senses are deeply related to time and culture.
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).
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780415101264 |
| ISBN 10 | 0415101263 |
| Title | Worlds of Sense |
| Author | Constance Classen |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis Ltd |
| Year published | 1993-10-21 |
| Number of pages | 192 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |